Music and Memories

I will preface this blog by noting that it probably won’t be nearly as interesting for you to read as it was for me to write.  But we’ve also noted before that this blog isn’t all about you. Some of it is about us, processing both our new experiences and, in this case, remembering some of the old ones that played a role (big or small) in getting us to this moment.  So read on if you want a trip down my memory lane, (a pretty happening place in my opinion, maybe more of a boulevard) or skip this one and wait for something more interesting next week.

The impetus for writing this blog was a session this morning where I opened up iTunes, put it on shuffle, and enjoyed the music as it came (OK I skipped a bunch of it as well).  One of the interesting developments as a result of digitalized music is the way music can now follow me around very easily, so that my collection contains songs that I just copied from Joel Kroeker, along with songs from my childhood, and from everywhere in between.  In the age of vinyl, if you wanted a song from years ago you had to go to the shelf, dust of the old record, drop it on the turntable, get the needle to the right track and then go.  If you wanted the next song from 10 years later, you’d have to go back to the shelf, grab another vinyl, or maybe now you’re into cassette tapes, get it set up, and press play again.  All very slow and deliberate.  With iTunes I can sit back and listen as the memories fade into each other.  They say smell is the closest sense associated with memory, but it seems sound is not too far behind for me.

A list of songs and the memories, however obscure, associated with them:

Boney M Christmas – Decorating the Christmas tree with family, and eating Russian fudge and rum balls.  My sister Emily squinting at the tree to check that light density was approximately equal on all sections of the tree.  Try it if you haven’t before.  It really does work.

Anything else Boney M – A long weekend drive to Fort Frances and back for the wedding of John Eric and Lindsey Pardys where Boney M was one of the only CDs we had, almost running out of fuel in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night, and being searched on the way back into Canada because apparently 4 young males crossing the border at 2 in the morning is suspicious.

We Rise Again, Rankin Family – Family camping trip out East.  Setting up the tent trailer - by the end of the trip we resembled a pit crew in our speed and efficiency, and my Dad putting about $20 of quarters into a payphone at a campground to arrange for a deep sea fishing trip.

Everything You Want, Vertical Horizon – My basement, pretending to be Brett Hull as I shot tennis balls into a hockey net while pining over whichever girl(s) I happened to have a crush on at the time.

Recruiting Sergeant, Great Big Sea – My time at 292 Erb Street during university, playing East Side Hockey manager, and a pile of cereal boxes approaching the height and width of our couch (heavy on Reese Puffs) from a time when Zehrs decided they were overstocked on cereal and sold the big boxes for some ridiculously low price.

We Are the Champions, Queen – Any of a number of championships for our minor hockey team including one where we got t-shirts and hats instead of trophies (we were unimpressed and crimped the brims of the hats into little waves in protest) and our Silver Stick championship in Forest, Ontario where we got to carry a full sized metal hockey stick (heavy) around the ice – the closest thing I’ll get to the Stanley Cup.

Get Ready for This, Countdown Mix Masters – Hawkesville Mennonite Church MYF youth retreat at Silver Lake, specifically setting up stools, mattresses and a broom handle into a high jump formation and pumping ourselves up with this and other jock jams while we pushed each other to defy gravity

Shimmer, Fuel – Driving home from a hard day of construction work at Menno S. Martin in my (parents’) purple Ford Escort with racing stripe (a classy ride), wearing my fake Oakley’s bought in Washington D.C on a high-school field trip and filling up the tank from empty for $20

Boston and St. John’s, Great Big Sea – Any time I left Kaitlyn or she left me during the 5 years she was away at Trent and Queen’s.

Linkin Park – Amanda Angle who let me borrow and copy her CD, and waking up in New Zealand to my little cousin Jamie playing Linkin Park and throwing darts just over my head at the dartboard on the wall.  

Funny what sticks in our brains.  Makes me wonder what songs I’m going to associate with memories of South Sudan.  Leading candidates so far: Mumford and Sons and Adele, which have been acquired since our arrival here, and Raise a Glass by Pink which we got drilled into our heads while we were home in April thanks to the pop channel on Sirius Satellite radio.

OK, enough.  And sorry if you weren’t in any of the memories.  I have 2,316 songs on my computer.  I’m sure you’re attached to one of them but I just didn’t have time to get through every song this morning.  iTunes says I would need 6.2 days to do that.  Nice way to spend a morning though travelling down memory lane.  I encourage you all to try it with your own collection of music and see what memories come to mind.