Back in the 1980s, my family made trips to Florida almost annually, sometimes twice a year. I loved road trips. I loved watching out the windows to see familiar "landmarks" that we passed along I-75. I also heard popular songs of the time during those years, and those songs became ingrained in my mind as "songs the remind me of Florida." In the very early 90s, I wrote down lists of landmarks and songs, and I would take these with me on our drives down I-75 to Florida. That way, I could see what was coming up next and check off the things we'd passed. I even timed the distance between landmarks once and then used this as a reference on future trips, and at one point I made a list of all the exits and then wrote down all the gas stations, restaurants, and hotels as we drove past. This only came in handy in the future when we were deciding where to stop to eat lunch!
As for the songs, I began recording them off the radio in the very late 80s/early 90s. In these days before the Internet, I could not just look the songs up on Youtube or Google them to find out who sang them or even what their titles were... so, I had a blank tape ready in my tape player, and every time a song would come on that was one of my "Florida songs," I'd hit the record button. As the years passed and my Florida songs weren't guaranteed to happen to play on the radio as we drove to Florida, I could put a tape in my Walkman (remember those??) and reminisce that way.
These songs are special to me. They represent my childhood, and a time in which life was much simpler. They remind me of the love I had for travel and for Florida. They make me think of the landmarks along the way, the beach, my grandparents and cousins... sweet memories.
A few of them have particularly special meanings. For instance, I had a memory of being in the back of the Ford station wagon on the way to Florida. My mom was already there, and my dad and brother Stephen were in the car with me. I was five years old. I had been laying down in the back (the horrors! no seatbelts!) on some blankets, or maybe a little porta-crib mattress... anyway, I remember sitting up and asking my dad, "So, why are we going to Florida?" It was weird to me, because my mom had gone on her own to Florida, and so I didn't think we'd be going too.. we always went as a family. My dad told me that we were going because my grandmother (my mom's mom) had died. I remember laying back down in the back with sadness, and then hearing two songs on the radio: If This is It by Huey Lewis and the News, and I Just Called to Say I Love You by Stevie Wonder. Well, years passed, and I always thought of my grandmother whenever I heard either of those songs. My memory was dim, and I wasn't so sure I had really heard those two songs at that specific time.. maybe I'd just associated them with it somehow. But, with the dawn of the Internet, I was able to look up those songs, and lo and behold, they were both popular around October 1984, meaning that I can safely assume that my memory is accurate! The Stevie Wonder song was number one on the charts during the week of October 13, and the Huey Lewis album was number 4 on the charts that week, hitting number 1 toward the end of the month.
Another one is I Can Dream about You by Dan Hartman. This song makes me think of my brother, Stephen. We were at some kind of social event at the neighborhood swimming pool, and we won a game... and the prizes were record singles. Yes, records. 45s. And so I chose Dan Hartman's I Can Dream about You... why? Because it had a rainbow on the label. I picked it because it was pretty. And then Stephen and I listened to it often and enjoyed it thoroughly. Interestingly, this song was also popular in 1984. I am not sure if we got the record the summer of '84 or the following summer, though.
Then we have Cherish by Kool and the Gang (released 1984... hmm, a trend here, although these songs were also played for several years after their release, of course). This song reminds me of my Grandma and of the beach, specifically
Angler's Cove condo on Redington Beach. On this one, I can't tell you the reasoning, other than the fact that the song has a seagull sound effect in it. Perhaps that is the only reason, now that I think of it. I looooved Angler's Cove. And now it has a website!! I wonder if I would have developed this level of sentimentality about it all if there had been this instantly accessible info on all these things back then...
Careless Whisper by Wham! ~ 1984
True by Spandau Ballet ~ 1983
Every Time You Go Away by Paul Young ~ 1985
I Wanna Know What Love Is by Foreigner ~ 1984
December '63 by The Four Seasons ~ 1976
Shattered Dreams by Johnny Hates Jazz ~ 1987
These Dreams by Heart ~ 1985
The Longest Time by Billy Joel ~ 1983
Turn Your Love Around by George Benson ~ 1981
If This is It by Huey Lewis and the News ~ 1984
Broken Wings by Mr. Mister ~ 1985
Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper ~ 1984
Cherish by Kool and the Gang ~ 1984
Break My Stride by Matthew Wilder ~ 1983
Every Breath You Take by The Police ~ 1983
You Belong to the City ~ 1985
Smooth Operator by Sade ~ 1985
What a Fool Believes by The Doobie Brothers ~ 1978
That's All by Genesis ~ 1983
Everybody Wants to Rule the World ~ 1985
Endless Summer Nights by Richard Marx ~ 1987
Throwin' It All Away by Genesis ~ 1986
Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley ~ 1987
What a Feeling by Irene Cara ~1983
Sara by Starship ~ 1985
Something About You by Level 42 ~ 1985
