Music of my life.....

MP-3….iPod….music channels…CD’s...it seems to me that music is just music when you get it in one of these efficient, but unromantic, ways.   But music was an experience when you dropped nickels into a juke box. 

Of all the ‘machines’ of my youth the one I miss the most is the juke box.  Anywhere you went…there it was!  See it?  Sitting there in the corner of the dimly lit room?  Some had bubble lights, others had sequential colors flashing; but each one was a well-lighted, arched box of entertainment.   I can remember pumping nickels into the hulking, friendly robot; watching as others did the same.   I’d try to count the “clinks” of their change to see how many records I’d have to listen to before my favorite song played.  It was a real bonus if someone else played the same song!  Ah…….the music!

There was only one thing that might equal hearing your favorite song played on the juke box; hearing your favorite song played on the radio!  I remember calling WCLW and WMAN to request a song dedication.  “And now, this song goes out to Diana….Purple People Eater!”  A fleeting moment of fame; my name on the radio.  It just didn’t get any better than that in 1960.   

A storefront downtown sold the used 45’s for twenty cents each when they changed the inventory in the area juke boxes.  I was in ‘five for a dollar heaven’ when I got a chance to go in there and buy records.  I still have many of those old 45’s stored in our basement; they have my maiden name scrawled in a childish hand across the label.  In those long ago days everyone took their favorite 45’s to parties to dance to and that made sure you got them back.

Listening to the oldies I make no judgment on today’s music.   The popular music of our generation silly, repetitious nonsense...and I loved it.  It still makes me happy today; whisking me back to a simpler time in our country’s life, not just my own.  I am grateful to have been a child in a world that was still enjoying the sleep of the innocent.

Today’s music may be easier to come by, more portable and goodness knows there are more varieties from which to choose.  That’s progress. But something seems to have been lost in the change.   I still see the crowd around the juke box, waiting for that special song to drop onto the turntable…their faces lit by the red and green and blue and yellow lights winking around the cathedral shaped box.   It wasn’t just listening to the music, but the anticipation that made it not a background, but a foreground experience.

I hope I always remember the music.    Life is Good.