I went to a writer’s group here down at the Ped Mall. It was mostly University of Iowa students, but there were older people too. And I wrote, and recited, two of my monologues. And when I got through this young gentleman came over to me and he said, he had been the host of it and was introducing everybody, and he said “Do you have an email?” I said, “No, I don’t have a computer.” And he said, “Well…
My parents played a lot of Beatles and Rolling Stones and Stevie Wonder. You know, the kind of stuff that was popular in the sixties and seventies when they were growing up. So, I’ve got fond memories of those songs. I have a movie from, I don’t know, those enormous movie cameras that people had in the seventies and the eighties of, I can’t remember what song it was. I think it might’ve been Linda Ronstadt of all people, but…
When I was a little girl my mother always turned on the radio to WOI which was the Ames station, like WSUI is for here. And they had classical music programs, and she’d turn that on. And then I’d wake up hearing that music. I knew it was time to wake up and get up because I was hearing that music.
I have some good Christmas memories of making cookies and listening to choral Christmas music. On CDs usually, but it’s nice. I got reminded of that when someone else shared. I like the full choir carols.
I grew up Catholic and we would maybe once a week listen to the Rosary on the radio. It was like fifteen minutes long and it was sort of boring, in my opinion, but at the end there would be a recording of Ave Maria. And, so it was good, both in the sense that the rosary was done and it was good music.
[Mom]: What kind of music did we have around the house in your childhood? [Kid:] I’m still in my childhood. [M:] What kind of music do you think about that we like to listen to around the house? [K:] Want to look at my shirt? That will give you a clue. Justin Roberts. I like the band Justin Roberts. [M:] What’s your favorite Justin Roberts song? [K:] My favorite one, um, is Popfly, because I like baseball. I’ve never actually hit a…
The music I listened to as a kid was musicals. My mother loved musicals and I knew them so well that when I went to see the musicals at Starlight Theater in Kansas City, I could count the number of words that weren’t the same as on the record.
[1] Whenever I think of the Iowa Waltz, I remember that there were mornings when my sister and I would sleep in on the weekend and if we had things to do as a family, or just didn’t want to sleep, my dad would sing that song. Our bedrooms were up on the second floor and so he’d sing it from there and he’d keep singing it until we’d get up. And so I’d just sort of, whenever I hear…
Well first I couldn’t think of a treasured possession, but then I started thinking of a couple of things. One that sort of stuck with me was a music box that I had been given and that I still have. And it was given to me when I was ten years old, so that’s a really long time ago. I was ten years old and I had to have my tonsils out and I had to stay overnight in a place that…
[Mom:] Just talk about what’s important to you. Why are your plants important to you? [Kid:] Because they give us food. [Mom:] And you’ve had fun watching them grow over the summer? [Kid:] Yeah. [M:] You’ve been planting them and working hard and admiring them every day? [K:] Mm-hmm. [M:] And we’ve been enjoying the food that you’ve grown. [K:] Mm-hmm. [adult:] And it says on his sheet that he started from seeds. Very impressive. [K:] I have a whole…