I’m learning to walk again. It’s been a long time since I have wandered down streets unrestrained by time, but visiting my mom in South Carolina has given me time and space to discover ‘a stroll’ and what it can bring to the surface.
I have always known and shown how much Aretha, Bill Withers, The Whispers, Earth Wind & Fire, and 70s/80s R&B could lift my spirits and send me soaring. But these walks these days have re-awakened my passion for 1970s one-name rock bands like Supertramp, Traffic, Boston, America, Ambrosia, Journey, as well as Little River Band, ELO, The Doobie Brothers, and early Hall & Oats. I just stumbled across this “Unwind 70s playlist on Spotify and have been floating along a 70s feast of memories, grooves, croons, and swoons.
In addition to bringing up my heart rate, my 70s ‘progressive rock’ strolls take me back to my first cross-country drive from the Carolinas to Monterrey, California in the mid-70s and my musical awakening with AM radio and three of us kids in the back of the family Pontiac GTO. Only now can I appreciate our parents’ patience as the three of sang every song on the radio, every day, from sun up until we checked into a motel at sundown — Super-bands, Southern Rock, and Progressive Rock ruled the mid-70s AM airwaves.
This South Carolina stop was a bit of a pause in my adventures eastward. I am not the first one to confront an aging parent and the unforeseen situations and circumstances a family is thrust into. While mom’s body is not holding up well, her mind is as sharp as I can handle.
Imagine for a moment two Teachers speaking to one another as if each other is a student . . . each of us considers the other defiant. I tend to win each battle (Eat these veggies! Drink this nutritious drink!), but Mom gets to win the war; particularly when after she acquiesces to my demands, she mentions how I am not too old to be spanked, or how she can still decide to “send me back”. Clearly Mom has always been pro-choice . . .
At least every day here has been filled with chuckles and nutritious food.
Wheels up tomorrow. Heading South a bit to Mexico. Stay tuned.
TPR
