quidditchgrrl

For all my raging against country music (damn you, Chuck Klosterman, for making me feel like a pretentious asshat), I'd forgotten how much I like the country classics.

I've been burning old Alabama and Conway Twitty, and a little bit of Loretta Lynn to my PC, and thinking about growing up.

My parents were country music and bluegrass buffs. We listened to K95 all the time, back when it was all Conway Twitty and Dolly Parton, and it was really odd to think of Eddie Rabbit as a country singer. I wish I'd have kept their case full of country LPs. Listening to this music makes me feel connected to my mom and dad in a way I rarely ever do. Most of our interactions seemed to take place in the car - my parents worked on the west side of Columbus, about 25 miles one-way from home - and the radio was always playing. We watched Austin City Limits and when we got cable, TNN. At the state fair, we'd have to endure the bluegrass concerts and cattle roping. One summer, we went to Opryland, Twitty City, Dollywood, and Pigeon Forge (still the worst vacation I ever had). I always scoffed at their music, never liked much of it at all.

Now, I'm putting every Alabama song on their "Love Songs" compilation into my PC, because...they just remind me of home. Of listening to my parents talk to each other, of them listening to us, of singing along to "Coal Miner's Daughter" (my mom's theme song) or "Mississippi Squirrel Revival". I even like most bluegrass.

Now, NASCAR, that is one interest I will NEVER share with my parents. Getting hit with divots of mud is so not my thing. Neither are the suburbanites who flock to the stadiums now to watch Jeff Gordon or Dale Jr. Ach.

My brothers are 13 and 15 years older than I, so I had a lot of 70s influence when I was growing up as well. More KISS (I thought they were clowns!), Clapton and Frampton, but my brother did own both an Olivia Newton-John record and the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever. I don't feel that sense of connection with them through music, though.

You'd think there'd be a point to the above, but you'd be wrong. :P

Also, spent Monday listening to Patrick Jones, who is a very well-known (in library circles, anyway) young adult librarian. Kind of boring for me, since adolescent psychology is a hobby of mine (and a job-within-a job and how I spend most of my free time), but he was a great speaker. He didn't make up for the fact that I had to work 8 straight days and 10 hours on Monday because of him, though. Boo.

Linking around the fandom, roundabout from