Songs That Take You Back

I come up with blog topics at odd times. I am in the middle of a cleaning spree. When I'm on cleaning sprees, I usually blast Frank Sinatra music (as long as Ralph isn't home; he isn't as much of a fan). And while I was mopping the floor, I was thinking of songs that take you back to a specific moment or they make you think of someone or something.

I have a few songs like that. Flo Rida's 'Low' makes me remember my bachelorette party. The song had just been released, but Stacia had it on a CD and we carried it around to all the clubs at Hard Rock in Hollywood, asking them to play it, yelling 'applebottom jeans, boots with the fur!'

50 Cent's 'In Da Club' makes me remember the trip to Cancun with Katie senior year of college. Debauchery. Complete, amazing, memories for a lifetime, so much fun, debauchery.

Sublime's 'Caress Me Down' brings me back to high school when Jennie and I would drive around Lake Worth Beach in her black Toyota Celica convertible while we scoped out guys.

Many wonder why Jessica and I call each other 'Walrus.' A guy I dated briefly in college once left me a message at approximately 2:30 am singing the Beatles' 'I Am the Walrus.' Jess was there. It stuck.

I can't listen to The Cranberries' 'Zombie' without laughing hysterically. Lisa and I did a horrible rendition of that song one night while playing 'Sing Star.' We laughed so hard we couldn't breathe.

Michael Jackson's 'Bille Jean' now makes me think of Vintage Bentley and her outrageous reenaction of the entire MJ era on a dance floor at Stacia's bachelorette party.

And, of course, there's Journey's 'Don't Stop Believin'....the Lodge....singing at the top of my lungs with Kindra, Courtney, Ralph and the rest of our Lodge crew.

But, going back to Sinatra, whenever I hear 'My Way' I think of my Uncle Raymond. My other name for him was Uncle Bean, or Uncle Beanie. When he was born, he looked like a bean and so his entire life, everyone called him Beanie, the Beanman, etc. That's what my family does. We come up with odd names. He used to call me Britteronski. Ronsk, for short.

My Uncle Raymond passed away in August 1999, two days before my 19th birthday. It was completely out of the blue and unexpected. Even though it's been over 13 years, I still think about him all the time and I miss him very much.

My uncle was my mother's younger brother. He was one of the funnest, most charismatic people I have ever known. Everyone always wanted to be around him. He had a way of drawing people in. He was so confident. I wanted to be just like that.

He used to take me to baseball games when I was a kid and sometimes let me have some of his beer. He's the reason I love dive bars as he used to take me to his favorite one in Lantana. I'd sit with him at the bar and drink Shirley Temples and listen to him make friends with everyone. I just recently let this slip to my mom that he used to take me to The Duke; she wasn't too happy about that. When I was a kid, he told me the pulp in orange juice was flies' wings. To this day, I can't drink orange juice with pulp. We used to talk about how we both loved Guns 'N Roses and we'd debate Axl Rose's voice and if he sounded different when he talked from when he was singing. He's the main reason I'm such a big Yankees fan and why I know so much about them. Mickey Mantle was his favorite player - and mine.

My uncle had this great voice and he was a pretty good singer. Every once in a while, he would sing karaoke at the above-mentioned dive bar, and when he did, it was Sinatra's 'My Way.'

Not only was that his favorite song to sing, but it exemplified him.
I've lived a life that's full
I traveled each and every highway
And more, much more than this, I did it my way

That was him.

Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew
But through it all, when there was doubt
I ate it up and spit it out
I faced it all and I stood tall and did it my way

And that's what I want to be able to say about my own life. That I stood tall and I did it my way. And if I'm ever lucky enough to have a son, his middle name will be Raymond after my uncle and my grandfather.

Does anyone else have songs that take you back?