The story behind the song...
“Sweet Surrender” by Bread brings me back to the days when I hung out with my buddy Ronnie during my medic training at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. (Some of you were introduced to Ronnie in one of my 4,000 Questions posts.)
On days off, Ronnie and I would spend rainy afternoons at the base activity center, where there was a room with record players and albums (yup – we were using actual record players, with arms and delicate needles, and big black vinyl records – I think the big ones were 78s?) available free for the soldiers’ enjoyment.
We’d carefully make our album selection, pull the large 12” square cardboard case with its wild graphics from the shelf, and set the record on the player. Using the lightest touch so as not to scratch and ruin the record, one of us would set the needle in place and the record would spin. And then we’d experience the height of technological sophistication for those days…we would each attach a headset into the jack on the player so we could each listen in our own set, but both at the same time! The headsets were huge, similar to what you might picture a helicopter pilot wearing today, but they were very techie back then. We thought we were pretty cool.
Then, we’d sit back and simply listen to music. Sometimes we’d mouth the words (we didn’t call it lip-synching back then) or laugh and smile at each other. It was a happy time. Ronnie introduced me to Bread, and I liked the band from the moment I heard their first song. After that, Bread was always on our selection list.
Nowadays, I create a list of things I’d like for birthdays or holiday gifts, to make things easier on my daughter. For some reason, I had been thinking about Ronnie, and our happy times listening to that music so many years ago. And I added "The Best of Bread" to my gift list. My daughter surprised me with it this past Christmas.
As soon as I put the CD into the player, I was transported immediately back. Back to that sweet happy time of innocence, adventure, new experiences and hesitant daring; a time when anything was possible and only the best could ever happen to any of us.
.
On days off, Ronnie and I would spend rainy afternoons at the base activity center, where there was a room with record players and albums (yup – we were using actual record players, with arms and delicate needles, and big black vinyl records – I think the big ones were 78s?) available free for the soldiers’ enjoyment.
We’d carefully make our album selection, pull the large 12” square cardboard case with its wild graphics from the shelf, and set the record on the player. Using the lightest touch so as not to scratch and ruin the record, one of us would set the needle in place and the record would spin. And then we’d experience the height of technological sophistication for those days…we would each attach a headset into the jack on the player so we could each listen in our own set, but both at the same time! The headsets were huge, similar to what you might picture a helicopter pilot wearing today, but they were very techie back then. We thought we were pretty cool.
Then, we’d sit back and simply listen to music. Sometimes we’d mouth the words (we didn’t call it lip-synching back then) or laugh and smile at each other. It was a happy time. Ronnie introduced me to Bread, and I liked the band from the moment I heard their first song. After that, Bread was always on our selection list.
Nowadays, I create a list of things I’d like for birthdays or holiday gifts, to make things easier on my daughter. For some reason, I had been thinking about Ronnie, and our happy times listening to that music so many years ago. And I added "The Best of Bread" to my gift list. My daughter surprised me with it this past Christmas.
As soon as I put the CD into the player, I was transported immediately back. Back to that sweet happy time of innocence, adventure, new experiences and hesitant daring; a time when anything was possible and only the best could ever happen to any of us.
.
6 comments:
Don't you love how music can do that? You can hear a song in some random place, like the supermarket, and suddenly you're transported back, and everyone around you wonders why you have a silly grin on your face. :)
Kelly-
Glad I'm not the only one this happens to!
I love love love this story!
Zenith-
Glad you stopped by for a visit, and nice post on your blog too!!
Now you can do it with karoke
Mo-
I'm so excited to have a "Blog of Note" blogger stop by to comment!
Yes, karaoke was probably only a dim glimmer in someone's mind when we were sitting there mouthing the songs with our huge headphones on.
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