Centerfield by John Fogerty

Today's song isn't related to a specific memory, which is possibly cheating.  The premise of these stories after all is to document the soundtrack of my life. Let's go with it though, see where it takes me.  We might come upon a memory after all.

For the longest time I thought this song was about take a trip.  Put me in coach, as in the coach section of the plane or train.  I realize this is embarrassing because it means I missed the approximately one million references to baseball. I may also have been somehow mixing it up with another song, The Letter.  My baby's got a ticket on an aeroplane.  Ain't got time to take a fast train.  This makes sense, considering my overactive imagination as well as my propensity to overthink absolutely everything.  This hasn't changed to this day.  

In 8th grade I became obsessed with baseball.  My dad and I planned a trip to see all of the California ballparks in one week.  I decided I would visit all of the major league ballparks and I even planned out several more trips with my Dad to accomplish this. My dad and I only went to one more new park together, but I am now very very close, almost 30 years later.  I started a baseball scrapbook, wrote essays and speeches about baseball, and even planned out a room to display my baseball love.  When I realized that Centerfield was all about baseball and even mentioned Joe DiMaggio (my obsession), I was simultaneously mortified at my enormous mishear and in love with such a fun song.  It is everything I love about baseball - the crack of the bat, the moment in the sun, the fresh mown grass and how every ballpark is unique.  I'm ready to ... watch a ball game. Put me in coach!

(Theme from ) the Monkees by The Monkees

It was just after 5pm and Catherine and I were anxiously waiting for our Dad to pick us up from school.  There was an after school daycare in the cafeteria at Twain Harte Elementary and I generally had a great time there.  There were friends to play with, books to read, stuff to do, but as 5pm rolled around, I was anxious to get out of there so we could get home in time to watch Double Dare.  Thinking about it now, this means my Dad had to leave work before 5pm to pick us up in time.  Or maybe he used to pick us up closer to 5:30pm, but he still would have to leave just at or before 5pm to make it in time.  There were no byways or even traffic lights back then so I am sure it took some time to get to us.  In any case, once he arrived, he had to sign us out and for some reason, he encouraged me to copy his signature and would let me sign his name (while he was standing there).  I was only in 4th grade, but the level of trust he had in me never changed, all throughout high school.  I admit, I was a bit of a goody-goody.

Back to the show.  If we were early, we could catch the end of You Can't Do That on Television.  I didn't really like this show.  It was kind of gross and the jokes were often over my head, but we'd watch it all the same.  Double Dare was this trivia/obstacle course show.  It was a big deal amongst everyone my age.  We all hoped to someday be on the show and we were sure we could handle the physical challenges and obstacle courses.  It was totally the highlight of our evening.  Immediately after Double Dare was The Monkees.  The theme song would start up.... "here we come....walking down the street...." and then these 4 goofy looking guys with accents were on doing who knows what, but I mainly thought it was about the worst, boring show you can imagine.  Kind of clever, that, as it was a surefire way to get us to turn off the TV for the night!  At least until The Cosby Show came on...

She's So Unusual & Yeah Yeah by Cyndi Lauper

Zoom in on a tiny town in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California.  I spent a very short time in my life living in Twain Harte.  It is in Tuolumne County and at the time, there was only one stoplight in the entire COUNTY, way away in downtown Sonora.  I attended a K-8 school with only 500 students and all of my friends lived quite a ways away, down windy, narrow mountain roads.  It was a glorious place to be 8 years old, but I imagine if we had stayed there through high school, I might've found it isolating or boring.  

One of my best friends in Twain Harte was Porscha B. and in third grade, she had the brilliant plan to participate in the talent show.  I took the bus home with her after school and we discussed our act.  She had already decided on the song and I wholeheartedly agreed.  Cyndi Lauper was my favorite signer!!  Porscha was going to lip synch the words, I would be on the keyboards since I played the piano, her little brother was going to play the drums, and her younger sister would be on guitar.  We still needed a sax player and coincidentally, the cutest boy in our class played the sax in the school band!  Clint C. was smart and nice and he did his own hair - he used hair spray AND mousse.  Swoon!  I worked up the nerve to call him up and actually talk to him when he answered and he agreed to be in our skit.  It was all very exciting. The day of the performance, Porscha's older sister was on-hand to do our punk rocker make-up and fix our hair.  Clint rocked a mohawk, of course.  It was so cool and I think everyone really enjoyed our performance.

For some insane reason, in fourth grade I decided to follow up that performance by getting a bunch of the younger kids (grades K-2) from the after school program together.  My brilliant idea?  Lip synching and dancing stuffed animals.  I wish I were kidding.  We stood behind a table and held up a bunch of bunnies WHOSE LIPS DO NOT MOVE and earnestly moved them to the beat.  I am embarrassed for my 9 year old self. 

Money for Nothing by Dire Straits

My dad loved this song.  He simply could not get enough of it.  When it first came out, he played it as often, as loudly, and as embarrassingly as he could!  
 

The LOUD:
His favorite place to play this song was in his new company car - an '85 Thunderbird.  He loved that car - it was kind of sporty and it was a 2-door.  It was kind of an odd choice for someone who might be driving clients around, but he loved it.  It had a digital speedometer and I particularly liked that I could see if we were ever approaching 88 miles per hour.  Sadly, we never were.  My dad thought the car was super cool and so did I.  He loved playing Money for Nothing in that car.  He loved how it started out so quietly, then built up, getting louder and louder.  He would start with the volume already turned up, so that by the time the song escalated, your eardrums were ringing. He thought it was hilarious when we would cover our ears and squeal with excitement and possibly because we were being audibly tortured.

The EMBARRASSING:
One evening we went out to Mountain Mikes for dinner.  There was a jukebox and he went over to check out the selection. To no one's surprise, a few minutes later the familiar strains of Money for Nothing started playing.  The song ended and ... Money for Nothing started playing again.   It ended and.... for the third time - Money for Nothing!  My dad is giggling into his pizza at this point. 

Something happened to that tape so I purchased a new copy a few years later for his birthday or Christmas or something.  He didn't listen to it much and I was disappointed because I was really proud of that gift.  He confessed later that it made him think about my mom and the divorce which made him sad.  I felt badly about that, but I reminded him of these memories and how clearly happy the song made him.  I wonder if it worked?