30DSC Two-For-One: A Song That Reminds You of Someone & Somewhere

30-Day Song Challenge Days 6 & 7: A Song That Reminds You of Someone & Somewhere

Most songs remind me of someone or someplace in some way.  Music has always been a way for me to make connections to memories or times in my life.  I think that’s why I’m so drawn to a challenge like this, for the opportunity to document those connections.  So to choose one person and one place is not an easy task.  I could easily make a list of 100 people and attach a song or two to each of them.  

However, as difficult as it is, I will select one song and one person, one song and one place.

The first song is “Wonderwall” by Oasis.  The person is my friend Patrick, a friend who saved me from myself and my loneliness during my senior year of college.  Most of my closest friends from school had graduated the year before, leaving me behind to struggle with a doomed, toxic relationship with a nomadic radio DJ and an RA staff that, at best, were unruly and difficult.  Senior year was not looking good. 


Patrick had also graduated but was staying in Duluth for graduate school.  Time and again he pulled me out of my funk, or at least let me vent about it and offered sage advice, mainly, "It's time to trim the fat."  We hit Chi-Chi's Margaritaville most Tuesday and Thursday afternoons for $3.10 margaritas, free chips and salsa, and conversation.  In March of that year, we escaped to Florida for a week to visit a friend and it was one of the best vacations of my life.  I can't find my pictures from that trip at the moment.... stay tuned.

What's the Story, Morning Glory? wasn't released until after I'd graduated and moved away from Duluth, but when I hear the song "Wonderwall," I think of Patrick and a particularly lovely spring day when I skipped out on my Women Writers class and we drove around Chester Bowl before heading down to the lake and margaritas.  I don't remember what we talked about that day.  I just know that Patrick saved me from myself and my inflated, self-important troubles, and I tried to do the same for him, and isn't that exactly what you need when you're 21 years old and you think you know everything?





The second song is one that reminds me of Cape Cod and another fantastic vacation, one that I took with my dear friend Katie (also an RA from UMD).  We'd been out of school for a few years.  I was working for Best Buy and Katie had just moved from Phoenix to Portland.  We planned a "Grand Tour of New England"  and we had the time of our lives in our rented Nissan Altima that we called Jackie O.  Some of the highlights:
  • A tour of the grand mansions of Newport Rhode Island, where we stayed at a hotel that was formerly a jailhouse.
  • Trespassing at Turkey Hill Farmhouse, Martha Stewart's home in Westport, Connecticut.  And when I say trespassing, I mean that Danger Girl and I stepped across the street onto her property about two feet in order to get a better picture.
  • A luncheon with Patricia Reilly Giff and another children's author, whose first name was also Pat but for the life of me, I cannot remember her last name!  It was just the four of us.  I am not joking!  It was a highlight in my life as a writer -- having lunch with the author of Gift of the Pirate Queen.  
  • Ending our trip on Cape Cod, staying in Truro, eating lobster at Paparazzi, relaxing in hot pink Adirondack chairs.  Perfect.



The song? "Malibu" by Hole.   Wrong coast, I know.  It's the song we heard on the radio as we were leaving Truro, headed back to Boston to fly home, the end of a perfect vacation.  I think of Katie and our Gardens of New England tour every time I hear it.  That and "Superstar" by the Carpenters, but that's a story for another day.



Comments