Day 2- Your First Love (part 1)

I don't know how to respond to this one... how many first loves do we have? define first love? I'll go with my first thought to this topic. and then maybe a part 2 for the other thoughts.

My first love... music.

Are you really surprised?

*

I get it from my parents. I'd like to say more so my dad but come to find out, my mom has a lot of music in her background. She basically grew up in a jazz club. Her grandfather and subsequently her dad, my maternal great/grandfather were in a group called the Jazz Kings (mom's maiden name is Lamptey. It became okay for me to change my major to education because teachers are in my blood). They play the saxes. Mom told me as far back as she can remember, she and her mother would go to gigs. Mom would be so young, she'd sleep under the tables, hidden by the tablecloth. WOOOOOOW, MOM!!! HOW COOL IS THAT?!!? Grandma stopped taking her when she was 6 cause that's when the next baby (Auntie Mavis) came along.

So that's how mom contributed. Pops contributed to my love for music when I was actually around.

A major reason why Saturdays are my favorite day is that was when Pops would put records on the turn table and blast music. All the windows open "for fresh air"; jamming. The whole family (before Mini Me) would be up doing chores to Osibisa or Fela or Bob or Herbie or Isaac or Manu, Brothers Johnson, etc. Stan and I changing pillow cases and folding clothes, mom doing laundry, Pops doing the yard. Oh gosh, I remember the day on MyStace when I heard Soul Mak.ossa and it took me back to 7 years old.

*opens iToons to play song, on repeat*

I got my first turn-table when I was around 5 y.o. It was a Fisher-Price one but it played real records. I remember playing a 'baby records' (45s) like "Iron Lion Zion". Don't remember the song but I remember the title and wondering what Zion was.

So besides being inadvertent avid music listeners, the three of us children took piano lessons (I stopped when I graduated form high school) and the older two learned other instruments (clarinet and tuba for me, baritone and cello for StanKK). I went to art school in middle school for music, became the first girl to play tuba at the SOA and the high school I graduated from. My Senior Superlative was Most Musically Talented. In high school, my side hustle was teaching little kids how to play the piano.

That's it on a literal level.

Music for me is a drug. I can't not have it. It enhances my mood. When I'm elated, MJ puts an extra pep in my step. The days of trifling men and broken hearts got "Brokenhearted" (middle school) "I Can Love You" (high school) and Miseducation (college). LOL, I remember Dani text me one time, "Stop listening to Lauryn! You don't need that right now!" But she helped me! when you listen to a song enough and cried with it on repeat, you get tired of the song and the feeling associated with it. With me, it's like a light switch, "Okay, I'm over it. Wipe my tears, let's rock this." Then I play Tribe or something. LOL

My strongest memories are of course not attached to a place or scent, but to music. Right now, I'm playing Sole Makosa...

I'm seven years old on a Saturday morning, changing pillowcases. Stanley and I are running around trying to find our favorite pillow case, a khaki one with what I now know to be cherry blossoms. It doesn't matter what pillow it's on, we love that pillowcase. I got it this time. Mommy is telling us to come and start folding the clothes she just took out of the dryer. We are folding and watching The Adventures Winnie the Pooh on abc. Daddy's in the front, cutting the grass. Mommy's in the kitchen making pancakes. Big Breakfast today! I want some tea. Mommy makes me some and says I can have it when I finish folding.

Music is also what brought Drew and I together. He's a musician and an audio engineer. We became friends in high school cause we'd go to the practice rooms of the band room and play piano. Plus, we both played low brass so I sat by him. I love going to his shows and I kind of fill my photog need by being the band's photographer.

Oh, music. How I love thee. You are everything right to me in this world.