It's You & Me in the Summer Time...

I’ve been looking for some framework into which I can fit some thought, memories, personal history, et cetera, so I can get myself back to writing. My mind and time seem to be spread so thin these days, I either have a great train of thought and no time to write it down, or I sit down to write and I am exhausted and uninspired.


Today I was working in the kitchen and I put on a mix cd called “Summertime” which I created about 10 years ago. It has a distinctly bubblegum-pop mixed with rocking-in-the-hammock mixed with let’s-take-a-roadtrip-I’ll grab-the-Big-Gulps spirit to it. Every song brought back distinct and fabulous memories from different parts of my life, I thought it would make a great framework for a collection of memories.


Much of my life I have felt a little embarrassed, even ashamed of my intense reaction/connection to music and also my crazy vivid memory. I come off as overly sentimental, but it’s not like I WANT to remember most of this stuff, it just gets recorded. It’s etched forever in my muscle memory, accessible when music pulls the trigger, while in the meantime I can barely remember what day it is or where I put my keys. However, when I turned forty I gave myself the gift of Not Giving Two Toots what others think and owning who I have become, so there ya go: I love music and it’s a trigger for powerful, vivid memories for me, like it or not.

Without further ado, let’s have a gander at the “Summertime” playlist:

Magic by The Cars

 Summer of ’69 by Bowling For Soup

Where The Streets Have No Name by U2

California Sun by The Ramones

Sugar, Sugar by The Archies

Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffett

Come Away with Me- Norah Jones

Hot In the City- Billy Idol

Hitchin’ A Ride- Vanity Fare

Summer Time-The Sundays

Three Little Birds- Bob Marley

The Joker- Steve Miller Band

Free Fallin’- Tom Petty

Angel of Harlem- U2

I Want You Back- Jackson 5

Buffalo Soldier- Bob Marley

American Girl- Tom Petty

Drivin’ on Nine- The Breeders

Boys of Summer- The Ataris

***

This is the outline for my next few posts. See ya on memory lane!