I Remember #1

I remember, when I was much younger and still shared a room with my sister, we would put on the radio at night, so we would fall asleep to music. It was a small, cheap radio, the type with that distinct plastic-y, distant sound. It would be on really low, just loud enough to distinguish the vocals. Back then 93.1 FM used to be a dance/trace station.

I remember the first time I was introduced to that station, to dance music in general. A childhood friend of mine had invited me to come with her to an auto parts convention, with her parents. Her father was a mechanic, and went to this convention every year. What two twelve-year-old girls were supposed to do at an auto convention, I'm not sure, but I do recall all the funky free things we would get at all the booths. Weird little digital clocks with company name stamped on them. Small plastic-aluminum packets of that heavy-duty orange hand cleaner. Erasers in the shape of the Goodyear blimp. Half the fun was collecting all the funky freebies. But the best one must have been the radio.

It was also stamped with a company name; it was one of those super cheap ones, with only an on/off switch, a volume dial, and a scan button so you could painstakingly climb the FM band one station at a time. It was a clear red, so you could see the insides, and a silvery button plate where the logo was printed. It was probably one of the best freebies the convention offered.

After a few hours at the convention, after we all piled back into the car, I fiddled with my prize. The radio came with a pair of cheap earbuds. The single AAA was even included. And so I turned on the little thing and scanned away. And that's how I found the dance station. Back then I wasn't too familiar with music genres, but it was then that I knew that I loved dance music. More the vocal stuff than the instrumental, but still, dance music.

And so it went on at night, to quietly serenade my sister and I to sleep. It's a scene of peace that I'll always remember: a dim room, the streetlight's glow filtered by blinds and curtain, with a tinny radio murmuring dance music into the night.

I've been trying to recreate the scene ever since 93.1 changed to a rock station, to a classical station, then to an easy listening station. But recently I downloaded the iHeartRADIO app... interestingly enough, the Pride Radio station plays that right blend of 90's-style dance music that I first heard on the radio all those years ago. And while my phone's speaker lacks the plastic tinny sound I grew so accustomed to, I can again enjoy a still night of grade A nostalgia.