Are We There Yet?
December 02, 2004
I was a little dubious about drinking OJ from a can, but that metallic tang brought me right back to family road trips in the 1980s, my little brother on the other side of the station wagon, the Cool-Rest between us full of 6-oz cans of OJ with peel-off foil tabs and Town House peanut butter cracker packs. I stared out the window and listened to my cassette player, an indestructible Panasonic the same size, and approximate heft, as a brick. In heavy rotation at that time:
- The Beach Boys: Greatest Hits Volume 2
- Wham!: Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go
- Bruce Springsteen: Born in the USA
- Bruce Springsteen: The River
- The Who: Who's Next
- The Beastie Boys: License to Ill
The Wham and Beach Boys were the first two cassettes I ever bought for myself, at Waxie Maxie's in Lakeforest Mall. The same year someone gave me Sheena Easton's tape for my birthday. I'm sure my parents never listened to any of the words of the single, or caught the double entendre of its title -- Sugar Walls -- or they would have confiscated it immediately and called Tipper Gore.
Aah, I had one of those HUGE cassette players, too. My heavy rotation tapes were Springsteen's "Born In The USA," Tears For Fears' "Songs From The Big Chair," Bryan Adams' "Cuts Like A Knife," Howard Jones' "Human Lib," and dare I say it? - Katrina and The Waves' self-titled album. And oh yeah, lots of Duran Duran.
Me too! Mine were Belinda Carlisle and Tiffany. Running just as fast as we can... holding on to one another's hand...
I'm trying to get away from having that song in my head some 15 years later!
Piig, thanks for reminding me about Bryan Adams! How could I have forgotten? "It cuts like a knife ... And it feels so right." Oh yeah. For some reason I don't think of car trips with that tape though. I think of weekend chores, cleaning the bathroom, the smell of Ajax.
Weekend chores and the smell of Ajax....bummer. Bryan Adams always takes me back to my morning commutes to high school. "You told me it would last forever..."
The first tape I ever wanted to buy was Like A Virgin, but it was during my parents' fundamentalist phase, and I wasn't allowed. So I just listened to it at my friends' houses. I don't remember my actual first tape.
I was given George Michael's tape, Faith, I think, for my 8th birthday. "I Want Your Sex" was on it.
My mom made me give it back.
Her mom took it from her, too. But we'd sneak it out of the cabinet and listen to it.
Not that we really knew what sex, was, though. But we liked living on the edge.
