Mama’s Radio…

     Even though I have never really been the biggest fan of country music, I realized the other day, that I know all of the lyrics to every country song that came out before the year 2000… OK, maybe not every, but a very large chunk considering I don’t listen to country.
      I was having cash stand talk with Tim, my music buddy, and I was revealing this embarrassing tidbit about myself, and came to the conclusion it was because WCCI was always on in the background of our kitchen. All day every day, that radio was on. Even though I wasn’t really listening to it, on some level, I was.  He said his mom was the same way, and as we both thought about it for a minute we both came up with many more houses with mama’s music in the kitchen.
     Restaurant conversations are had in bits and pieces while you are getting things ready to take out to your table so we just left it at that, and went about our day, but, since I am a mama now, the conversation stuck with me. So many memories were made around that radio in her kitchen. From singing with my sister to playing air guitar with my brother, and now, 12 years later, no matter how far away from home I am, certain songs bring me right back to that kitchen.

     Like most people, when I was a teenager, I always said I would never be like my mom. Now that I am a mom, genetics kicked in, and I have failed miserably at not becoming my mom! Maybe a better version, but still, I see so much of her in me. My brother and I are the two that take after her, and after a heart to heart the other night, I admitted this to him, and he asked me if that meant he was going to turn into her too, and all I could say was sorry dude, yes!
     One of my favorite things that I got from her is her love of music and the non stop music in the kitchen. I can’t function in there without it. I always have Pandora on while I’m cleaning or cooking or whatever. When my kids come in and it’s a song I like, I stop what I’m doing and we dance like crazies and I hope whenever they hear that song later in life it will bring them right back to my kitchen.
     JJ is getting to the point in his life where he actually recognizes songs from the radio, and has his favorites, and right now it is “Moves like Jagger” by Maroon 5. He would play it on repeat all day long if he could. We had just sat down to lunch when I heard the song coming from the kitchen. I said JJ do hear what song is on, and before he could answer AL chimed in “move Jagger mom”. I laughed, grabbed my phone, and we all practiced our Jagger moves while our lunch got cold.

So you can practice your Jagger moves :)

     I also realized maybe mom’s always have the radio on because it’s the one thing in the house that either our children or significant other haven’t claimed as their own! Was your childhood kitchen filled with mama’s music? What songs take you back to mama’s kitchen?