The Music of Our Lives . . .

For many of us, music plays an important role in our lives. Music can transport us back in time, recall memories of specific times in our lives, of places, events and people. You can listen to a song that was popular at any particular time and, just for a few minutes, you are the person you were then. You can remember where you were, who you were with, and how you felt when that particular song played.

When I hear songs from the 40's (yeah, my memory goes back that far!) I think of my parents as they were then. I think of how young they were and all the dreams they must have had. I wonder if those dreams came true. I remember sitting on my dad's lap while my mother played the piano. For that reason "Daddy's Little Girl" will forever be part of my memories. I hear the war songs like "Over There" and think of how life was for Mom and Dad then. He was fighting in the Pacific and she was very likely worrying about his welfare. I wonder how those experiences changed them and helped to form the people they later became.

I remember the 50's and watching "Your Hit Parade" on TV with my family. I can still recall some of those songs like "The Tennessee Waltz", "How Much is That Doggie in the Window?", "Oh Mine Papa", and lots of others. Then there was "The Ed Sullivan Show" when Elvis Presley made his first appearance. I was immediately smitten. I recall my mother saying with disdain that he wouldn't be around long, that he was nowhere near as good as Pat Boone. Later on, my mom became a great Elvis fan and somehow the world forgot about Pat.

Thinking of those times, I remember the sizzle and pop of corn kernels, butter and salt on my fingers and everyone joined together in front of the black and white TV set. That was back when families watched programs together and discussed what they saw.

Music became especially important to me in the late 50's and early 60's. Is there a teenage girl who doesn't remember what song was playing when she first danced with that special someone? Or, what song she cried to when that relationship disintegrated? There are memories of homecoming dances and proms and special dates that come flying back when you hear a song from that time. I remember "It's All in the Game" by Tommy Edwards and The Fleetwoods singing "Come Softly to Me". When you hear those special songs, in your mind, you can see the smile on someone's face, what they were wearing and hear the words they said to you; you can feel the way you felt then. For just one moment, you are that teenage girl again. (My guess is that it works this way for men too.)

I remember the old hi-fi with lots of 45 rpm records. Laying on my bed listening to them by the hour. It was a time of dreams and puppy love and lost love, penny loafers and pleated skits, corsages and tears, class rings wrapped in dental floss or yarn or hanging on a chain around your neck. Every romance was "the one" and, when it ended, it seemed like the end of the world. And music was the ever-present companion that saw us through it all.

In the late 60's and early 70's, the world was in the midst of great change and nowhere was that illustrated more than in the music of that time. Social consciousness was raised by Joan Baez with "Kumbaya", "Blowin" in the Wind" and "We Shall Overcome". Then there was Peter, Paul and Mary singing "If I Had a Hammer" and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" Just listening to those songs calls forth images of peace marches, civil rights demonstrations, anti-war demonstrations, bras and draft cards burning, Kent State, flower children, and my friends going off to war. It was a time of social enlightenment, changing values and a lost sense of security. For the first time, my generation was facing war, both on the homefront and in Southeast Asia.

I could go on and on with these remembrances, but the important thing is the way music can recall another time, another lifestyle, another facet of who you were then and how you became who you are today. Music can change your mood, let you relive special times ~ times of love, times of loss and heartbreak, times of innocence and times of destruction. Music can pick you up or take you down ~ it can be bittersweet or happy, fill you with joy or cause tears.

Isn't it amazing what a simple song can do?