Memories...like the corners of my mind...

Ahhh music. It's one of the things that keeps me sane. I listen to it when I work out, in the car, in the shower, at work...the music I listen to becomes the soundtrack of my life. Who among us hasn't listened to a song and instantly understood the lyrics and really 'felt' what the singer was singing about. Who won't raise their hand when I ask who strutted a little differently when a certain songs came on or played in your head. And what person can hear a song from their past and not be instantly transformed back to that moment of time and stare off into space. Who, I ask you, who?? Well, not me...I live for this stuff. So we'll call this Tuesday's Ten and this will be my first list. Ten songs that bring back memories and why. Hope you enjoy. If you're so inclined, post one of your own and let us know what's going on in that head of yours when you hear Boy George belting out Karma Chameleon.

Fame - Irene Cara: Very first record. I think I was about 4. My mom says I used to play this over and over again and dance to it. It just throws me back to being a kid...and I'm still dancing like an idiot after all these years...

Push it - Salt-n-Pepa: brings me back to roller skating on Friday nights in elementary school. not sure if this one was more 4th, 5th or 6th grade. What I do know is that as a kid, when they said 'all you fly muthas, get on out there and dance...dance I said" I innocently thought they were talking about moms...like 'hey all you mothers of children, get out on the dance floor and shake your booty!' See, kids don't know what songs mean...I didn't know they meant mutha fuckas...

You Give Love a Bad Name - Bon Jovi: My 4th grade boyfriend gave me this single. As is a 45....as in a record. For all of those too young to remember, us old folks listened to records before we had tape players. And I skipped the whole 8-track thing. Getting this song from one's boyfriend does not bode well for the relationship. We had a tumultuous relationship. One where he would break up with me, then ask me out again, then break up with me, then ask me out again. Wow, I was a total sucker back then. Still one of my worst memories even though I was only in 4th grade.

Cold Hearted Snake - Paula Abdul: See I was a shy kid growing up. Those of you that know me now probably say 'no way!' but it is the truth. So I took a speech class in 8th grade. It was one of those where you had to stand up and do speeches and stuff (imagine that). One of our assignments was to lip sync and choreograph to a song that we liked. Bingo! I've always loved lip syncing, even as a shy kid. Well, there was this one guy I was absolutely obsessed about in 7th and 8th grade. Ian. OMG, it was unhealthy. I was so in love with him. He was older (cause he failed a grade ::swoon::) and just way more trouble then should have been allowed at that age. Hell, I think he had facial hair in 7th grade! Anyway, Ian was in my class. You can see where this is going. After at east a year/year and a half of him leading me on I decided to lip sync to him. This song. Oh, the horror. I got all tarted up in a Contempo Casual tank dress (black with gold studs all over it) and knee high black boots (were my calves not ginormous back then??). My dear friend Ann and another girl were my backup dancers. We actually taped our performance and if that tape were to ever show up I'm pretty sure I would move to the Himalayas. How. Embarrassing. Tried to find a similar dress online..no luck. Just imagine one of these, but black, with studs. Why are teenage girls so dumb?

Diamonds and Pearls - Prince: Gag, I know. But this one brings me to one of my Jr. High dances (9th grade?). I went with a boy named Kevin. And I really liked him for a while. Then all of a sudden, stopped. And this was before the dance. Ugh. I was never good at this thing they call breaking up. I remember dancing to this song with him and him looking at me all lovey dovey and me thinking, "Prince, hurry up and finish this damn song already!". Kevin later gave me earrings for my birthday. Awwww, at least he was on the right track. Jewelry is good.

Gin and Juice - snoop: Back in high school, Heather and I MAY have been known for hanging out with bad boys. I mean really. And one of our favorite groups lived like 30 minutes away. There are LOTS of stories to be told from this time period, not the least of which include unknown marriages, drinking whole bottles of red wine, watching porn for the first time...the list goes on and on. And this song just is the epitome of that time. We listened to it all the time. The funny thing is one of those guys was singing along to it in the car 'Rolling down the street, smoken indo, sippin on Jimmy juice." what?? what's Jimmy juice? Poor kid thought that's what the song said. I said they were bad, I shoudl have also mentioned they were dumb as posts.

You Oughta Know- Alanis: Again, I realize this is not the best song of all times, but when this shit came out in 1995 and I was a freshman in college, I was totally rockin out. Loved this whole CD in fact. This takes me back to the dorms in a heartbeat. I did not have a guy to sing this about at this time. But it still made me feel like a jilted woman.

Name - goo goo dolls: Another freshman college throwback. This one tended to make me homesick for some reason. Not sure why. Yes, why would a girl be homesick when she was in a dorm with no microwave, no refrigerator, no tv, no car, no bike...yes, why would a girl be homesick?

Sadness - Enigma: Don't want to go into too much detail on this one (hi mom!) only to say one of my first sexual experiences was to this song. No not THE sexual experience, but close enough. Ahem, I'll stop there.

You Never Even Called Me by My Mame - David Allan Coe: See, I was a city girl. This city girl didn't dream of listening to country music. Ever. Except for maybe Garth Brooks, but he was popular at the time people. You couldn't go anywhere without hearing 'The Thunder Rolls'. College was a wake up call. I was stuck in a po-dunk town where 75% of the stations played country music. There were lots of country dance places. It was everywhere. I was surrounded and country music was taking no prisoners. This was a song I heard for the first time in a small, totally wooden, animal heads on the wall, domino playin, rattlesnake in the back kind of bar. I loved it the first time I heard it. And that's when I let go....I listened to some country. I still don't like the current stuff, just to old stuff please.

There it is, the ten songs that bring back memories and why. There are others, past college, but I think the childhhod ones are the best.