When I was growing up I was subjected to a lot of hard and classic rock. Pink Floyd, Meatloaf, Bon Jovi, CCR, Dire Straits: when I hear any of these bands, I flashback to the log house I grew up in, and I sometimes (if I let myself) end up feeling ten years old again.
I don’t want to be a 25 year old who feels prepubescent, so I choose to avoid such bands, and basically the entire genre of music. There is the other reason, of course: all of those bands suck (okay, I know that a lot of people like Pink Floyd, but I just don’t get it. Sorry.).
My step father had an entire closet filled with stereo equipment- none of it we were allowed to touch. He had every kind of stereo equipment since before they came out with the 8-Track. He had the machine with the big reels, similar to the kind old fashioned movies are shown on, a 20 year old record player, 400 records, a CD player, an amp, a large AM/FM radio, a tape deck. His stereo filled up no less than four shelves in the closet. Then there were the speakers. They were as tall as I at age 10. I can still remember getting off the school bus and hearing the music come out of those speakers- loud and clear- more than an acre away. The house was atop a hill, acres of fields around it, and we’d make the climb up the hill and wonder how much damage our ear drums were going to suffer once we got into the house.
We’d have to yell at the top of our lungs, “Can you PLEASE turn it down? I have to do my homework!”
He really loved his music, and I think a part of him resented us for being so lame and making him turn down his tunes.
My mother never got to listen to what she wanted to. Never. For the fifteen years she was married to him, she never got to listen to her music except in the car on the way to work, and maybe on road trips that he wasn’t a part of. And, us being uncultured children, poisoned by hard/classic rock, ended up groaning at her choice of music anyway. We made fun of her when we found out she liked blue grass. We thought that was her favorite music when we were growing up, and for some reason we found it really funny. Today I realize that she has a nice taste in music- and I feel sorry for her that it took her until she was nearly 50 before she got to listen to what she wanted to.
She’s passed on something to me though, and for that, I will be forever thankful. CBC Radio. I LOVE CBC. It’s so cultured and eclectic and intelligent. There are so many different topics- it can never get boring. Yesterday I listened to a show about peoples “super powers,” and an hour before that I was listening to a call-in show about furnaces. Both were interesting. The best thing about CBC radio is that they’re back online after being on strike for months. Plus, they offer radio stream on their website, so I am able to listen to my local Halifax radio station anywhere it the world. So far, I’ve eased any homesickness I’ve had in both Mexico and the BVI with the soothing sounds of Shelagh Rogers, the A-Team, Sad Goat and especially Stewart McLean (!!!).
