"I Go Back"

I can’t remember a movie if I watched it over a year ago. I can’t remember the names of some of my professors even though I looked them in the face for at least 8 months at a time (I am giving myself credit on the names that had more letters than the alphabet! If I could say them I would have remembered them!) I couldn’t tell you what I wore on Monday, but I can remember song lyrics and particular events associated with certain songs.

This morning as I was rushing through my usual 15 minute shower routine (yes, believe it!) I was singing to myself “There used to be a graying tower alone on the sea. You became the light on the dark side of me….” Where did this song come from and how in the world did I remember the lyrics?! That is sooo 1995!

It was August 1995 and I was waking up before the sun even thought of showing its face. Blair and I walked to the end of the street and down Rockford Road to catch the bus as the dew was floating off the ground putting an end to the straight smooth hair we had left the house with. When we got to the bottom of the hill, there stood Katie and Sam Mason who lived at the house on the corner. They looked so much older and way cooler than we did – Sam even had a mustache! Several minutes later we loaded the bus and thirty minutes later after we watched the sun come up from a cold brown bus seat, we were arriving in the pit of Winston-Salem on 19th Street. It was the first day of 6th grade. Ashley Middle School was in front of me.

As I unloaded the bus and walked directly into the school (with the wonderful bullet holes in the rounded outside wall of the cafeteria) a nervous feeling had come over me. Our bus had arrived a little later than the rest so as I walked into Mrs. Freeman’s homeroom class on the sixth grade hall, majority of the seats were taken. The blinds were still shut and the entire room smelled of mildew as if this was the first day since May she had opened the room back up. There were empty tadpole tanks surrounding the perimeter of the room, a small hand-bell on the front table and a 1-800-Charter notepad on Mrs. Freeman’s desk. I wanted to turn around and retrace my steps back to my bed.

I found one of the last open seats in a pod of four by the bathroom door. Ashley Middle used to be an elementary school, so what was now the 6th grade hall used to be Kindergarten classes with restrooms. I took a seat and as I was placing my book bag up on my desk I noticed the girl beside me was very visibly pregnant! I think she noticed me staring (bless my little sheltered soul) and said to me “Oh, this is my second. I think it’s a girl.” I nicely bent over and pulled my chin off the floor and starting talking to my new pregnant friend. Come to find out, this was her second attempt at 6th grade thanks to her previous pregnancy. The rest of that first day of 6th grade was a blur.

As I was signing this SEAL song to myself this morning, a rush of these memories came over me. Kiss From a Rose by Seal was playing on my alarm clock that woke me up for the first day of 6th grade. This song marked a turning point in life!

Do you have any songs that you remember every lyric and tune because it takes you back to a particular place in time?

I have several:
1. Ride Wit Me (Nelly) – Junior Year of High school. Dustin and I would take his black jeep to Kure Beach to stay with his grandmother. We would fish the entire weekend all day and all night while he grandmother sat in her house and listened to her scanner to see what her neighbors were getting in trouble for!

2. In Da Club (50 Cent) – Freshman year of college living with Shannon in Lee Hall. Shannon introduced me to country music and I introduced Sha-ney-ney to Rap and R&B! We would get ready to this song before going over to Ivy Chase every night. As Shannon would say “Go Shawty!”

3. Save A Horse- Ride A Cowboy (Big and Rich) – first senior year of college living in the Canterbury house with Brittany, Catherine, Allie, and Stacy. Brittany would play this song every time we would get in her jeep to go out at night!

4. Leaving on a Jet Plane (John Denver) – Senior year in ADPi recruitment. This song never hit me until I had spent four years with some of the most amazing friends I could have asked for. It was our last year together and my last year living with Metz. It brought me to tears every time.

5. Awnaw (Nappy Roots) – beach trip to myrtle beach spring break my senior year of High school. One word: Joel

6. Summertime (Kenny Chesney) – my senior year of college when I would stay at Matt’s place, this was what came on when my phone alarm would go off in the morning! This was also not a song that was eased into; as soon as it would go off it was “TWO BARE FEET …” – just loud. I think I ruined this song for a diehard Kenny fan! Sorry Matthew!

7. GLAMOROUS (Fergie) – One Name: Landon.