Oh, Those Songs of Our Youth

I have had a thing lately for Fleetwood Mac. I'm not even that creative about it - I like all of their songs that were their biggest hits. I listen to a lot of satellite radio (Sirius at work and XM in my car) and I glom onto those songs like a thirsty baby on a boob whenever they come on. There seems to be something familiar about them that defies definition... But, I am afterall a writer, so of course I will try to define it!

I think the songs remind me of the pleasant times during my childhood. The reason why I like the top hits is no real mystery, I guess. They were simply the ones I heard most on the radio. There were no CD players, I don't think we really had an 8-track player that I remember and albums were not something my parents had a lot of extra money to go buying a bunch of. (There was always a copy of The White Album around, of course.)

The memories that rise to the surface are of our house in Virginia on the Chesapeake Bay called Pineview where I had a treehouse named Little Pineview. My father and grandfather built it over a long weekend in the rain and both got sick. I loved to go up there (because my sisters, both under the age of three) couldn't follow me there. I had a tree stump table and chairs, two windows on leather hinges and an unbounded imagination. I pretended to fight off indians and water moccasins, cure people (of what I don't know) with ground up tree bark, and just generally created as much made-up life as I could. I wasn't very fond of having to share my dad's time with my sisters, but up in my treehouse, I really didn't have to share with anyone. Perfect for a child of SIX!

I really don't know how those memories tie to the Fleetwood Mac songs - it's one of those organic things that just spawns an outpouring of memories that is hard to collect, hard to stem and just plain hard to express. I'll probably keep hunting for those songs for a good while - they're good for opening up a vein and finding story fodder!

Oh! And I want to post about Writer's Block, but it'll have to wait because I gotta get to work! Stay tuned!