Musical Memories #1

One thing that I have always connected to (as I'm sure is true for many others as well) is music. To be immersed in a good song, it can make me want to sing, dance, daydream.

I often hear a song and recall the first time I heard it. Much like certain smells can take one back in time, songs do the same for me. To a time of innocence and wonder...

"Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana is listed at #9 in Rolling Stone's "The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time." I remember when I first heard Nirvana. I was 13 (Year: 1998). I spent my summers watching cartoons, riding my bike, and going to swim team practice. One of my first crushes was on a boy named Nate. He was on my team, and though he was a scrawny pre-teen, I loved to watch him walk around in his trunks, toweling off after a rigorous morning of laps. I made every effort to befriend him.

Turns out, he lived a few blocks away and was a paper boy. So I immediately offered to help him with his route. We (me, Nate, my younger brother and his younger sister) would go to his house after practice and help him with the route. We'd play video games and explore the surrounding neighborhood. My love of cute boys and riding bikes had finally compounded into happiness, hanging out together in the sunny afternoons of summer.

One day at Nate's house, I was rummaging through his CDs (these were fairly new to me) and he suggested Nirvana's "From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah." I fell in love. Though I was late in the game, I had never heard grunge music before, and something just came over me. I wasn't just trying to impress a boy I had a crush on, this music was actually great! It was loud and thrashing and perfect for a girl whose hormones were about to get the better of her. I immediately got a copy for myself and listened to the album in my room through and through.

Nate and I spent more and more time together. I remember one day he walked me home from the baseball fields behind our neighborhood. I felt ecstatic. My memory is a little fuzzy, but I like to think he even held hands with me. The next day, I had my very first period. I was a woman! And as any girl can tell you, this was a time in my life I would never forget. And although my cute, yet scrawny pre-teened crush moved away the next summer to Pensecola, FL, I will always think of him and our summer afternoons whenever I hear "Heart-Shaped Box."