sherry

tl;dr; sherry

I was very fortunate growing up that my parents were able to travel with me a fair amount by car/camping. They took me to Washington, DC, the entire eastern seaboard, the maritime provinces of Canada, and a cross country trip through Canada, down the west coast and back through the USA when I was 12. There is rarely a week go by that I don’t think of one aspect of that trip or another.

The reason we were able to take these trips is because my mom ran a day care for the vacation money while my dad worked for the railroad. And my mom is GREAT at stretching money. She takes full advantage of her Scottish heritage. If we were staying at a hotel, instead of camping, my folks would send me into the hotel office to ask for the room rate. When I came out to tell them, if they thought it was too expensive, we would drive to another place.

Throughout all this travel, I had a small transistor radio that I would listen to in the care while I read my books. This one day, a song comes on the radio and I thought it was really neat. I’m guessing I was 8 or 9 years old. While it was playing, I was sent into the hotel to ask about a room. When I came back out (we drove off), the song was over and the DJ never said the name of it. I never knew what it was called.

Flash forward to when I’m 18 or 19 and drinking/getting high with my buddy when all of a sudden, the song comes on the radio! I stand up, spilling a beer and an ashtray, screaming, “THAT’S IT! THAT’S THE SONG!!”

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you:
Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons – Sherry