PrompTuesday

So...since it's been, I don't know, AGES, since I've written, a good friend of mine suggested that I take a PrompTuesday from sandiegomomma.com and do it. It will be cathartic and maybe remove my writer's block.


Here's the prompt I chose...and READY, SET, GO!


I want to know about your songs. What brings you back to a pivotal moment? Or an everyday moment you’ll remember forever? Tell me a drop of your life as crystallized by a Top 40 hit, a Broadway number, a dirge.


My mom was a music officianado. She was always disappointed in my lack of music appreciation. I sort of like to think I'm well-rounded in the musical-ness of my life. I listen to about anything and everything. Of course, when I was a teenager, I listened to it LOUDLY in my bedroom, on my awe-some boombox. She tried to really influence me by tossing in "her type" of music when we'd clean the house, especially when I'd do the dishes with her.


The song that takes me back to my kitchen is Tears For Fears, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World." Yes. It's VERY '80s. It also is VERY my life. My mom and I would do the dishes together and typically sing at the top of our lungs, badly at that. All while my younger brother hid in shame, and my step-dad would have nothing to do with us. One evening while she was trying to change my opinion of music, she threw in her Tears For Fears cd. I actually like Tears for Fears a great deal. We were rocking out, and wearing our oh-so-stylish yellow, elbow-length gloves, when she grabbed a wooden spoon and started dancing. Not being one to let her act a fool all by herself I joined in. I only wish someone would've been there to video it and put it on You Tube. Yep, we were THAT good.

This is one of my absolute favorite memories of my mom. In that three and a half minutes she was not a cancer patient. She didn't have a terminal diagnosis. She was just a mom. A mom enjoying a moment with her 21 year old daughter. Singing and dancing was her way of telling me I'd be ok. It was entirely blissful. The song still graces my iTunes library, and I have put it on any memorable mix of tunes since before she passed in 2007.

Recently I've been playing tunes for my daughters. I think Mom would be pretty thrilled with my not-so-average music choices. Of course there is Raffy (who I listened to frequently as a young child, thanks again, MOM), but I also throw on some more unusual things. I like to embarass my daughter by dancing around to artists like Michael Jackson, Arethra Franklin, Todd Rundgren, Stevie Wonder, and of course Tears for Fears. Sami frequently looks at me like I've gone completely bananas, but she usually decides to not let me act a fool all by myself, and joins in. She is after all, her Grandma's girl.