Paying anything to roll the dice, just one more time....

As I was driving in this morning, the number one requested song of the hour on Sirius Channel 1 was.....
“Don’t stop believing” by Journey.

It’s hard for me to believe that in the year 2007, that song is the number one requested song on a satellite radio station.

That song was the anthem of my 6th grade year --- my favorite year in all of school. I made some of the best friends that year – and probably grew the most on many levels that year as well. I remember my 6th grade class the clearest and best of all the grades, and that song – no matter when I hear it, takes me back to Miss Manning’s classroom. We sat in groups, and that was the first time we were ever allowed to do that as opposed to sitting in traditional classroom rows. Myself, Sherry, Marybeth, Teresa and Lori – always formed a group and we’d all sing “Don’t Stop Believing” in class together when we were working on projects and other things.

Those were the days when you were either a Kiss 108 listener, or a WCOZ listener; you either liked disco, or rock. We used to draw Star Wars battles on our paper bag book covers; or spell out groups like THE WHO and LED ZEP because you could do it in a cross of three letters. You would write “OZZY” or KISS in your best logo imitation – and even though a lot of us didn’t truly discover those bands for another year or so – we learned from those who had older brothers and sisters. We ran relay races after school in the school yard to determine who the “fastest” runner was. We bought Jello Pudding pops after school for a quarter.

Large groups of us would play street hockey in the park at the top of my street on Saturdays and Sundays....the older teenagers always played before us, and then we would play after they left. My street was the core of the neighborhood that all the kids around would “hang out” on, and we’d set up BMX mini ramps to practice on in the center of the street. At night in the summer – that was the year that the huge Hide and Seek games started in my neighborhood.

Hearing that song will forever remind me of when I “fell in love” with Joey M – and how that crush lasted straight through to my senior year. Funny thing is, once he finally decided he felt the same for me.....I didn’t feel that way about him anymore. Ironic, isn’t it?

It was odd to hear that song at the end of the Sopranos....but it is great to hear it on regular airplay and rotation again.

It was truly a defining song in the soundtrack of my life.