Dreams

In the summer of 1977, I was ten years old and playing my second year of organized baseball. In my first year, I wasn’t very good. In fact, I don’t think I recorded one single hit during the entire season. Understandably, I was rather reluctant to play again the following year. But my friends all persuaded me to continue. Fortunately, we had a really good coach that year and I flourished. I even hit a grand slam in my first official at-bat of the season and another home run in that same game.

It was a different game, however, played a few weeks later that stands out as the most memorable for me.

 

Out in Left Field

Needing to leave for the game right in the middle of dinner preparations, my mom had my oldest sister Ann shuttle me off to Pilgrim Lane Elementary, where the game was scheduled. I always enjoyed it when my sisters drove because I knew for sure that we’d listen to some good music. It was less than a five minute drive to the ball field, and on this evening Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams consumed the entire trip. You couldn’t go anywhere in June of ‘77 without hearing this song.

About 30 minutes later, I was out in left field (literally and figuratively) with Fleetwood Mac stuck on continuous replay in my head. Being just ten years old, I really had no idea what the song was about. Nor did I really care. But as I was standing out in the field I noticed that the sky was getting darker and I began thinking about the lyrics.

“Thunder only happens when it’s raining.
Players only love you when they’re playing.”

I could relate.

The sky was actually starting to get really dark – that weird green color I recalled so well from an experience a few years earlier. We lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the time, and a tornado descended right on top of our neighborhood. Justifiably, I wasn’t too excited to see that color. Or the increasingly frequent lightning strikes.

“Thunder only happens when it’s raining.”

Suddenly I was distracted from the storm, as well as the ball game. I “paused” the song playing in my head and considered the situation. It wasn’t raining where we were. In fact, it was still sunny. But I could see the lightning and feel the vibration of the thunder deep in my chest. I remember saying to myself, “Hey, wait a minute. Thunder happens when it’s not raining, too. These guys don’t know what they’re talking about!”

Our baseball game continued on in the warm June sunshine, while the thunderstorm passed just to the south of us – the direction I was facing in the outfield. I kept one eye on those clouds, finally relaxing a bit when I decided that we had avoided the storm.

For whatever reason, that particular experience was permanently etched in my memory.

The Concert

Fast forward almost 36 years to April of 2013, when Michelle and I had front row tickets to see Fleetwood Mac at the Xcel Center in St. Paul. We were standing in the very front with our arms resting on the stage, right at the feet of Lindsey Buckingham. Stevie Nicks was just a few feet to our left, with Mick Fleetwood and his massive drum set behind the two of them, and John McVie to the left.

 

The instant after Mick hit the rolling drum intro, as John pounded out the opening bass to the song Dreams, I was suddenly hit full blast with my childhood memory.

Bam! Just like that I found myself standing out in left field at Pilgrim Lane Elementary.

I closed my eyes and could see my teammates, all wearing our orange Roger Fazendin Realtor jerseys and yellow baseball caps. I could so clearly see those eerie storm clouds, and hear the rumbling thunder, along with the typical sounds of a little league baseball game. A coach yelling out instructions. A parent shouting out encouragement.  I also heard the sound of a lawn mower running nearby, along with the smell of freshly cut grass, thick in the air. Wow, some memories are really intense.

But just as I was relishing in that pleasant youthful experience, I was hit with the bigger reality that in the present time my dear sister Ann had passed away only a few days earlier. How could it be that the young lady – a recent high school graduate – who just drove me to my ball game is now gone? In the crazy time warp I had just experienced, this didn’t make any sense.

Returning back to the present, a flood of memories came forward from those years. I recalled the time I was chasing after Ann as she drove away from home, along with my favorite toy gun that I accidently left sitting on the trunk of her car. The plastic suction-cup-dart-shooting rifle was found later, a few blocks away, all smashed to pieces. I could so clearly picture her 1976 yellow/cream colored Monte Carlo, with a sweet stereo system and random 8-track tapes lying about on the floor. I remembered being so excited to buy Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours album for Ann that Christmas. I knew she would love it, and she did. I had a vision of her bright face as she unwrapped that present on Christmas morning, pretending to be surprised. She was so young and vibrant – with a full life ahead of her.

And now 36 years later, she’s gone.

 

Reflecting

Past and present – it’s all a big piece of the puzzle that makes us who we are. And music is the magic medium that so easily bridges the gap between the two, often blurring the boundaries. And while I don’t dwell on the past, I really enjoy taking a good peek now and then, as I do regularly for this blog. All those random memories from my past are part of me now, as they helped shape me into who I am today.

I’d like to thank Ann for always being such a loving and supportive older sister (well…most of the time). She had a huge influence on me, especially musically. She was my role model for enjoying and appreciating good music. Like Michelle and me, she had great stories to tell from concert experiences of her own. I figured we would continue to share our love of music for many, many more years into the future. But then things don’t always work out how we plan. And now I miss her.

I’d also like to thank Fleetwood Mac for all the incredible music they’ve created over the years. Especially their 1977 masterpiece Rumours, which helped facilitate my recent trip down memory lane. What an amazing run of music they’ve had together – 40 years and still going strong. We’ve seen them in concert more than a dozen times in the last twenty years, and they sound just as good as ever.

Here’s a video for Dreams from 1977. Enjoy.