Timelessly perceptive
Back in the 1980s, before MP3s and around the time 45s stopped being practical, I was religious about taping songs off the radio for future listening on my Walkman. I still possess most of those tapes, and have even converted several to MP3 format.
This post isn't dedicated to those tapes. It's only about one song.
On the day before Thanksgiving in 1985, I was off school on a rainy, November day. Sitting in my room, listening to Fred Winston's show on WLS-AM. The Big 89 at this point was starting to play less and less Top 40, so it shouldn't have been a surprise when an "oldie" came on the radio. The song in question: "When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman" by Dr. Hook. I must have recognized it right away, perhaps thinking "Wow, I haven't heard this in a while," because I went over to my boombox and hit record.
Over the years that I've listened to that tape, I must have remembered where I was when I recorded that song. That's true with many songs that I hear today -- I can remember where I was, or what the next song on the tape was, of the fidelity of the song. For example, "When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman" wasn't in stereo on my tape because I taped it off AM.
A few weeks ago, I was listening to a classic American Top 40 from 1979 online when "When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman" was streamed. And yes, I remembered the tape that I originally recorded the song and the circumstances around it. In 1985, I must have thought the six years since the song first was a hit must have been a lifetime.
Six years a lifetime? I know now, six years is nothing.
I think I've known that for a while, but hearing the song on a 1979 AT40 and remembering taping it in 1985 just reinforced the notion. Six years to a teenager is a long time. Six years to an adult, especially one with kids and who just turned 40, is a blur.
With the 10-year anniversary of 9/11 this month and the 10-year anniversary of the 2002 Olympics coming up, the blur seems blurrier than ever. Reading my blog posts from 2007 and wondering "Was that already four years ago?" doesn't help, either.
So why does the perception of time speed up as you get older? Is it merely that as kids, we can't wait to grow and it doesn't happen fast enough? And as adults, we don't want to get older, much less our children, that we notice the speed at which time passes?
Is it just perception? And if so, can we think of time like a child again? Can six years -- six good years, and not six years, say in prison -- be a lifetime once again?
Hopefully, it won't take six years to come up with an answer.
This post isn't dedicated to those tapes. It's only about one song.
On the day before Thanksgiving in 1985, I was off school on a rainy, November day. Sitting in my room, listening to Fred Winston's show on WLS-AM. The Big 89 at this point was starting to play less and less Top 40, so it shouldn't have been a surprise when an "oldie" came on the radio. The song in question: "When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman" by Dr. Hook. I must have recognized it right away, perhaps thinking "Wow, I haven't heard this in a while," because I went over to my boombox and hit record.
Over the years that I've listened to that tape, I must have remembered where I was when I recorded that song. That's true with many songs that I hear today -- I can remember where I was, or what the next song on the tape was, of the fidelity of the song. For example, "When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman" wasn't in stereo on my tape because I taped it off AM.
A few weeks ago, I was listening to a classic American Top 40 from 1979 online when "When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman" was streamed. And yes, I remembered the tape that I originally recorded the song and the circumstances around it. In 1985, I must have thought the six years since the song first was a hit must have been a lifetime.
Six years a lifetime? I know now, six years is nothing.
I think I've known that for a while, but hearing the song on a 1979 AT40 and remembering taping it in 1985 just reinforced the notion. Six years to a teenager is a long time. Six years to an adult, especially one with kids and who just turned 40, is a blur.
With the 10-year anniversary of 9/11 this month and the 10-year anniversary of the 2002 Olympics coming up, the blur seems blurrier than ever. Reading my blog posts from 2007 and wondering "Was that already four years ago?" doesn't help, either.
So why does the perception of time speed up as you get older? Is it merely that as kids, we can't wait to grow and it doesn't happen fast enough? And as adults, we don't want to get older, much less our children, that we notice the speed at which time passes?
Is it just perception? And if so, can we think of time like a child again? Can six years -- six good years, and not six years, say in prison -- be a lifetime once again?
Hopefully, it won't take six years to come up with an answer.
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