neurological dryer lint

listening to the aforementioned retronauts gets me reminiscing... it's funny, renee will hear a song, usually associated with a group of "new kids" that were, at one point, "on the block"; and that will remind her of a happy place in her childhood. in comparison, the following things 'bring me back':

- the music from the first level of sonic 1 for the genesis. i used to hang out up at compusa at forest fair mall when i was eleven or twelve and play that game for hours. i didn't have a home console at that time besides my gameboy - my SNES showed up the following christmas - and i couldn't really fathom owning a system that wasn't made by nintendo. one of the reasons that the first VC game i picked up was sonic 1.

- similarly - the first level of doom. two years later, compusa set up a little two-station LAN with multiplayer doom running. i would hang out and play heads-up matches and waste twenty-year-old yuppies in suits that showed up to flaunt their skills.

- balrog's stage in street fighter 2. i honed my skills at time-out up at forest fair, as well as up at surf cincinnati, dumping my allowance a few quarters at a time. there's a reason this track is the ringtone on my phone.

noticing a pattern? sadly, the relative nonexistence of the modern video arcade has crushed the possibility of taking my kids to experience this phenomena. pa did a comic on this topic a few weeks back.

it's not all just video games - shockingly! a few other interesting tidbits:

- poison's fallen angel. fourth grade, open up and say...ahh! was the album of choice. i was the kid at latch key headbanging in the corner. this dude moved into town from alaska that year, into my grade, and we hung out and he introduced me to the forbidden fruits i had yet to taste: hair metal and nightmare on elm street movies.

- another night by real mccoy. pretty much all they played while i worked at the super saver cinemas up at forest fair was early 90's dance music. what a great job, btw - not too stressful, working with a bunch of friends, free movies...

- fleetwood mac's everywhere, from tango in the night. i used to rock this tape on the long drives to the local super saturday classes my mom took me to when i was in elementary school. i don't remember much from them except for the one where i learned magic tricks.

- jimmy buffett's son of a son of a sailor. mom and dad recently filled in some gaps i have about sailing down at brookville lake; there is much about being there on weekends, feet hanging in the water as we raced, that this track dredges up.

i'm sure there are more, i just can't think of them now. so what song stirs up your memory?