And now for part 2 of my Top 10 "my story songs" list:
5. Joe Jackson - Is She Really Going Out With Him?
Several years ago Jim and I went with Eric to Northern California to see Eric's mom. She would soon be diagnosed with cancer and wasn't expected to live for very long. We had a wonderful time with her, and shared a lot of stories. Eric and I both liked to downhill ski but didn't get much opportunity, so we decided to spend one day at a local ski resort. The skiing was fun, and when the day was done we loaded our sore and tired bodies into his car for the ride back home. We were chatting and listening to the radio when "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" came on. He cranked the volume and we both sang along at the top of our lungs. Probably my favorite Eric memory.
4. Simon and Garfunkel - Sound of Silence
My third grade teacher was just about the coolest person I've ever known in my life. She was young (early- to mid-20's) and was a great teacher. She got the class excited about things, and had a lot of cool projects for us to do. One of those projects involved Simon & Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence."
Each person in the class was assigned a line from the song's lyrics, and we were supposed to draw a picture that represented that line. I still remember my line - "In the halo of a street lamp, I turned my collar to the cold and damp." I've never been a great artist, but I worked hard on that picture. She then took photographs of each picture, turned them into slides, and then played the slide show set to the music for our parents. Whenever the line "Sound of Silence" came up in the song, she displayed a black screen.
And yes, I was chided for singing along to the song during the presentation.
3. Beach Boys - Be True To Your School
My high school football team may have been awful (0-for all three years) but our soccer team more than made up for it. During my junior year they went undefeated (if I remember correctly) for the entire season, and the goalie only allowed a couple of goals. Their success continued through the state playoffs to become that year's state champions. The school provided buses so that the student body could attend the championship game. On the way back to the school after the game someone had a stereo and played the Beach Boys "Be True To Your School" with all of the students singing along, celebrating a great victory and a fantastic season.
2. Barry Manilow - Copacabana
One summer weekend during high school my friend Michelle decided that she was going to take me camping. After getting me outfitted with a borrowed tent and sleeping bag, we made a loaf of banana bread to take with us. Weight be damned!
She took me near Snoqualmie Pass (I think) and we headed off up the trail. It was a beautiful day, and everything was going great. We got to a small body of water that we had to walk around, so I followed her along the narrow trail. There was one part that looked solid, covered with pine needles, so I started to walk across it. Big mistake. Luckily the water wasn't TOO deep, so I only got wet up to the very bottom edge of my sleeping bag that was on my back. Michelle laughed at me good-naturedly as she helped me out of the water.
Just as I was about to collapse we arrived at the lake where we would be camping. We went down a trail alongside the lake to a small clearing and started to set up camp. I dropped my backpack and then my body before starting to help pitch the tent and get organized. Before we could get our sleeping bags unrolled she said that we needed to pick everything back up and move. What? She said that she noticed that the "best" spot was open, which wasn't usually the case. We grabbed our things, walked back up the trail PAST where we came in to a spot on a small hill on the other side of the lake.
Once again we dropped our gear, pitched the tent, set out our stuff and enjoyed the afternoon. As night fell we built a campfire to cook our dinner and have banana bread for dessert. A couple of non-threatening looking guys wandered into our camp and started chatting with us. There was a lot of flirting and sharing of banana bread. We sent them on their way as we settled in for the night.
The next morning we packed up our gear and headed back down the trail to the car. As we got closer we noticed a piece of paper under one of the windshield wiper blades. The two guys from the night before had determined which car was mine and had left their names and phone numbers. We never called, but we were flattered nonetheless.
On the drive home we were listening to the radio when "Copacabana" came on. We're both Barry Manilow fans, so we were singing along quite dramatically. This is not my favorite Barry song, but it always reminds me of that weekend.
1. Journey - Open Arms
Back when I was a sophomore in high school, I was dating a guy named Lothar who went to a different high school in my district. We'd met at a training class for soccer officials, and after some clumsy flirting, we hit it off.
Lothar was one of the sweetest guys I'd ever met, so it was a surprise to me that he was something of a trouble-maker at school and was always in trouble with his parents. He was also the mascot at his school, which gives you an idea of his personality.
We'd been together for a few months when our school held its "Grub Tolo" (aka Sadie Hawkins Dance). Of course I asked him to be my date, and he accepted. When your date at a dance is from another school, he gets treated like a specimen to be examined by everyone, especially other girls. He was a hit with my female classmates – they all wanted to dance with him. I didn't mind too much – they were dancing to fast songs and I was having a good time dancing with my other male friends.
When one of the fast songs ended and a slow one started, he turned from his dance partner and made a beeline for me. The song? "Open Arms" by Journey. He pulled me close and we danced like high school kids do – slowly, and barely moving. I was in heaven.
That might have been the end of the story, but it wasn't. We were still together by the time that Valentine's Day rolled around, and he had a plan to surprise me that day. His school was having a fundraiser where you could pay a certain amount of money to send a singing telegram to a friend or boyfriend/girlfriend. Even though we went to different schools, he managed to get some guys from their choir to drive to my high school and track me down.
I was in the middle of Biology when these three guys that I'd never seen before came into our classroom. They announced that they had a singing telegram for me. I turned beet red as they sang their song – I have absolutely no clue what song they sang. Then they handed me a HUGE Valentine's Day card. The front of the card said, "People say we make a cute pair…", and on the inside the punch line was, "…what I want to know is, a cute pair of what?" Like I said, he had an interesting personality.
On the blank side of the card, Lothar had written all of the lyrics to "Open Arms", pretty much officially making it "our song."
Unfortunately, like most high school romances, we broke up soon after. He said it was pressure from his parents, I said we'd hit a strange spot that I didn't feel we could get past, and the relationship ended without much more than a whimper.
For a while after the break-up, if I heard "Open Arms" it would stop me dead in my tracks. It was if I was trying to hold on to something that was no longer there. Eventually that faded over time, so now when I hear it I just remember the good times.
I'd heard through the grapevine that Lothar had gotten into some serious trouble with the law down in California. I just pray that he's made it through okay, and that maybe he thinks of me when he hears the song.
