The
moment it happened is as clear to me as ever. Okay, I do not know the
exact day, but it was January of 1999. I was on my way to a
dentist appointment, a new dentist whose office, it turned out, was
kind of scary, and I don't think she is in business anymore, but that
is a whole different story.
On that morning, in the car, my finger
kept punching between the two oldies stations on the radio. There was
97 with Randy and Spiff in the mornings – they played stuff from
the fifties and sixties – and about 50% of the time, the music was
okay - but someone once accused the station of having only 97 songs,
and I think that was the absolute truth – I could probably name all
ninety-seven of them! Randy or Spiff would say, “Coming up after
the commercial, Peter, Paul, and Mary!” and I would think, “Maybe
it will be Puff the Magic Dragon” but invariably,
invariably, the song would be I Dig Rock and Roll Music
which is okay maybe once a year, but not as the only Peter,
Paul, and Mary offering of the entire station. I would listen as
I drove until an obnoxious song came on – and then press the
buttons to change to a different station.
Sometimes
I could get the other oldies station – Lake 102 or was it 103? And
there did seem to be more than 97 songs – but it didn't always come
in clearly – so that would get frustrating. Of all the other
frequencies, I did not care for the contemporary stuff, classic rock
was not classic enough, and NPR is okay, it was my third and default
button – but I like to sing when I drive, especially alone, and a
steady stream of NPR was just not my cup of tea.
So
that morning in January of 1999 while driving to the dentist, I was fed up with the songs playing on both 97 and Lake 102. I moved the
dial just a little, and the song that was playing on this just off of Lake 102 station amused me – turns out it was Lee Ann
Womack's I'll Think of a Reason Later – about why she hates
her former boyfriend's fiance. The station was KICKS 101.5 - playing country! I had always made fun of country music
before that day – but I stayed for the next song, and the next.
About a month later, I was hooked.
In
April of that year, I got my first country cassette – The Dixie
Chicks' Wide Open Spaces; then Alan Jackson Under the
Influence and Garth Brooks' double cassette of his greatest hits.
And the collection accumulated over the next few years – I do not
have a favorite country artist or country song – I have many many
of them – and a ton of respect for them and that then evolved into a love of those who came before.
Sarah
and Amanda were patient with me and my journey into country music.
Well, they had little choice, being a captive audience in the car and
needing to get from here to there with me as their driver. And I
think you could get them to admit there were puns and clever lines
and humor that they appreciated and made them realize how I got lured
in.
The girls might also admit that the first time they heard Toby Keith
sing the chorus to I Wanna Talk About Me – they burst out
laughing in the back seat of the car!
And
then there was the day while driving, that all three of us were singing, as if our hearts were breaking right in two, with
Jamie O'Neal on the radio - “There is no Arizona!”
That
was such a great moment.
All
this is not to say that the girls were not worried about my new
taste in music. They did question it. In fact, I believe it was
Amanda who I heard say one day that she was doing some research to
see if there was a 12 step program to get people like me off of
country music!
Cute.
She
could write a gut-wrenching country song with that line!
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20150923 A 12-Step Program for That
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