It was the early 1980’s, I was living with my whole family in little tiny Melrose, MT. My dad had a big component stereo system and was really into the rock of the time…Steve Miller Band, Styx, Duran Duran, and Don Henley. He had these big white headphones…you know the ones I’m talking about? They looked like something helicopter pilots would wear and the plug-in jack was enormous (compared to today’s anyway). I would put this tape in the player (yes this was pre-CD when we had cassette tapes!), pop on the headphones, and listen to this whole album over and over! I loved it! I would lay on my back and kick when they said kick! Oh my gosh I was hooked! Still love it! 🙂
My sisters and I lived by the jukebox! We spent a lot of time in bars….because my mom worked in them and my dad used them…so the jukebox was like our toy! This song was one of our favorites to play at the Melrose Bar. We would dance and sing and go crazy! Hey, I’m still dancing! I dare you to not!
There used to be a little cafe in Melrose, it was called the Quack Quack, then just the D-Club Cafe. My mom would take us there a lot. Not to eat really, but just to visit whoever was working….and for the milkshakes! Sometimes Whitey would make us some fries! Yum! But the cafe had a jukebox too, and a little spot right in front of the fireplace that was the perfect size for a band (and perhaps there was a band in there once? I seem to remember…) This was the song we loved to play! We would stand up and pretend to be a band, and we all played the fiddle! Ha ha! We were crazy! I promise, we were not on drugs! Or were we…. 😉
The other bar in Melrose was the Grizzly Bar, and by far our favorite! We loved going there! The owner would pretend not to see us eating the penny candy. It was great! It had a cafe and a little grocery store too, and my mom worked there for a while. We were always there, and I have such warm fond memories of that place! I have pictures of my older sister and I petting our dog Candy in front of the big fireplace, we went there to visit “Santa”, we went on cold winter mornings to have hot chocolate while dad visited with the owner and read the paper, and on one super lucky cold day, we got to go there for our school lunch and had grilled cheese sandwiches! I loved that place and still fantasize about going back and bringing it back to it’s glory days! *sigh* This is one of the songs we loved from that jukebox! There were so many, but I specifically remember a night of us playing pool (no cues! Hands only!) and we were dancing fools to this song, and really the whole Cocktail Soundtrack! It was awesome!
My older sister Jen used to love this song! She would sing it and do a dance routine without any music! I remember one night sitting by the entry to our house and watching her strut up and down the hallway, dancing and singing to this song! Jen as a little girl…y’all are missing out!!
This song always takes me back to summer in Melrose with my sisters. We were outside singing and dancing to this song! We loved it!
This was my first tape ever! The first music that was just mine! The whole school used to take a bus to the college in Dillon for swimming lessons, a music class, a P.E. class with these giant balls, a parachute thing, and these awesome little rolling creepers that we would run and roll on our knees! It was so fun! I don’t remember why we went, or what it was for…or even if it was all just in one year, but I sure know it left a huge impact on me and my memory! We got to eat lunch in a big college cafeteria…it was a great day for us! We used to just play games on the bus. Sing songs and do those Miss Sally clapping games. There was one time I remember taking my little red walkman and listening to this tape the whole way there. I loved Cher, even if my friends thought she was a 4-letter “S” word. Humph! (PS, my next couple tapes were Skid Row, Warrant, and Bon Jovi!)
I find it rather odd that all of these old songs have music videos! I don’t think I knew MTV even existed for a couple more years! Which brings me to…
My Grandma C. lived in Deer Lodge, and 2 of my uncles were young and still lived at home. So when we would go there to visit, my mom would hang with grandma, and we would go hang out with uncle Billy, and this is where we were introduced to cable TV! We were never really exposed to it before. We didn’t have it and neither did any of my close family or friends. We never really sat around and watched TV anyway. Billy introduced us to Chips, WWF Wrestling, and MTV! And this is the first video I remember watching! I was transfixed! Oh those eyes…. (In hindsight, I do have a memory of seeing a music video on TV at a girls house in Melrose, but I was just passing by the TV and I had no idea what it was at the time. The song was Heart and Soul. She and Jen were watching it, and I was heading for the trampoline…or the door…or just running from her cousin in general! lol!)
