Soundtrack of My Life

It doesn't matter where you are, or what you're doing. When a certain song comes on, you're instantly transported back to that time and place in your life when said song was significant for whatever reason. This is the soundtrack of your life. Mine is sort of odd...



My earliest memories center around acapella singing much like this. Curling up in my mom's lap with my head against her chest. I could hear her sweet voice singing in church. The church was always too hot and too crowded, even in winter. And my grandfather always preached and then handed out candy to the kids. Then there were the family car trips where we failed to sing four part harmony because not a one of us was a tenor. They all sounded about like this.


This was my first foray into "popular" music. I was the young, annoying kid to my older sister who was desperately trying to be cool in junior high and high school. This was the song they always sang so it was the song I sang... In the bathroom... To myself... at the tender age of seven. Maybe that's why I love Bon Jovi now? The big hair, the plastic accessories, the pointy toed flat shoes, and the huge flower printed dresses. Oh the eighties!


Who remembers this one? I wasn't allowed to watch it the whole way through, it was too racy, but I watched some of it. Ok, I snuck into the back of the living room when my sister and her friends weren't looking at her birthday sleepover. The poster was on my sister's wall. The music, I'll never forget, sitting in my flannel nightgown Indian style peeking between all those teenage girls with braces and big curly hair while my straight hair hung in my eyes. Oh how I longed to be cool!


My first concert. Geo Theatre, Opryland USA with my sister and her friend. Heaven knows why they let me tag along, maybe because my mom said they could only go if I went too... All the way to Nashville and all. The big city (heavens!). But yes, I remember this concert vividly. I remember being surprised when he introduced his wife, who was also a backup singer. I remember thinking she was too pretty for him.


Anyone not drunkenly done this at a wedding? Ok, not me, because church of Christ weddings don't allow drinking or dancing, but I've drunkenly done it nonetheless. This was the seventh grade SONG. I had a perm (a bad one), jellies were in style (again), and, I'm ashamed to admit, octogan shaped bronze glasses. They were worse than Coke bottle glasses.


There were times when I thought if I ever sang thing song again I would blow my brains out. This was sung at every youth church event, on every van ride to and from, hundreds of times every church camp session, and sometimes, just to be hip, the older people sang it at assembly. Whew, I'm so thankful I never have to sing it again!


I never quite understood why I liked this song, but in my junior high years, it was a favorite. Maybe because I always desperately wanted to be that woman who would be desired in a bar... I had very low self esteem. I was 12, who doesn't at 12?


Eighth grade prom, twenty-five 12 year old girls in formal dresses, borrowed jewelry and wrist corsages dancing in a circle to this song. The boys? In their rented tuxes all hugging the wall wondering why the hell the girls are so sweaty and what the fuck they did to their faces. It's called makeup and we only learn it better with age...


This, I'm ashamed to say, was the theme of said eighth grade prom. Yes, I had the pictures made. Yes, this is inscribed on each and every one. Oh, and it was a Mardi Gras theme and I'm wearing a purple and silver sequin dress with white ruffles on the bottom. Not my proudest moment looking back, but my mom bought it at a yard sale for $10 and I thought I was high stylin' then! Must find that photo...


Picture it, Waverly, Summer 1997. Jeff Smith, Shane Daniel, Tiffany, and I, one truck with a bench seat. Backroads. Spotlights for deer. Manual transmission. Dip cup. Carthart jackets. And this song...


Princess Diana, tragically taken August 1997. I had always thought her to be beautiful. Loved that she had been a commoner. I cried when she passed. So did all my friends.


My first "teenage" foray into popular (aka not country) music. Summer theme of 1997. Not bad, I guess.


Her name was Gillian. She was a friend of a friend. She lived in public housing, a place I'd never been. She smoked (shh! don't tell mom!). She was one of those kids that good church people pick up on Sundays and take to church when the parents can't be bothered (they think). She introduced me to the wonderful world of Jewel. I haven't been the same since.


End of freshman year JAM. It was just FUN!


I. Hated. This. Song. But nonetheless, when I hear it, I'm transported back to 1997 and wondering if that damn necklace is still out there.


Anytime a boy was fought over, this was the song that everyone sang in high school. And that was when Brandy was hot...


Matthew Moss. Sophomore year. Damn but he was my first introduction to the tortured artist male that so many women spend their life chasing.


Summer 1998.


Band Christmas Party 1998. Brian Allred. Also the night I learned the Chicken Dance. Shouldda been a clue...


I fancied myself to have a halo, even though I didn't have a 4 post bed...


October 1998 I got my license. Then I cruised jamming to THIS song up and down the strip.


Just made me want to fuck. I didn't even know what that really was then, but I knew I wanted to do it...


Senior Year Jam... Ye-ah...