Those songs...

When I think of my childhood and moments with my Mom I often think of songs that were popular during a certain time of our life...What are those songs that help you remember moments in your life? Do you know them? Do you have any? My husband doesn't but they didn't listen to music like I did. I feel bad for him sometimes that he doesn't have music memories as I call them. When I look back know I'm so glad that I have those moments. I believe that I can remember so much about my childhood because I can hear a song and remember what was going on in my life when a certain song was popular. I started thinking of this subject the other day when I saw a commercial for Martina McBride's new album of old hits she is now covering. One of the songs on the album is "Help Me Make it Through the Night" which was originally done by Kris Kristofferson. My memory takes me back to a time when my Mom was dating a man named Ed. I was in first grade and I remember how much they liked this song. Ed use to come and pick my Mom to go on a date and he would steal my nose... I loved that... I remember when they broke up. I remember her pain. I know that she might think that I was too young to remember this but I remember every horrible minute it was for her. I remember her burning his pictures. I remember her crying in the middle of the night. I remember going over to the neighbors for the day so that her and her friend Carol could go shopping for the day so Mom could just get away. I remember not knowing what to do and being sad that Ed would never be coming around again. But I hear that song and it gives me a sense of love for my Mom. I really think at some point she thought she was going to marry Ed... Unfortunately it didn't work out that way.

I remember being 5 or 6 and Janis Joplin "Me and Bobby McGee" was popular. My Mom had bought the 45 (ok so how many of you out there remember what a 45 is???) and I remember her putting it on the record player and she would dance with me in our dining room.

I remember riding in the car, I believe it was a Nova, and Mom had the Carol King Tapestry Album on cassette tape. We didn't have a tape player in the car but we had a battery-operated tape player and we listened and listened and listened to that tape. I can still remember the words and whenever I hear a song from the album I tend to get a smile on my face.

We went to Florida the summer before I went into 2nd grade on a bus trip. There were two girls on the trip and they loved the song "Day by Day" and they would sing it out loud with out any background music...

When I was, I don't know about 8 years old on, I remember sitting in my room listening to that Carpenter's album and trying to get my voice to sound just like Karen Carpenter's. I was going to be a famous singer; I just had to get my voice to sound like hers.

Five girls and I use to get up in front of our music class in 5th grade and sing "Country Roads" by John Denver all the time. This was the first memory I have of someone telling me I could sing. I didn't do many things right when I was in grade school so this was a plus for me. It helped me make it through those rough days when then kids were cruel.

By the time I got to Junior High I was singing pretty regularly in choir and in the musicals my music teachers were putting together. Popular music was still a major part of my life and my friends life. One song that was very popular when we were in 8th grade was Debbie Boone's "You Light Up My Life". I will never forget the 8th grade talent show when Lisa Jones, a rather large African American girl who had a set of pipes on her that could blow you away, got up in front of the whole student body and said, "Robbie, this song is for you..." Robbie Carr and Janelle Hokenson were the popular couple, the "it" couple. Every one knew of Lisa's crush on Robbie, and there she was no fear singing "You Light up My Life" in front of God and everyone... She's was phenomenal. I remember standing a cheering her on. Janelle, Lisa, myself and a girl named Winnie sang in a quartet that year... we won so many awards. It was one of the best years of my life.

When I got to high school, from about my sophomore year on it was all about Journey and Styx. Maybe a little REO, maybe some Loverboy, but whenever I hear a Journey or Styx song I could tell you where I was... what I was doing... it was all about them...

Duran Duran, "Her Name was Rio" was my first MTV video. I was in Arizona, at an audition to get into the music program at ASU.

My first boyfriend, Brook, was "Straight from the Heart" and we ended on a "Total Eclipse of the Heart." My first formal in college was "Drive" by the Cars... the guy who took me had too much to drink and well he left me at the dance by myself. I remember coming out of the bathroom and he was gone. Or the first time my Dad came down to U of I with wife number 4 and they cleared the dance floor when they danced to "Hound Dog" by Elvis.

When I came home from college I worked as a waitress and bartender at the same place from 1987 until I think it was 2000. There was a house band called "The Movies" and variations of the like for many of the years we I was there. So many songs so little time.

My first husband our song was "Alone" by Heart. If you know the words to the song you would know that the relationship might have been doomed from the start. Toward the end of that relationship my theme song, as I called it, became "It's My Life" by Bon Jovi. I still can't hear that song without turning it up as loud as possible and singing my guts out.

Other songs during my 30's have special meanings... too many to mention tonight but oh so many...

One of my favorite memories of my friends from Sterling are those moments we were out at the "North End" and Marty was DJing and we would take his Mic and sing "Goodbye Earl" or "I Will Survive". These songs are for any girl who had ever had a bad relationship.

Don and I don't really have a song. I find that I don't listen to music as much as I use to before moving to the city where talk radio is the thing to listen to and/ or having my kids. I can't listen to Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely" or Luther Vandross' "Dance with my Father" without bawling my eyes out.

So now Martina McBride has remade "Help Me Make It Through the Night" and I sit and wonder... will Grace, Mac and I have those special songs? Will we sing in the car like I did with my Mom? Will Grace know or remember that everyday for a year I would rock her to sleep and sing "Amazing Grace" to her? Will Mac know that the new song by Carrie Underwood "Jesus Take the Wheel" brings back memories of how one year before he was born I was in an accident that could have killed me but for some reason, I believe only God can explain, a higher power took the wheel of my car and kept me alive so that I could be his mother. Will they remember times in there life like I have? Will they have a favorite? I hope so. I hope that I can bring to them the joy of song that I have always had and hope that I will continue to have.