Musical Awakenings

When I was growing up there were times when a strange restlessness would hit me. I would get a strange feeling almost like I was missing or forgetting something--or like I was in the wrong place. I wasn't aware enough to know what it was. I was just a kid after all. What did I know? I hadn't lived life yet.  I had no experiences to gauge anything by.  I was growing up in a generation where a huge amount was changing and cultural upheaval was taking place, and I only got to witness snippets of it in newspapers and on TV.  It was fragmented information, and no doubt hugely biased and slanted, depending on the source.  I got to hear parental mumblings about it all the time when the news came on TV. I was in a place where I thought, "if my dad hates it, it must be good!"  One time (I was probably late junior high or early high school age) our family came out of Massey's grocery store and there was a young guy out there that had hair well past his shoulders. My dad chuckled and said something like, "How'd you like to have hair like that?"  I answered no, but my mind screamed yes.

Music had smacked me upside the head early in life.  I watched the shows like American Bandstand and Where the Action Is on the television each day. I was a kid that wanted to be 'where the action was' myself.  Although I felt like I was missing something and felt the world was passing me by, at that point in my life I had no idea what or where 'the world' even was or how to get there. All I knew was that there was cool stuff going on down on the beaches of California, and that would have been good enough for me. I would feel a kind of a stirring when certain songs came on. Everyone does, right? A few of my favorites were, To Sir, With Love, California Dreamin', These Times, They Are a Changin'.

I didn't know of anyone my age then that cared about the new music anywhere near as much as I did.  I was so into the music I couldn't get enough. It felt like a new, exciting hobby. It was like an awakening in me. I wanted to learn, listen, and absorb everything about the new, hip music that was taking the country by storm. When all this started, I was still a kid, pulling Tonka trucks behind me with strings, making them do peel-outs in the dust and dirt.  The difference was, I was holding an AM radio in one hand while I was doing it, listening to music on KOL or KJR. When mom would go into town for shopping I would plead with her to stop at the music store in Auburn so I could get the latest version of the KOL top 40. I monitored the rise and fall of the songs from week to week, and I knew them all. I lived them.  When we moved to Auburn I never missed one of those Top 40 leaflets.  I wish I had them all now.