Stuck In The ’70s

(Click on the hyperlinks to hear the songs!)

Every morning, I have this quirky routine. After I drop off my daughters at school, I walk (very eagerly) to the TV and turn on the 70s music channel. It’s the music I grew up with. And now it’s the music I exercise to. And dance like a dork to (so say my kids) as I clean up the breakfast dishes. It also creates a happy backdrop to reading my morning e-mails.
I’m hearing songs that I have long forgotten, but ones that instantly jog my memory and take me back to an easier time. The time before the Three BIG M’s: Marriage, mothering and menopause.
Who doesn’t love Three Dog Night’s “Joy To The World”? Or The Bee Gee’s “Fanny, Be Tender With My Love”? Or “We’ve Only Just Begun” by The Carpenters? Now that I think about it, songs back in the 70s were innocent and more soulful. They were more about love, or the promise of love. Today, songs are about girls kissing girls, rappers slapping big booties and trampy women taking rides on disco sticks. (Good GAWD!)
My older sister, Lori, and I LOOOVED "I Think I Love You" by The Partridge Family. So much so, that we laid in our rooms all day in the summer listening to the radio, just WAITING for that song to be played. One day, Lori couldn't hold out any longer. I mean, she really had to use the restroom, so she got up to go, and wouldn't you know it . . . the song came on the minute she left. I jumped off the bed and yelled down the hall: "Lori!! I Think I Love You!!" My mom came around the corner just then and said, "Lynn, that's the nicest thing I've ever heard you say to your sister." Too funny.
But I must confess, the real reason I love listening to 70s music is that it makes me feel younger. For about two hours every morning, I’m 13, 14, even 15 again. I’m a 5’8”, 100-lb. teenager in braces – Olive Oil, my friends called me (boy, was I SKINNY!) – with her whole life ahead of her. I haven’t yet fallen for the wrong guy. Or stayed too long in the wrong job in the wrong town. And I haven’t yet been betrayed by a best friend. Or by Mother Nature, who came far too early to claim my youth.
Life hasn’t turned on me. Yet. And that makes me happy.
I’d much rather listen to everyone else’s woes. Like the hippie who can’t get any respect in “Signs, Signs, Everywhere A Sign.” Or The Rolling Stones crying over "Angie."
But maybe I’m overdoing it a little, reminiscing too much about the 70s. Last night, I dreamed that Marie Osmond and I met somewhere and became instant buddies. In fact, she liked me so much, she was going to introduce me to her brother, Donny. Then my alarm went off and yanked me back to 2009. DAMN! Right when the dream was getting really GOOD!
So I fed my brain some more 70s music today, stirred up some more happy memories, hoping that when I turn in for the night tonight, I will somehow be transported back to last night’s dream. Pick up where Donny and I left off. Young, happy and in “Puppy Love,” stuck forever somewhere in the 70s.

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