Ahhhhh. Home at last. Today was a grind of a day for me and Jen, one of those days of tough work combined with thoughts of being anywhere else but work. After dinner we both flopped down on the couch and decided a night of music was in order. I picked Pandora Radio on the Roku, chose the 80’s Country channel, laid down with my head in my wife’s lap, and shut my eyes.
I was half-awake, enjoying the tunes my dad and uncles listened to in my youth, when an old Don Williams song took me to a place I hadn’t been in some time. It was summer, a summer of long ago. I was at work with my dad, in a half-erected basement somewhere in Mentor. The sound of the song grew more tinny as it now was pumping from those basic little speakers in that old midnight blue, one-ton GMC dump truck. I could smell the cement, the soil and the sweat. I felt the sting of the sun on my neck, the grit and grime clinging to my arms. The song was now interwoven with the whirr of the cement mixer and the cackling of my kinfolk.
There they were. Same conversations, but not a gray hair between them, and wrapped up in the heated debate of the day. I turned to my right……Grandpa.
Trowel in hand, trying to make a go of it that day, asking me to go wring out his headband for him in the water barrel. How I miss that man in my life. There he was, like he never left.
And just as quick as I had gone there, I was snapped back by the tickle of a tear on my cheek. Acting like I had an itch, I wiped it away, hoping Jen hadn’t caught it. Wow. Where did that come from?
And just as quick as I had gone there, I was snapped back by the tickle of a tear on my cheek. Acting like I had an itch, I wiped it away, hoping Jen hadn’t caught it. Wow. Where did that come from?
Music can do so many things in our lives–it can build us up, tear us apart, inspire us, deflate us. The best of it paints pictures in our minds through lyrics and composition. But my true favorite songs are those that, through no particular effort or fault of their own, teleport us to times, places, or events in our lives.
Like Walking in a Winter Wonderland. Last winter, after taking my daughter home, I heard the version my grandma had on LP in that stereo console of hers. I was suddenly whisked back to my grandparents’ family room, goofing around with my cousins, waiting on Christmas dinner.
ABBA’s Dancing Queen puts an infant Ellie in my arms, bouncing to the beat in a nightly effort to send her to Dreamland. I can still remember the feel of warm baby’s breath on my shoulder.
Sweet Child of Mine was hot just as a new era in my life, a depressing and confusing one, was being ushered in–junior high school. I go back to walking the midway of the GREAT Geauga County Fair with a new classmate, and it seemed every ride was blaring this song.
A year later, I was teaching myself to play Tesla’s Love Song on my keyboard when I learned of the passing of my great grandma. The intro, a few bars of classical guitar, gets me every time.
I could go on and on, but now it is your turn. In the comments below, tell me what song really gets you. Where does it take you? What was happening in your life? I know I am not the only one to have experiences like that. If you want to share but also to remain anonymous, feel free to email me at huntsburghistory@gmail.com.
I’m off to bed. I need sleep for another grind of a day tomorrow. It won’t be so bad though–I will be taking my earphones and trying to get back to that hole in the ground with my family when life was much simpler…….
Author: Ty Pilarczyk
Ty is the president of the Huntsburg Historical Society, and has lived in Huntsburg most of his life. When he is not designing, installing, and maintaining landscapes for the family construction business, Ty enjoys vegetable gardening, restoring and collecting old pressure lanterns, and spending time with his family.