I was driving home from work the other day, windows down, wind in my hair, eyes on the road and a song in my heart.  Well, a song on my iPod, actually; and, blaring through my speakers.  Before I knew it, my arms were off the steering wheel and outstretched while pausing at a traffic light, “you have to believe we are magic, nothin’ can stand in our way…”  Yes, it was XANADU and I belted out the lyrics, my heart & soul behind every word, not caring if anyone was watching me because I slightly imagined I was Olivia Newton-John roller skating through the Pan-Pacific Auditorium and life was good.  I once again confirmed to myself two very obvious things.

First of all, I am a very big 80s movie nerd.  I used to just accept the fact that maybe I was a bit over the top in my love for the cheesy cinematic portrayal of the 1980s (i.e. “The Pirate Movie,” “The Joy of Sex,” “Night of the Comet,” “Flash Gordon,” “Grease 2,” “Desperately Seeking Susan”); but, I also didn’t want to change.  I accepted the fact that I might be the only person to know every word to “When the Rain Begins to Fall” from Voyage of the Rock Aliens and figured it was just who I was, even if I was alone in my nerdiness.  Thank you to my old schoolmate Natasha who posted in one of her brilliant Facebook philosophies at the end of last year: “Is anyone with me that the Xanadu soundtrack is one of the most significantly underappreciated masterpieces of all time?”  It seems there are a lot more of us out there, than I thought.

The other validation was a belief that we all must have a handful of favorite tunes that can elevate us almost straightaway from gloomy to cheerful.  Perhaps we all need to have a playlist standing by when the fiends of melancholy pay a visit.  A few of my songs would include, besides many movie & tv themes: “You Make My Dreams” (Hall & Oates), “Hungry Heart” (Bruce Springsteen), “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head” (Dean Martin), “Do You Believe in Love” (Huey Lewis), “Summertime Girls” (Y&T), “Teen Dream” (Shaun Cassidy), “Love Never Felt So Good” (Timberlake/Jackson), “All I Want for Christmas Is You” (Mariah Carey); and, proudly, “MmmBop” (Hanson).  And, there is nothing better than singing along to those songs at the top of your lungs, in your own secluded automotive shell.

Like a rite of passage in high school, you jump in the car, pop in your favorite cassette tape (for the sake of 80s relevance), turn the key and voila – you finally experience a truer freedom than you ever have had before.  It transforms you!  Then, you choose to share this most private of moments with the one person that you know will enjoy it just as much – your best friend.  For me that happened all throughout that cheesy decade of parachute pants, oversized blazers and leg warmers.  To this day, those moments spent with my friends in the car, with our songs, were treasured.

There are several tunes that still, 30-plus years later, immediately bring to mind driving with specific friends and precise driving locations.  “Hold Me Now” by the Thompson Twins played while heading to the Academy Drive-In in the Braun’s van.  Lionel Richie’s “Hello” blaring as we followed the curves of Hopewell Road with Kim adding the name “Jeff” after each time Lionel would sing, “Hello,” because that was the boy she liked at the time.  Yep, we spent a lot of time driving around in the car – mostly past all our high school crushes houses.  Not visiting or anything; just driving by.  Looking for their cars in the driveway, wondering what they might be doing inside the house.  Once we even bought those colored garters at Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor in colors that corresponded to the car colors of our crushes.  We then strategically and sneakily put them on our crushes rearview mirror.  Note to our crushes:  Now you know how that magically appeared in your car and that’s what you get for leaving your car unlocked.

Then there was my BFF Dana and the innumerous hours spent in my car.  More purposeless journeys than most, of that I’m sure.  We had a strong love of the retro “car cruising” era and would have certainly spent our evenings driving up and down the boulevard, if we had one.  Instead, we came up with our own cruising path which started with a basic route consisting of streets in Montgomery and Blue Ash; but eventually expanding throughout most of the 275-loop north of the river (basically it covered driving by all the houses of our current crushes, past boyfriends and any place we thought one of those boys might be).  We amused ourselves way more than if we were actually hanging out with any of those guys (we learned that from experience).

It was better to spend many of our summer nights driving around and singing our favorite tunes.  In fact, at one point I made our own cassette soundtrack (mix tape) signifying of all the hours spent pulled aside on the road dancing the conga with Gloria Estefan, playing the invisible drums with Benny Goodman’s “Sing, Sing, Sing,” or living in the Wild West with The Escape Club.  We joked that we were always, “just driving through,” based on the time that we followed some cute boy I liked through the McDonald’s drive-thru, just so we could ask the worker at the window what he had ordered (if you are curious, it was a McDLT).  I would not trade a single Def Leppard song sung for any other high school memory.  There is nothing that compares to those nights driving around, top down, singing along to the “American Graffiti” soundtrack (any many others) with Dana.  Every note, every laugh (especially “The Zipper” at the Ohio State Fair), every made-up sugar packet game at Skyline is worth its weight in gold to me.

As I got older, more and more car/song memories continued.  Singing “Runaround Sue” as Amy, Dan, Nick and I drove, in the middle of the night, to the closest beach.  The radio station hand signals between Casey & I, so that even when we were in different cars, we could be on the same stations, especially when “If You Wanna Be Happy” was on K-Earth 101.  Or, playing the song game with Holly on our way to Chicago and being so wrapped up, we missed our exit.  Music and cars go hand in hand; and, it can enliven your spirits with just a few musical notes.

Remember the scene in JERRY MAGUIRE where Tom Cruise just made his deal and looks for a song on the radio to fit his mood?  (He finally found Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’”)  Or, Goldie Hawn humming along with Barry Manilow’s “Ready to Take a Chance Again” while driving on the Pacific Coast Highway in FOUL PLAY?  Cinematic proof that something as simple as a singing a song in the car can be more emotionally valuable than many riches in the world.  (There is a reason that James Corden’s car-karaoke is so popular)

And, luckily, when it comes to singing in my car, I’ve hit the jackpot and I’ll never stop.  Go ahead, look over at the crazy blonde girl singing along to the XANADU soundtrack with her left arm stretched out of the window.  I can almost guarantee, I’m a lot happier than you are at this moment.  That is, unless you want to join me for a duet?  #50WeeksTo50