Music and Memories

I've been digging this new online, radio site, Live365. I was listening to Old School R&B and boy has it brought back a lot of memories, mainly from my latter days in high school and early college days. BlackStreet came on, and it immediately brought back memories of driving down Clarksville Highway, on my way to see my boyfriend in the dead of night (we're talking 40 minutes of rural highway...lots of trees, cows, and gas stations named after people). I had taped selected songs from a girlfriend's CD copy (because my Magenta, '93 Geo Storm only had a tape player, dang it!) and I would drive down the highway, singing at the top of my lungs with the anticipation of seeing my manly man. Now, everytime I hear them, I think of him (Oh, and I've posted this picture before...not such a bad photographer, huh? Of course, look at my subject matter! This was taken at the Ponce De Leon peninsula in Ponce De Leon, Florida this past May - on a side note, I was pregnant at the time and drinking like a fish, but I didn't know I was pregnant. Hey! I was on vacation).

A variety of Keith Sweat was playing, which also made me think of him. Personally, I am not a Keith Sweat fan and I feel like he whines entirely too much. (Be a man and stop begging! Dayum!) When I was in college, I was a member of BMG or Columbia House (one of those places that suckers you into receiving random CDs for years). I happened to get a Keith Sweat CD that I didn't return, but ended up giving to "this guy" because he said he liked him a lot. Later, this guy managed to get me into his dorm room and show me what it means to be a woman...hmmm....That guy was my future hubby. Who knew!

Other songs that have played have made me think of the haunted halls of my high school, passing notes to my friend in a notebook we shared, borrowing each other's clothes (she had a thing for my suede boots), parties at my house (not out-n-out house parties, but mainly giggly girls and overly observant boys, watching movies, eating pizza and scarfing down as many skittles as we could get our hands on...then topping off the evening with a good, ole fashioned tarot reading). Driving to school and singing to these same songs on the radio (in my beat up, '81 Datsun wagon...the one that barely made it up the hill and desperately needed a paint job, but I didn't dare because I only paid $700 dollars cash for that bucket of bolts anyway). Hearing the guys "talking" BBD's, Poison (because, you know, guys don't sing songs in high school...they rap everything) whenever I walked down the hall. Now, what was that about? I was a good girl. Why poison?

There are still more songs that make me think of different guys (Shhh! Don't tell my hubby.) Like, the guy I was convinced would be my husband. He was so beautiful (inside and out) and we had a great time together. He was kind of quiet...a bit of an introvert, in fact but we totally balanced each other. As soon as I told him where I was going to college (45 miles away) he punked out and made it seem like I was too far away to deal with. But, even before then, he had made a comment to me in the car (after we'd gone to the movies or something) that sent all sorts of red flags up for me;

"I don't think I was meant to do anything but work. I'll probably work and work until I die."

Um, right. You don't plan on having any fun in there anywhere, man? You just gon' work till you drop dead, huh? What's up with that? It was pretty much a done deal, after that comment. Once I started college, we talked maybe twice and then I never saw him again. I wonder about where he is, sometimes. I'm sure, wherever he is, he's working. Ah, memories~