Everyone has songs they love, either because they relate to themselves personally, remind them of a previous time in their life, or make them think of someone they know. There is a country song that contains the lyrics ” songs about me and who I am” by Trace Adkins. That made me wonder, what are the songs about me? Songs that I love, that make me think of people, that relate to my life. There are many, and I’m sure after I’m done writing this post I’ll remember something i didn’t include.
I mostly listen to country now, but I love all kinds of music. I was a teen in the 1970’s and I still love that old time rock and roll. Whenever I hear that song by Bob Seger I have a hard time sittiing still, it just makes me want to get up and dance. That song also holds another memory because when my children were in elementary school there were several roller skating parties each year, and I always skated at each one (on quads, I was a kid before roller blades existed) and at every roller skating party the principal of the school always had that song played. That song moved me at a good speed on skates, and whipping around the rink was great fun. That is, except when a young child fell right in front of me one time and I have no idea how I accomplished it, but I managed to jump him because there was no way I could swerve or stop. I impressed myself and could never have done it again if I was trying it.
In 1975 the United Nations Government Assembly declared 1975 International Women’s Year in support of the women’s movement. I was 15 at the time, and Helen Reddy’s song I Am Woman was released that same year. It is a song that not only speaks of the era I grew up in and achievements that were being made, but it also fits my personality. I can be very determined, and the lyrics state “You can bend but never break me, ‘Cause it only serves to make me more determined to achieve my final goal, and I come back even stronger, not a novice any longer, ’cause you depended the conviction in my sole. Oh yes, I am wise but it’s wisdom born of pain, Yes, I’ve ‘aid the price, but look how much I gained. If I have to I can face anything, I am strong (strong), I am invincible (invincible), I am woman.” While I may not achieve the original goal, my determination to make something positive come of it can be a silent but effective form of revenge.
I grew up in Small Town USA, like the town portrayed in Justin Moore’s song. Although I moved away and never went back, there are lots of people who never left, and others who did leave and go back. There is something comforting about growing up in a small town where everybody knows everybody and what they are doing. My sister still lives in that same town and many of her friends are people we grew up with. It should be said that I now live in another small town where there are a lot of people who grew up in town and have strong roots and family heritage here.
When I was 19 I met the man that is now my husband in a bar when he asked me to dance. Two weeks after we met I told someone I was going to marry him and 16 months later that goal was accomplished. We recently celebrated our 33rd anniversary. Whenever I hear Ann Murray’s song, Could I have This Dance I think it fits my husband and I perfectly. “I’ll always remember, the song they were playing, the first time we danced and I knew,
as we swayed to the music, and held to each other, I fell in love with you. Could I have this dance for the rest of my life, Could you be my partner
every night, when we’re together it feels so right, Could I have this dance for the rest of my life.” While I don’t remember the song they were playing when we danced, I remember him staring at me from across the bar and several other bits of conversation throughout the evening.
That isn’t the song we used at our wedding, that was If, by David Gates, a popular song for weddings at the time. “If a picture paints a thousand words
Then why can’t I paint you? The words will never show the you I’ve come to know.”
As time goes by and our children were growing older, there are songs that make me think of them, what they have been through, their personalities. When I purchased a Lori Morgan album that contained the song “Skakin’ Things Up” I immediately thought of my daughter, Caroline. That song fits her personality perfectly. Unfortunately I was unable to locate a link other than the lip-sink one I linked to above. The words are so perfect for her as both a child and an adult, “I’ve been told better safe than sorry and to look before I leap, To think about what I should say long before I speak. I’m tired of holding back my true emotions, I can’t help but cause a little commotion. I like shakin’ things up, I like pushin’ the boundaries, I like livin’ my life on the edge and chasin’ far-fetched dreams, I’m gonna feel young when I grow old, I’m gonna chalenge the status quo, when bein’ good just ain’t good enough, I like shakin’ things up.” Anyone that knows here will agree, that is Caroline.
Now our son, Patrick, has always managed to find trouble. Sometimes he started it, sometimes he didn’t. Actually, the Rodney Atkins song “If You’re Going Through Hell” not only applies to him, but also all of us in our family at some point in time, rather my husband’s nasty divorce from his first marriage and battle with his wife repeatedly denying him visits with his daughter, the legal issues our son encountered growing up and as an adult, my recovery after my motorcycle accident, our attempts to adopt our granddaughters and the adversity we encountered from CPS/DHS, to our newest challenge with my husband having cancer of the esophagus, the song fits. It is a good song to apply to anything you encounter: “If you’re goin’ through hell keep on going, don’t slow down if you’re scared don’t show it, you might get out before the devil even knows you’re there. When you’re goin’ through hell keep on movin’, face that fire walk right through it, you might get out before the devil even knows you’re there.”
There are so many songs I can relate to, after all, “I’ve Got The Music In Me” because “I’m never frightened or worried, I know I’ll always get by
I heat up, I cool down, When something gets in my way I go around it, Don’t let life get me down” and I am Proud to be an American, “where at least I know I’m free, And I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.” The country I call home, It’s America — “It’s a high school prom, it’s a Springsteen song, it’s a ride in a Chevrolet. It’s a man on the moon and fireflies in June and kids sellin’ lemonade. It’s cities and farms, it’s open arms, one nation under God, It’s America.”
My wish for all who read this is that “you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean, Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens,
Promise me that you’ll give faith a fighting chance, And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I Hope You Dance.”
When my life it over, I hope it reflects Garth Brooks, “I’m glad I didn’t know the way it all would end, the way it all would go, our lives are better left to chance, I could have missed the pain but I’d of had to miss The Dance”
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--- LIFE IS A MELTING POT --- Grace Grogan...Writer, Photographer 