I’m going to fast-forward many years here. We moved to Drummond (sans my dad), and my mom got into country music. It was the rise of Garth Brooks. Us girls still liked the hair bands, but didn’t listen to them often. We discovered cable tv and My 3 Dads, Full House, Family Matters, and all of TGIF!
I was in Butte MT, in high school, driving my little red truck. It was a sunny spring day with the temps in the 30’s, so naturally we had the windows down and the heater on! Driving down Rowe Rd with my sister Jen (and sometimes Kelly) jamming out to this, and many other, songs! There were a lot of songs, but there was always this song! We would sing at the tops of our voices and dance and just drive without a destination! It was a great day!
This song brings me back to the last few months before I left for Basic Training. I would hang out at my friend Jessica’s house until late, then drive my little red truck up the hill to Elk Park. It was winter and my mom was always complaining about the roads, but I would just crank this song and try not to be scared, and I made it home every time! One night in particular, the snow was blowing so bad that I couldn’t see the road! I just stayed between the drifts and hoped for the best! Music always helped me calm down when I was scared. It gave me another outlet to think about other than what was scaring me.
I was on a bus leaving Basic Training and headed to Sheppard AFB in northern Texas to spend the next 5 months in training. There was no music in basic. I don’t know if I purchased this CD just before leaving home, or just before leaving basic, but I seem to remember this was my first time hearing this song. I was scared again. Scared of what was to come. Scared of the unknown. When we got off the plane at basic, it was instantly getting yelled at and it was high stress, and I was scared this was going to be the same thing. (It wasn’t, thankfully! It was much “nicer”.)
In 2002, I drove my “Cranberry” Neon to the Avondale, AZ Best Buy on McDowell Rd in the late afternoon sun, and purchased this CD. I opened it and popped it into my car CD player, and did a quick listen to parts of every song while perusing the CD booklet. I bought the CD for this song, and listened to it at least once all the way through…all before even leaving the parking lot. Why do I remember that? I remember sitting there watching the sun sink and thinking….thinking. I have no idea what about. Maybe it brought me to an introspective place. Maybe I was contemplating the direction my life was heading. And maybe I was just enjoying watching the sky and listening to a song I loved. That’s the thing I love about music….though the world and everything in it will change, the music never will. I was in my early 20’s, was an AGE mechanic at Luke, I had never met Jeremy, I missed home, and I would have given anything to have been able to just drive off and get lost in the music and the scenery. (PS, this is the song that started this blog. It was in my head today and got me thinking about this time.)
It was 2003, I was still an AGE Mechanic in the AF, I was still in AZ, I was living with “she who shall not be named,” J and I had been dating just a few weeks, and he left on our first deployment as a couple. It was a weekend, J was stuck in NJ waiting for a flight to never never land. I left the party that was going on in our house, to sit in my car in the garage and talk to him on the phone. I needed the quiet and the phone charger. I was upset because a “friend” was talking about what J might be doing while holed up in a hotel in NJ with a bunch of other people who were flying out with him. I talked to him all night, and tried to get him to understand how wonderful this song was. There may have been some alcohol involved. Ha ha!
This song holds so many memories throughout my life! It was one of the ones my sisters and I would sing to while we drove around, it’s my favorite shower song, and it’s easily been the song that has been there from the beginning. However, my favorite memory linked to this song was at my wedding. I danced to it with my dad as he sang it to me. It’s such a special memory! ❤
There are so many more songs that I could add here, but it would take forever! Some I have specific memories linked to, and some just remind me of a time. If you want more, check out my Spotify playlist here! Hope you enjoyed these blasts from the past!
Oh, and side note….all of these songs and videos were released before YouTube existed! So odd…seems like YouTube has been around forever! ha ha!
Tuck & Sundry 
Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
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I LOVE trips down memory lane! And those songs sure do bring back some great memories with you and Jen! I long for days like those sometimes. 🙂 Those Melrose days sure were some awesome times. As soon as you mentioned the cafe in Melrose, I remembered the dinner mints that I would eat by the handful! Oh, and those milkshakes were the best I've ever had!
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Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
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I LOVE trips down memory lane! And those songs sure do bring back some great memories with you and Jen! I long for days like those sometimes. 🙂 Those Melrose days sure were some awesome times. As soon as you mentioned the cafe in Melrose, I remembered the dinner mints that I would eat by the handful! Oh, and those milkshakes were the best I've ever had!
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