August 30, 2005
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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
Comments (16)
i have songs that take me back to places. I just recently heard Take That’s “I Want You Back (For Good)” and remembered when the 15 year old asked me to prom. I said, “You don’t have a car! You can’t drive!” His response, “but girl, I’m a cowboy. I got a horse.” And then he called in the radio station and had them play that for me.
*sigh* It just makes me embarassed thinking about it.
yup life is funny….just one time to stand up defend yur right to be here is all we need to change the attitude for the rest of our lives
I am glad you had that one time while you were young……I still love listening to the 70′s music
my defining moment in high school had nothing to do with a song (although there were many song moments). it came in 12th grade english class. i was always the good, quiet girl in school, but i was building up quite a resentment against my english teacher. the whole year, she pushed me harder than anyone else because she knew i planned to be a writing major. i didn’t mind being pushed, but i didn’t appreciate being graded on a different set of criteria. the last straw came when a girl in my class, who was one of those who pushed herself to exhaustion to get straight A’s, broke every “rule” for our senior term paper and still got a C (despite it being clearly marked that anyone breaking these rules would get an automatic F) because the teacher felt sorry for her. i also got a C on what was an A paper because the teacher wanted to show me how they graded in college. a few weeks later, she once again let super-student get away with her own rules for a project because the girl worked so hard. this was an oral presentation of an interpretation of a poem picked out by the student. the teacher nit-picked with my interpretation. she told me that my interpretation was wrong. i slammed my hand on the desk and said, “who in hell do you think you are to tell me that i’m wrong?” my friends thought i was a dead woman, or destined to spend the last three months of school in detention. teacher said, “go on.” i went on to fight for my interpretation, telling her that only one person truly knew what a poem meant, the person who wrote it. i yelled. i swore. after class, i broke down crying. it was exactly what my teacher wanted — for me to stand up for my work.
I believe I’m without defining moments, which would explain much, but… if your story is optioned for a movie, may I cast a vote right here and now for John Cusack to star ? Thanks !!
So I’m reading your post and can of course sing the songs because the lyrics just popped into my head. I am one of the rare few that would love to go back to high school…which is why I studied to be a secondary teacher….and why I continue to work with teens today. Loved your story!
A defining moment. I have several but will share this one. We had a Follies production every spring at our high school. Every year I auditioned and every year I failed to be an act chosen. Senior year, our theater instructor decided to do something different. She added inbetween skit bits. For those of you who may not know what a “bit” is this was a person who carried a theme throughout the show one piece at a time sort of like Carol Burnett’s janitor bit, a mini sketch. Grace decided I couldn’t sing for the show but I could be the bit the MC (the monkey to the straight man) used to create his punchlines. There was no rehearsal for this. All improv. Jim, the MC, and I decided I would be a singer. That was it. My costume consisted of a black polyester blouse, a pair of pettipants (those are the pretty lacy things worn underneath square dance dresses), a pair of silver sandels, and a long strip of fabric that I wrapped in different ways for the different music genres. Before the show I saw Curt and his friend Stacey (a guy) in the halls. I asked if they would cheer/clap for me after my bits. They agreed to do so. The show began. My first entrance was between skit #2 and the jazz band. I came out with a feather in my hair, the fabric wrapped like a showgirl around my waist and hips knotted into a big dragging bow down my butt and started singing “Turn Back Oh Man” from Godspell. I did a high kick and the silver sandal flew off my foot into the crowd. I was so embarrassed but continued until Jim stopped me with a joke about turning back the clock to stop my screeching. As I left the stage, a voice called out “We want Bea” accompanied by much clapping and foot stomping. By the end of the night, the audience was screaming for me to come back on stage for an encore performance. What the teacher had hoped (and she was an enemy) would be the butt of the jokes turned out to be the star of the show. I have never forgotten those two boys because of it. Friends are great!
Almost forgot. To be featured you have to receive at least forty comments on a post. That’s why the teens are getting it and we old fogies are not. The soldier I’m currently reading was featured for having over 1000 comments on his last post. He’s 22.
Afternoon Delight. Nuff said.
One Toke Over The Line…..what a GREAT song!
