i hadn’t heard this song in like 20 years until today at the gym and it made me think back to my picture perfect childhood in the d.c. suburbs. i lived in reston, virginia for the first 10 years of my life, it is know for the reston town centre—one of the original planned communities—which at that time didnt know or care about, but i loved having the huge multiplex cinema so close to my home. anyway, that song made me think back to one summer when i was 7 or 8 my best friend and i listening to this radio station 107.1 WAVA out on my back porch as we danced around in our matching polka dot bikinis, willing the radio gods to play something off madonna’s immaculate collection or anything from michael jackson. our prayers were often answered as both of them were on fire in those days. i clearly remember my brother rolling his eyes at us when we got excited about it, sneakily trying to change the channel to something that would play janes addiction instead, and my mom smiling at our cuteness and snapping along to the beat from the other side of the porch as she baked in her bain de soleil tanning oil and hot pink bandeau suit. one day that summer, we were at the reston community pool, and i swear everyone in the town was there that day it was so packed and scorching hot outside. and all of a sudden this helicopter started hovering over the pool and it was blasting music, and it landed on the baseball field next to the pool—it was 107.1 WAVA!!!! we ran over to it and they gave us all this free stuff—kitchy things like lanyards and toys and free promo cassette tapes with their logo all over it, but we didnt care, we went apeshit for it! they stayed there for the rest of the day broadcasting live while we returned to the pool to play marco polo to our favorite pop songs. looking back, it is, without a doubt, one of the most carefree days of my life and one of my favorite days of my childhood.
i always wonder how my life would have turned out if my dad hadn’t left us and set off the chain of events that made the rest of our lives so difficult.