Ten Years Gone By

I was blessed for a few minutes during a car ride today when Led Zeppelin's "Ten Years Gone By" came across the radio.  Every once in a while we are thrown a moment of zen and it's important to seize it when it arrives.  Iggy Pop's "Passenger" stretched the bliss a little longer and then as mysteriously as it had begun, the wonder of it all disappeared into cracks and pops of bad reception. 

 It was over.

There were many times during my childhood when I rode shotgun with my father and tunes played by unseen DJs turned the pages of Dad's biography.

Elvis' "Love MeTender" would hit the air and my father was back in 1956 at the Capitol Theater.

Any song by the Beatles would begin a retelling of the time his sister cried when she was not allowed to watch their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.

He could remember dates and locations for the first times he heard "Oh Donna," "Peggy Sue," and "Runaway."

I was always amazed by his sharp recollection when I was growing up, but I didn't think much about it and wrote it off as having a Dad with a photographic memory.

Now,

 I'm the Dad.

 In the backseat of my car sits my nine-year-old son...

and the songs now tell my story.

"50 Ways to Leave your Lover"

"I'm a Fool to Do your Dirty Work"

"Dancing with Myself"

From "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" to "Holiday in Cambodia",

my past life has a soundtrack that I willingly share to a captive audience of one.