Almost 30 years ago, on my eighth birthday, I got a Sony walkman with my very first cassette tape. The walkman had room for one cassette and a small dial to switch from tape to FM radio.
While I loved my tape, listening to the radio soon became my favorite pastime. I listened to that walkman so much, that my batteries constantly died and I would beg my mom for new ones.
“I don’t get my check until Friday. Just take them from the remote,” she’d say, giving a huge sigh.
At first I felt bad about it, knowing that the check was most likely meant for cleaning supplies to keep our floors immaculately clean, toothpaste, Oregano for the rice, or other important things.
But my urgent need to keep the top 40 songs flowing through my headset with the fluffy earpads on its ends grew stronger and I didn’t care. I would search high and low for batteries, and suffered those few days when I couldn’t find any or had to wait to get new ones.
To this day, 1992 is one of my favorite years in pop music, and I listened to it all – U2, Prince and the Power Generation, Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, Color Me Badd, Bryan Adams, Jody Watley, Mint Condition, Shai, Mary J. Blige, PM Dawn, Toad the Wet Sprocket, and even Queen, who re-released their hit Bohemian Rhapsody for the Wayne’s World movie soundtrack.
But let’s fast forward to 2022 – I’ve found myself rewinding the tape to that epic year in music to keep me occupied while recovering from some health issues I’ve had these last two months.
Thinking of those days when I danced the running man in the driveway of that apartment we lived in when I was eight got me to set adrift on memory bliss (yep, PM Dawn was one of my favs), which has helped a lot.
I know, I know; living in the past is not the healthiest thing to do, since it can keep you stuck there, making it impossible to move forward and live in the present. But this is one of those times when I think a stroll down memory lane is useful. Thinking of that light and happy time of my childhood brought a smile to my face, and it made the difficulties of the present moment easier to face and deal with.
It makes me hopeful that more good times like that are ahead, giving me some peace where I am right now. This weekend, I blasted some tunes from a Billboard 1992 playlist on Spotify while driving, and I felt a jolt of energy from the eight-year-old that’s still inside me somewhere, ready to break it down when the beat starts.
Man, that 90s music was dope.
The Fearless Wordsmith 