the longest ride and the 2nd-best summer: 80's radio at its best

I went to high school in the mid-1980's.  In my freshman year, we lived about an hour away from the private school I attended and where Dad taught Spanish.  Since Dad was a faculty member, he needed to be at the school about an hour before and after regular school hours.  So we would head out at 6:00 every morning and make the long, slow drive to school, uphill and only 55 m.p.h. - both ways!*   It was fantastic.  I used the time to work on my beauty sleep (just let it go...). 

Dad would have loved to do likewise.  Instead, he kept himself awake with the easy-listening radio station.  (Yes, you read that right.  Easy listening was the closest Dad ever got to rocking out.)  Personally, I wasn't a big fan of easy listening, especially the Musak-style versions of rock and pop songs.  But I was all for Dad staying awake while I slept, so I kept my opinions to myself.

Sometimes Dad whistled along with the songs - potentially mortifying for the young teenager, but tolerable. 

But when his favorite song came on, Dad couldn't help himself.  He had to sing along:  "There was something in the air that night, the stars were bright, Fernando.  They were shining there for you and me, for liberty, Fernando...."  Yes, I think my dad was a closet ABBA fan.  He was, at least, a Fernando fan.  I assumed because the guy sounded Spanish, but who knows.

I was unable to sleep through that gem.  All I could do was pray that my classmates hadn't hidden a video camera in the car somewhere and that "Fernando" would end before we got to school.

The summer after my sophomore year, however, I made up for the Musak trauma.  I took an algebra class in the mornings.  It was the glory days of my critical thinking skills, and my nerdy self enjoyed the math so much it was more like solving puzzles than doing homework.  But even better than the math was the drive to and from school - ALONE.  We had moved closer to the school by then, but I still had time to blast whatever station I wanted to hear and to sing along before changing the station back when I got home.  I was SO cool.

The icing on the cake that summer was the afternoons, when I floated in our above-ground pool and worked on my tan.  Oh to be 16 and super-cool again!  :)

*Thanks, little brother!

Play Way Back When-esday with us!