2000-04-13

The Wee Hours

Some time ago I was at my parents' house and, as I'm usually wont to do, I went up to my old bedroom (currently being used to house boxes and boxes of school papers that I refuse to throw away, and three bridesmaid's dresses that I will never wear again even in jest, despite having been told by all three brides that I'd be able to wear them again once I'd shortened their hems) to scrounge around. Sitting in the middle of the room, perched forlornly upon a box marked "Saint Leo," was my old clock radio.

Actually, if memory serves, I stole this clock radio out of my brother's bedroom, figuring since he was away at college, he didn't need it. I had every intention of returning it to his bedroom before he came back for Christmas of '83, but I never did, and he didn't seem to miss it, so in my room it stayed. Sorry, Bill.

I was 12 years old and I figured having a clock radio was a cool and adult thing to own. Mom wasn't going to wake me up anymore, no sir.

Unfortunately, the alarm function didn't seem to work at all on the clock radio, which is probably why my brother hadn't brought it with him to Stanford. No matter. Shortly enough, its function in my 12-year-old world was not to wake me up.

That clock radio became my friend. Probably my only friend at that nadir in my adolescence. I kept it on all night.

Generally, I kept the dial on the clock radio set to WROR, except on Sunday nights, when I'd fall asleep listening to "The Dr. Demento Show" on WCOZ (R.I.P.).

I had many favorite songs during my waking hours, but the songs that I heard while half-asleep are the ones that to this day worm up into the front of my head at inopportune moments: "Heart Attack," by Olivia Newton John, for one. It was years before I heard that song in broad daylight, and it freaked me out.

Also on the Soundtrack Of The Wee Hours was this stinkeroo. Go on, click that link and scream in horror. I dare you.

So I'm thinking the next time I go see my parents, I'm taking that clock radio. I think it misses me.

lisamcc at 13:30:39

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