ONE BRIEF DEFINING MOMENT
I had meetings in
I’ve heard a great deal about Sirius, but this is the first time I’ve ever had the opportunity to experience it. I spent the first hour on the road scrolling through the 184 available channels. About an hour into the drive I settled in on a channel that played nothing but Top 40 hits from the 70’s. For the next six hours, I was back in High School. That’s right; for six hours I was no longer a pudgy, middle aged traveling salesman. Instead I was a 120 lb kid with shoulder length oily hair and a bad complexion who was wearing plaid bell bottoms, a print polyester shirt, and a pair of white platform shoes with a belt to match.
I heard songs I hadn’t heard in years. Songs like “Fire and Rain”, “One Toke over the Line”, “I’ve Never been to
It’s amazing how specific songs can take you back to very specific times and places. One song I heard (Clapton’s “I Shot the Sheriff”) took me back to a moment that ended up being one of the defining moments of my life. (Note: the song has nothing to do with the moment other than the fact that it was very popular at the time.)
I’ve heard it ask of adults; “knowing what you know now, would you go back and relive high school?” My answer to that is the same as it is for most adults; not only no, but HELL no! This one particular moment, however, I would live again; not because I would change it, but because I’d simply love the opportunity to experience it again and bask in the impact it had on my life.
The story I’m about to tell sounds like a scene from a cheesy John Hughes movie, but I swear it happened.
The year was 1974, and I was a nerd. Not just an ordinary nerd; I was a choir/drama club nerd which, in my high school, was about six levels below a regular nerd. I not only was not climbing the proverbial social ladder, I was down in the basement looking up at it.
The choir and drama club was doing the musical “
At the time I really thought I only had a couple of close friends. I had lot’s of acquaintances in the choir and drama club but no one I thought would stand up for me in such a situation. I told my close friends what had happened with
The next evening, I was walking toward the rehearsal hall and saw
From that point forward, I can honestly say that I have never felt intimidated by another human being. A big group of fellow nerds gave me an incredible gift that night and that moment helped define who I have become in the years since then.
It was fun to let the music take me back to that moment today. I’m curious. What moments from your youth would be your defining moments? I’d love to hear about them.
Postscript: I ran into