Almost a week with­out a post. Yes, I’m try­ing to get bet­ter at writ­ing at least one post a week here. At least thats my goal.

As it turns out, I’m on a train head­ing back to Detroit from Chicago. Hubby and I drove back to Chicago in mid-​​March, but he had to get back to Detroit before I returned from my Boston work trip this past week. Any­way, this just means that I have a lit­tle win­dow of oppor­tu­nity to sit and write with­out being distracted.

Dr. Bro, LJC and me at Disneyworld

Being a “Road War­rior” for work has given me the oppor­tu­nity to spend more time lis­ten­ing to music on my dig­i­tal library. After all, many times I find myself in air­ports for just enough time to check my email, but not enough time respond to them. Or else I’m lit­er­ally on the road dri­ving to a loca­tion hours away from where I started. Either way, music is my con­stant com­pan­ion at these times.

It’s refresh­ing for me, because music has always been part of my life. One that only recently re-​​entered at full force after years of focus­ing on a career. Or try­ing to get pregnant.

My par­ents always had music on in the house and in the car. In fact, many of those road trips we’d take as a fam­ily involved worn out cas­sette tapes or — gasp! — old 8-​​tracks.

One of my favorite mem­o­ries is my first trip to Dis­ney­world at the age of 6. My par­ents packed my brother, my cousin (who would later be known as LJC) & me in our tan wood-​​paneled sta­tion wagon along with our two grand­moth­ers and an uncle and drove down from Detroit to Orlando. Dur­ing that trip, I believe my par­ents only took a hand­ful of 8-​​tracks; ones that we would con­stantly repeat, only because we couldn’t get any radio recep­tion when dri­ving through the mountains.

Let’s just say that by the end of our trip, the three kids knew all the words to every Neil Sedaka song, as well as all the singing parts to the Grease sound­track. And it’s appar­ently a mem­ory that keeps on giv­ing, because Hubby can attest that I was recently able to iden­tify a Neil Sedaka tune!

Another 8-​​track that was in the wagon dur­ing that trip was one of many Bea­t­les com­pi­la­tions that my Dad threw together. It was from that home-​​made “playlist” (cre­ated circa 1978) that I learned the words to most of the Bea­t­les songs. And to this day, every time I hear “Ticket To Ride” I have this incred­i­ble urge to belt out the song.

The 1978 Road War­riors (minus Mom)

It’s one of those child­hood mem­o­ries I keep stored close to my heart. And one that usu­ally sur­faces when­ever I hear any song that reminds me of road trips and spon­ta­neous singing.

For instance: Today on the train, “Tiny Dancer” came  up in “shuffle-​​mode.” The first image that came to mind was my favorite scene in “Almost Famous.”

Or the other day I thought of “Harold & Kumar” when hear­ing Wil­son Phillips “Hold On” on the radio.

Regard­less of the song, each one brought me back to my own road trip mem­o­ries and how much fun they were when music was thrown into the mix. And hear­ing each song cer­tainly gave me the urge to break out into spon­ta­neous singing. Loudly. And at the top of my lungs.

And, in the midst of the chaos that my life has become of late … It made me happy.

So even though I might not be an Amer­i­can Idol con­tes­tant, I think I might just sing aloud. At least in the pri­vacy of my own home. Or car. Or shower.

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Your turn, oh Inter­nets … What song makes you think of road trips? Or what song makes you break out your singing voice?

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Related Posts:

Emily’s Liv­ing Journal

Emily hears her Own Voice

Emily’s Pitch is a lit­tle Black

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Oh, how I miss our old sta­tion wagon …

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