Waiting for a Girl Like You by Foreigner ~ 1981
That's What Friends are For by Stevie Wonder and Dionne Warwick ~ 1985
The Greatest Love of All by Whitney Houston ~ 1985
The Lady in Red by Chris DeBurg ~ 1986
Drive by The Cars ~ 1984
Missing You by John Waite ~ 1984
Silent Running by Mike and the Mechanics ~ 1985
I Just Called to Say I Love You by Stevie Wonder ~ 1984
The Next Time by Peter Cetera and Amy Grant ~ 1986
Higher Love by Steve Winwood ~ 1986
Take Me Home by Phil Collins ~ 1985
I Don't want to Live without You by Foreigner ~ 1987
Stuck with You by Huey Lewis and the News ~ 1986
Kiss on my List by Hall and Oates ~ 1980
Africa by Toto ~ 1982
Sailing by Christopher Cross ~ 1979
Eye in the Sky by Alan Parsons Project ~ 1982
Sweet Freedom by Michael McDonald ~ 1986
Carribean Queen by Billy Ocean ~ 1984
It Might Be You by Stephen Bishop ~ 1982
If Ever I'm in your Arms Again by Peabo Bryson ~ 1984
You Are by Lionel Ritchie ~ 1982
Valerie by Steve Winwood ~ 1987
All I Need by Jack Wagner ~ 1984
Summer Breeze by Seals and Crofts ~ 1972
Together Forever by Rick Astley ~ 1987
The Finer Things by Steve Winwood ~ 1986
Out of Touch by Hall and Oates ~ 1984
I Keep Forgetting by Michael McDonald ~ 1982
Arthur's Theme (The Best That You Can Do) by Christopher Cross ~ 1981
Suddenly by Billy Ocean ~ 1985
Times to Remember by Billy Joel ~ 1986
Oh Sherrie by Steve Perry ~ 1984
I Can Dream about You by Dan Hartman ~ 1984
Because I Love You by Stevie B ~ 1990
Other songs that sort of make the list... I think that over the years, my mind got mixed up as to which of these I really associated with trips to Florida, so these are on my iffy list. They remind me of Florida, but I am not sure if they do so validly. That probably makes no sense to anyone but me.
How Much I Feel by Ambrosia ~ 1978
Biggest Part of Me by Ambrosia ~ 1980
Rosanna by Toto ~ 1982
Live to Tell by Madonna ~ 1986
Right Down the Line by Gerry Rafferty ~ 1978
Nightshift by The Commodores ~ 1985
The Living Years by Mike and the Mechanics ~ 1988
Say You, say Me by Lionel Ritchie ~ 1985
If I Could Fly by Benny Mardones ~ 1980
Babe by Styx ~ 1979
So, if you actually read through all those, thanks!
In looking up all the years, I found out interesting tidbits of information, such as Jack Wagner was a soap opera star more than he was known as a musician, and less pleasant pieces of information such as how Chris De Burg had an affair with his children’s 19 year old nanny when he was 45 (ewwwww!!!!!) and his wife was hospitalized with a broken neck (what a jerk!!). I also discovered how many musicians of the 70s and 80s were just plain ugly! Good thing they could sing well, I guess.
So, those are my Florida songs. I have loved them since childhood, and each time I hear one, memories are evoked. I now have all these songs on CDs… I got them back when Napster was legal. Maybe next I will write about my landmarks on the way to Florida… such as “the airplane on a stick” and “the big peanut in a crown.” I may have to do that once I have access myself and stopped along the way to take photos of all of the landmarks… something my parents never would have let me do on a family trip!
The little card underneath is from my parents and says, "Happy Birthday and happy shooting!" Reading it 14 years later, I was completely baffled and wondered if they'd given me a gun I'd forgotten about as a birthday gift. It finally hit me that it was in reference to my camera I'd gotten that year!
This one was goofy - it is a valentine card from a high school friend. He always teased me that a guy I was dating at the time wore make-up (which he didn't. I may have dated a gay guy before, but that was a different guy! ;). Apparently he teased me about being a girl, too, what with the comment on the envelope... I don't remember.
And here is a note from my elementary/middle school art teacher. She loved the Bulldogs, and I loved the Gators. So we always engaged in some good-natured competition when fall came around and the Gators/Bulldogs football game was approaching! And yes, that says that she bet another student a dollar... ahh, how schools used to be, where you could place bets with a teacher as a seventh grader... now I bet they'd get sued or something. Nothing's any fun anymore! :-P
And another note from Tim sent to me while I was away at summer camp. Yes, he says that our mom killed 508 Barneys. We had a computer game called Purple Dinosaur Massacre - anyone remember that one? We just called it "Kill Barney." My mom was always the video game master of the family... she beat all the levels in the Mario games long before anyone else - and without using the Game Genie!!
And this is totally random, but Tim and Mike would recognize it from the days where I made them play "Horses" with me. Okay, so they played willingly. Anyway, some of the old letters were stored in this box, which had a former life as a drive-through "resteraunt" in the model horse town. I even have the model horse that fits in it so well... he has been on a shelf here in my house. Ahh, the horse town... what a fun game that was, and it never ended. The entire pool table in the basement was the town, covered in buildings and horses. A Taco Bell box was the Taco Bell drive-through. A shoe storage box was the "horse condo." A styrofoam mountain from a model train set was a planetarium called "Journey to the Stars." A Barbie swimming pool was the community pool for the horses. A My Little Pony stable was the schoolhouse. It went on and on and on...