Media and Memories

When I was a child my mother would let us pick the radio station when we wanted to listen while she drove. The station of choice was CKLW out Windsor, Canada. It played the Top 40 with heavy dose of Motown. My father would not give us that choice. However, I heard a lot of Big Band music out of Detroit’s WJR, which is why I now enjoy Benny Goodman, Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald.

This summer I took a trip to Lake Michigan with my almost-12-year-old grandson. Given all his gadgets, I thought he would tune into some pre-loaded or smartphone streaming music and it would be a quiet journey into the sunset, but that wasn’t so!

He wanted to fiddle with the radio to find his favorite station, 102.5. He found other stations too, but they all seemed to play some song with the refrain “Tattoo on my Brain.” Of course, now that is tattooed on my brain.

Memories, and memory, are interesting things. For instance, my grandson managed to lose track of his toothbrush for the trip (dropped in the driveway), but bring a portable speaker, charger, phone, gadgets and gizmos a plenty, and his wallet. Although he didn’t bring much money, he did have one thing in his wallet that was priceless - a library card.

“I go there to get these books,” he said as he pulled out a Mike Lupica sports novel from his back pack. “It’s a about a ….” Another memory as priceless as the others. You can start making memories with CADL by signing up for a library card here.

Betsy H., CADL Okemos