An iconic song by one of my favorite bands and the lyrics for all families.
Sly & The Family Stone memories of the band and the song fill my head along with memories of Mom:
Working as the Food and Beverage Manager at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles was one of the gigs my Mom had after she split from my Dad in the later 1960’s. After raising 3 sons with him, she finally decided to move on when the eldest shipped out to Vietnam after our Dad turned him in by tipping off recruiters that he had dropped a course in college and was below the 12-units keeping him from the Draft. She grabbed her young daughter and 2 other teenage sons and moved into a 3-bedroom apartment in Van Nuys. Mom worked a lot of late nights as various powerhouse rockers and blues bands rolled through the concert venue. My brother Bill got cool blacklight posters from the gigs and lit up his bedroom along with his homemade hookah pipe fashioned from a Gallo wine jug. (He was crafty that way.) I was about 6 or 7. It was from that early age that I totally dug music and would learn the lyrics to every song and the iconic riffs starting to play air guitar and keyboards before I even knew what they were. I got to play my brothers’ albums on my Mom’s console stereo system. Music was my babysitter while the youngest of the boys (around 13 or 14) was supposed to watch after me but was deep in thought playing military commander games in his room with his buddy David and their 9,000 little soldiers set up in elaborate phalanxes! My eldest brother was in Vietnam, so I got his stash of music to listen to and then I’d sneak into Bill’s bedroom (middle brother) to get his Cream Disraeli Gears album and various others that I would listen to over and over again. I also remember in later years sneaking off with a transistor radio to listen to the King Biscuit Flower Hour featuring epic concerts like Genesis performing The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. Mom sat me down every Friday night to write my eldest brother a letter that she would include with the cookies or other things she baked for him to send off to some military post via airmail. (The link here is an interesting story about soldiers receiving Dear John letters. Certainly not fully related to my writing here, but I found in interesting and wish to share.)
Fast Forward to 2016
Yesterday, I went out in tourist fashion with 2 of my teacher pals to the Embarcadero area of SF and then over to Ghirardelli Square to attend the cool SF Etsy Pop Up. We slowly made our way on public transportation stopping for lunch along the way, taking our sweet time talking about work and life adventures. I had mentioned to my pal Carole who teaches in the Business department at our college that I was considering a new car purchase since I feel the end of the world is closer than we think and I’d like to go out having driven a new car at least once in my life. (I’ve never owned a brand new car and I’m almost 54, so the time is now, right?) She gave me a really good speech about why it’s not worth it to take on a new debt when I have an OK car and I should put the money that I would spend on a car into an interest-bearing account. She gave me the kind of advice my mom would have given me were she still alive to guide me on these types of huge decisions. We chatted on about it during lunch and she said, “Let’s go find you something cool to buy at the Etsy so that you feel like you’re getting something for yourself that doesn’t cost thousands of dollars and put you into debt.” (…another thing along the lines that my Mom would have said.)
The three of us make our way on one of those cool MUNI trains/tram cars that SF purchased years ago from various countries that are totally old-school and fun to ride on around the waterfront. (Like this one, only this tram is on Market St.)
Frivolous fun, for sure. 
We found ourselves deep in the heart of tourist-ville at Pier 39, dropped off at the last stop to walk to our end destination at Ghirardelli. Throngs of people speaking languages from all over the world walked with us and I found myself in a delightful cloud of a summer vacation I desperately needed after a couple of difficult first weeks on campus. The sun was shining; boats sailed on the Bay; the smell of Boudin sourdough bread, crab and other cooked fish, danced around one’s senses. Artists drew cartoon pictures of people sitting in their chair for $2.99! (I don’t remember the price being that low EVER!) Wow.
We found our little Etsy and decided to stop at the Lagunitas Beer booth first since there was not a line. It was 4:30p already. We sat, drank our beer, chatted more and watched the crowd. I noticed the sound of a band playing behind me and smiled at their choice of music: Ziggy Stardust by David Bowie was well covered by them followed by a Moody Blues tune. Later when we got up to see what the Etsy merchants were selling, I noticed that it was ONE GUY on the little makeshift stage playing guitar, singing, using his computer with Ableton Live and adding little keyboard bits too with all of it set up perfectly around him with a good PA system. Wow! Fooled me and I’m an audio pro, but the sound had been quite a distance behind my back. Good one!
Here’s the family bit: we walked into a local store in the square called Jackson & Polk since the Etsy which we traveled all that way to see had just closed. haha on us. Inside, Carole told me to find something to buy myself that would satisfy my urge to jump into a new car purchase. She found something right away she knew would pique my interest: Mistaken Lyrics Cork Coasters. So, funny! I chose two:
- “Hold me closer, Tony Danza.”
- “On a dark desert highway, Cool Whip in my hair.”
SO FUNNY! Then as we approached the counter, I saw a little wooden sign for purchase the size of a postcard that stated, “Love You More”. I teared up instantly. My Mom used to say that to me all of the time when I would end a conversation before we hung up with “Love you, Mom” to which she always replied, “Love you more!” That one put a little hole in my chest as I sucked down the desire to sob for a minute and stayed with the twitchy red nose and the eyes filled with liquid. Meltdown averted. I picked it up to add to my coasters purchase. My pal Wynd bought a hat and there we were off on our way out the door.
The musician was in the middle of the first verse of the song “Tiny Dancer” by Elton John. I melted a little more…
Go ahead and click the link and let this play…