Tuesday, October 19, 2004

So what, exactly, is a coincidence, anyway?

I spent my pre-school and early elementary years in a tiny town in northeastern Arkansas. If you ask my wife - or my mom - they'd tell you I have the world's worst memory. But there are some things I still remember vividly from those early years:

I remember learning the song 'He Paid a Debt' on our car porch. I remember tornado drills, where my little brother and I would learn what to do in case of dangerous weather. I remember my dad's garden in the back yard, and the horse named Lucky that lived in the pasture across the street from our house. I remember listening to a song named 'Kansas City Lights' on the radio as a vaporizor hummed late at night in our bedroom.

And I remember 8-track tapes. In our car and at home, we'd listen to 8-track tapes. The Gatlin Brothers (All the Gold in California); the Oak Ridge Boys (Elvira) and Paul Simon. I'm sure there were many more, but those really stuck with me. Especially the Paul Simon - 'Me & Julio' and '50 Ways to Leave Your Lover'. It's kind of weird the things that stick after all those years...



My son, Noah, was born on February 18, 2003. We went to the hospital the night before, expecting to induce the next morning, but Shana went into labor while we were in the lobby waiting for a room. We had brought a CD player with us, and when we got in the room we were playing some music. As the night progressed, I put on Paul Simon Anthology. And it was funny what happened after that - everyone who came into the room, a couple of different nurses, the anesthesiologist (sp.) and our doctor, each made some comment like, "great music". It was almost a running joke, because everyone that stepped in the room made some comment. At around 2:15 (if I remember correctly) Noah was born - I still remember amdist all the confusion of that moment - seeing my son for the first time, holding the hand of my wife, and hearing Paul Simon singing "me & Julio down by the schoolyard". I can remember that moment vividly. And I can remember such an odd feeling - because as I was becoming a father, I remembered sitting in that old station wagon as this little kid in the 70's singing along...

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