As I write this all the other members of my nuclear family are together. In Norway. Without me. My mom, my dad, my little sis. At this very moment they are probably having a group hug while my sister’s fiance Ryan stands by feeling weird about it all.
With the 4 of us spanning 3 continents it’s important to soak up the time we do have together and relish in all the memories we built before we grew up and the family started growing. Before I married Dave. We adopted Falcor. Then Enid. Then had the baby. Then Alley and Ryan adopted Lewis and finally got engaged.
But before all that, back in the day, we got our first family CD player. It still lives and operates in my parents house. A 6-disc changer thankyouverymuch. If my dad has anything to do with it (and he does) it will remain operational until the day he and my mom both die (simultaneously in their sleep at age 100 while holding hands) and my sister and I will then have to keep it because we won’t be able to bear the thought of getting rid of it. But I digress.
I remember we were all allowed to pick out a CD at the store to bring home and try. I went real alternative with it and got Mariah Carey’s Music Box, my dad got a Jim Croce hits collection, my sister being a wee lass of about 7 chose some kind of Disney soundtrack I’m sure.
But none of those left the impression on me that my mom’s choice did. She bought Tracey Chapman’s self-titled debut album and we rocked out to that bit of musical art together for years. It’s music we now play for our own child. For a long time the favorite track of my sister and I was ‘Behind the Wall’, and I am fairly certain it was the amazingly emotional acappella storytelling-singing that captivated us since we were a little young to be picking up on the domestic violence themes. Later we found our now legendary abilities of interpretive dance and listened to ‘Fast Car’ on repeat while pretending to, wait for it, drive a fast car. But in slow motion. We can interpret any song into dance I promise you that.
I miss you guys.
M.O.M. Past:
Michael Buble ft. Shania Twain
This was a Bonk Classic too as I’m sure you already know. Still listen to it regularly.
Oh, wow. Tracey Chapman. That brings back memories! (And my little sis and I can rock the interpretive dances as well!)
SUCH a good one. Matt and I rocked out to this when it came on ‘coffeehouse xm’ the other day.