I have been a parent for over five years.
I’ve dealt with diapers you wouldn’t believe.
I’ve occasionally wondered if I was losing my mind.
I’ve occasionally wondered if my child was losing his/her mind.
I’ve experienced illnesses, comic foibles, and touching interludes. I’ve developed a new appreciation for innocence.
But I have never heard another child who is as loud as THEBOY was as an infant and toddler.
Not even close.
***
Can’t recall what year Kelli and I were at a New Year’s party and a couple with a newborn showed up. The kid began to holler, and you could see them tense up and go into that new parent semi-panic.
And call it rude if you will, but after a moment of watching the scene we felt compelled to tell them, “You call THAT crying? That ain’t crying. You haven’t HEARD crying.”
***
I took THEBOY to a noodle joint when he was an infant. I felt brave, thought I’d have a nice dinner, maybe get lucky and get him to fall asleep in his little carrier there.
Heh heh.
No sooner did my food arrive than he commenced to screaming. And in fact, he let out such a long, loud wail that when he was done the entire place went quiet. Every single person in there stopped what they were doing and stared at us. It was an ungodly decibel assault, ya’ll.
I started fumbling around, asking for the waiter, saying I wanted my food to go. And you know, he hurried right over to get me taken care of.
***
I actually heard “A Million Miles Away” by… dang. Wasn’t that Peter Case’s old band? Um.. the Plimsouls? Am I right or am I way off base? Anyway, heard it on the radio the other day, and that was cool.
***
I’d like to hear it again soon. Like now. I hear the hum of my CPU and space heater. Some chatter from coworkers headed to lunch.
Really damn quiet in here.
3 comments:
"A Million Miles Away" is indeed by the Plimsouls. 198...3? I think. That tops my personal list of songs that should have been massive hit singles but somehow never were. And it was even in a popular movie at the time (Valley Girl).
The Plimsouls have reunited and are playing SXSW. Not sure if I'll get to see them or not. It would be nice to hear that song in full flight, though. (I saw Case do it once at a solo show, but it's not the same as a band version, I'd imagine.)
Michael
Funny you mention the Plimsouls, but I was listening to that cassette (Everywhere At Once) last week while working in the garage.
Valley Girl was one of the better 80's teen flicks - I bought it a few months ago at Kroger's for $9.99.
Bruiser
I just got Everywhere at Once on CD a week or so aog, after having for years a vinyl copy with a skip. It holds up quite nicely. It's one of those records, though, that's completey overshadowed by the one masterpiece song. I know when I'm listening to it that most of the other songs are damn good, like "Shaky City," but when I hit "Million Miles" I just forget everything else on there.
Now that I've got a disk, maybe I'll program it to play everything BUT that song so I can get to know the rest of the record. I did that with Neil Young's Everyone Knows This is Nowhere...programmed it to skip "Cowgirl in the Sand," "Down By the River" and "Cinammon Girl" so I wouldn't be distracted by the "hits." It really helped me appreciate how brilliant the rest of the record is.
Brian, don't you just love it when people highjack your comments section for other conversations?
Michael
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