This Post Brought to You by Summer '74

Thought I'd give you a glimpse of what's in my head this morning... lucky you!




Where the heck did *that* come from? We had the single... I think the B-side was "Our B Side". Maybe it was the discussion over at Bossy's the other day, about first albums, that brought this back. I remember listening to AM radio, with my little cassette recorder at the ready. As soon as I'd hear the opening strains of a song I loved (or when the DJ announced it), I'd press "record" and "play" and capture the song for posterity. My family wasn't so big on technology. And one of my sisters or my mom would come into the room, talking, and I'd have to stop recording and wait for that song to come on again.

I remember the day my sister Cathy came home from school and said, "Check this out!" and switched the little button over to FM and rolled the dial... and Heart's Barracuda came blasting out of the radio. My life was just never the same after that.

I'd listen to Big Ways radio as I laid out in the sun, slathering myself with Hawaiian Tropic, turning over every 30 minutes (or every 6 songs). That's what summer used to be. Popsicles - the real ones, the double kind!, watermelon, cooking out. Being oh, so bored. My sister Cyndi and I used to get so bored that every summer we'd plan on running away. We'd write and draw up plans and make lists of what we were taking... then we'd think of how much we'd miss our dog, and cats, and Christmas! and we'd end up sobbing in each other's arms... "We'll never run away! Never!"

Our first 96-degree day of the summer yesterday must have fried my brain just a bit. Stepping out into the roasting heat always takes me back.