Hiya. It’s the Gritty Goddess and the past is on my mind. I’m less than one week away from my twenty-year high school reunion. As the hostess, I’m comprising a playlist of songs from 1992 and before, songs that mean something and mark our era. REM,U2, Sinead O’Connor, and Beverly Hills 90210 all take me back to a time I remember fondly, even if it life wasn’t always easy.
Damn.
Where has the time gone?
I could tell story after story highlighting small-town America and the hijinx that ensued in southwest Missouri, but my life in general revolved around sports, cruising back-country roads with the radio turned up, a good book always nearby, and of course it also included boys.
Madonna defined my youth. This Used to be My Playground fills me with the nostalgia of a home that no longer is, yet somehow will always be.
Mr. Big’s, To Be With You has me recalling a senior trip to Dallas where I desperately wanted to spend the nine hour bus ride to and from making out with Finn. 
Finn isn’t his real name, but I call him that because it’s who Finn Hudson from Glee reminds me of. But we didn’t make out. Not that night anyway, though we had in the past and we would after. I was in an on-again, off-again relationship at the time so I kept my distance and he kept his. Mostly because he’s a nice guy. Or maybe he just wasn’t that into me at the time.
Tom Cochran’s, Life is a Highway, has me remembering staying out past curfew, S-10
pick-ups, and James Hensley. James was my first boyfriend, which hallmarked my fifth grade year. He was also my first kiss the following year. It happened in the spring, during second recess behind the silver building. He chewed Big Red gum while I savored a butterscotch candy. And trust me on this one, those flavors do not blend. We “went together” on and off through fifth and sixth grade and even though our romantic infatuation died in jr. high we remained good friends throughout high school. We’d irritate each other and gossip on the phone at all hours until my mom or his said it was time for bed. I remember writing book reports left handed (I was right, he was left) so that the teacher wouldn’t catch on that he really didn’t do it. Writing lefty allowed for the less than steller penmanship James was known for.
We lost touch after high school, but I remember him well. He was a gangly goof of a guy who was quick to laugh and always smiling. I won’t see him next week, either. James died several years ago—in his sleep from what I hear—from a rare and undetected condition. I didn’t go to his funeral because…because I just didn’t want to go, but I think of him every time I hear that song.
My question to you today is this: Be it good or bad, what song highlights a particularly memorable time in your life?
About Tracy Ward
Billy Joel’s album “The Bridge” was out the year I finished high school. My friends and I played it loud all week particularly, “This Is The Time.” I was also falling in love with the boy who would become my husband at the same time and that song takes me back every time I hear it and makes me smile.
Hugs on losing James – that’s too young to die.
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Tracy Ward Reply:
July 9th, 2012 at 10:16 am
LOVE Billy Joel! He’s timeless, perfect for falling in love and just about everything else.
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Aerosmith’s “I don’t want to miss a thing” from the summer before my senior year of HS. And good on you for hosting your HS reunion. I didn’t even go home to Missouri (southeast side) for mine. Then again, I try to avoid going home for any reason what so ever so that’s not surprising is it?
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Tracy Ward Reply:
July 9th, 2012 at 10:23 am
Where are you from, Patricia? I went to college at SEMO. My husband was born and raised in Portageville.
I know how you feel about going home. This will be my first time in 2 yrs, but I’m looking forward to it. I volunteered to plan the party ’cause I knew that’s the only way I’d go. And Aerosmith is amazing. I always loved their videos with Alicia Silverstone and Liv Tyler. If I remember right it was Liv and Ben Affleck with your song. Love Armageddon!
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Haven’t been to a high school reunion yet. Then again, I live a continent away, so maybe not so surprising.
Black Velvet. I could tell you why, but then I’d have to kill you.
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Tracy Ward Reply:
July 9th, 2012 at 10:25 am
Ahhhh…Alannah Myles. Classic!
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Piano Man! My very first love played the song all the time despite its age. Years later I worked security for Billy Joel’s concert in KC. I stood just below his Piano as he played the song. I never liked it more, than that moment!
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Tracy Ward Reply:
July 9th, 2012 at 10:29 am
That’s one of my fav Billy Joel songs. The man has a gift. It’s no wonder he can pull super-models.
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Joni Mitchell’s Blue. (Songs are like tattos) Actually all of her albums were the background music for the early days of my marriage. I love Joni and her music always takes me back. And then while I was dating the man who would become my hubby, Wedding Bell Blues (the Fifth Dimension) was a big hit on the radio and I couldn’t sing along to the words Please marry me, Bill without being afraid he’d think I was hinting at something.
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Haha! I could totally see you skipping around Bill singing Wedding Bell Blues! Joni Mitchell is classic too!
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REM’s Night Swimming. Summer time, apple wine (that’s what we called Cider in an attempt to be classy) boys who at the time thought I was very fine. ahhh, you’ve warmed me up o a very cold winter night. Thanks!
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Corey Hart’s Sunglasses at Night and Don Henley’s Boys of Summer. Both remind me of one fantastic summer when I was in college and having the time of my life. No romance – just good old fashioned fun and silliness with friends.
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This may sound horribly embarrassing but the first thing I thought of when putting music with memories is a Nana Mouskouri tape my mother had in 1975. Whenever I think of it I’m sitting in the back seat of a yellow Holden Sunbird, reading John Wyndham’s ‘The Kraken Wakes’. I see the long straight bitumen on the road to Bourke in western New South Wales. I can almost smell the Mulga.
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Love Shack by the B 52′s — I remember walking into my first frat party at college and that song was blasting on the stereo. It still makes me smile every time I hear it on the radio.
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