Memory Lane

I found a bunch of old CDs of music from my childhood and added them to my itunes. That got me thinking about what a big role music played in my formative years. I really do believe that music is food for the soul. It stirs the emotions and inspires our bodies to movement. Music communicates so purely. When words would just mess something up, you can trust music to carry the message.

Growing up, there was always music playing in our house. All kinds and styles of music. My Nana had been a concert pianist as a young woman in England before World War II. She would always accede to my requests for ragtime style songs. I think I liked the stories of her stealing the sheet music from her older sisters after her father decreed she was too young to listen to/play think kind of music more than the songs themselves.

My mama would dance around while folding laundry or sing in the car. Simon & Garfunkle, Fleetwood Mac, all the songs from "The Sound of Music" and the Eagles were her favourites. She and I were good at quickly memorizing lyrics and often sang a Capella. We didn't need no stinking radio to sing along with!

My father had bizarre, eclectic tastes. I remember once being in the record store waiting for what seemed like forever while he choose which Beethoven recording he wanted to buy along with the newest AC/DC album. He would buy a whole album for one song and not complain at all that the other songs weren't to his liking. Where my mama put on a record and listened to the whole thing, he played DJ, often sprinting across the room at the tail end of a song so he would pick up the needle and jump to another track on the record.

What a trail of memories listening to "Soul of the Sea" by Heart started.