My defining moment came in the 5th grade. In school we used to get these weekly reader things which was a lot like a national geographic, but for social studies and geared for kids. Anyway, this one Friday we got an issue with a frozen guy on the cover. It was a story about how someone had found this guy in the moutains somewhere and they traced him back to yadda yadda B.C. using forensic pathology. When I was done reading that article I absolutely knew what I was meant to do with my life. It was just like a switch had been flipped and now I had a PURPOSE. That afternoon when my mom came by to pick me up from school, I was estatic in the car, I couldn’t stop talking about the article. I pulled the book out of my bag and showed it to her at a stop light. She looked at it, then at me, then back at it and said, “You are sick! What’s wrong with you!?” Without even thinking about it, I reached out and hit her in the face with my little 9 year old fist. It was so out of character because I’d always been a really good, quiet kid. It’s the only time I’ve ever hit my mom and I never got in trouble for it (I think she convinced herself it didn’t happen, to be honest). One of the last times I talked to her I brought that day up and her response this time was, “Why would you want to do that? You can’t be on CSI you know!” And then I think she went on to ask when I’m gonna start popping out some grandchildren.
That’s always been my number one defining moment beyond anything else. I’ve never once wavered in my desire to get into working with stiffs. Since then though I have shifted from pathology to psychology. And I’ll still knock down anyone who messes with me about it.
I’m going to hold you responsible for the funny looks I just got at the office today. After reading your post earlier I was in the drafting room changing the paper roll on the plotter when I turned around to see a few folks staring at me. I then realized I was singing under my breath… “One toke over the line sweet Jesus, one toke over the line…sittin on a train in railway station ..one toke over the line” I stood up and looked at everyone and then said… ” I swear…I never inhaled”
Most defining moment…I have to ditto the “Afternoon Delight” It was the summer of ’76 and I just received my drivers license.. just moved to Rockdale, TX, fun, new friends, had a new boyfriend, …it was probably the happiest time in my life. Afternoon Delight!
I wasn’t in Choir, but was in Drama during my Junior and Senior year. I called it my “Easy A”. I never thought of us as nerds…(though others may have thought it)…we thought we were the “Cool Club”. Looking back we were nothing more than pot smoking hippies (misfits). Once a group of us skipped class and met our Drama teacher at his apt. to smoke a joint. Believe it or not I waited in the car that time. Being the daughter of the Police Chief usually kept me from going too far over the edge.
Never Been to Spain….what a great slow dance memory with the love of my life…it seemed like we were the only two on Earth that night….
hello as always your brilliant, just wanted to let you know that im back in zangaland just with a different name i skipped school alot
What I think is funny about those songs from our high school days, is that some of them are being redone by today’s artists, and when they come on the radio and I start to sing along, my kids look at me funny and say, “how do you know that song? ‘ and of course I smile and tell them that I’m a lot “cooler” than they think. Actually, I lose my “coolness” when I say the word cool.
I think there’s something about theatre people that makes them stick together. I was a drama club President and the lead in my high school plays although I was not considered “popular”. I was born in south America, and kids made fun of me a lot … But my drama buddies always stood up for me, and made me feel like a part of something great.
Love your site. Thanks!
Sittin down town in a railway station….The pot reference is what takes ME back to high school……Don’t tell anyone…..
That’s a great story! Defining moments. Hmm,. One of mine came when I was a sophomore in high school. I was terrified of just about everything. When I was in high school, I had a very strange and complicated relationship with 2 guys who are still my friends even though we do not live in the same state and rarely see each other anymore. I was in love with one of them (L) and the other one was in love with me (B).
B had a very strange sense of humor and an odd way of getting attention from girls he liked. On the first day of our sophomore year, he went around telling everyone that I knew that I was pregnant. Even though I went to a very large high school, it did not take long for me to hear this rumor or to identify its source. I was mortified. I was extremely shy and had never been on a date, so the idea of me being pregnant was absurd, but I did not find it a bit funny.
I had the habit of studying in the public library after school with L. I waited for my mom to pick me up on her way home from work. I don’t really know why L was always there. On this particular day, I did not want to see him. The library was large, so there were lots of places to disappear. I was hiding in the stacks holding a large book in front of my face when a shadow loomed over me. I was afraid to look up because I knew what I would see. L was standing there. He looked me in the eye and said, “I heard what B is saying about you. That is not true, is it?”
That moment will live with me forever. L will never know what it meant to me.
Good post…as usual! I’m sure I had a defining moment. I just can’t think of anything.