Recently, while riding in the car with my nieces one evening, we witnessed a most spectacular sunset?the kind where the sky tells you a story about its day through color.
Brilliant orange merging with hues of pink and magenta came together in a peaceful symphony of contentment. While navigating through the ’Boro, Tom Petty’s “The Waiting” came on the radio and the first few sentences in that song seemed to be written for just that moment. My teenage nieces and I engaged in a trans-generational jam together that was not only cathartic after a hard week’s work but qualified as my cardio workout for the day. For nearly four minutes we connected on a level that only music can provide.
After the song was over, the “good ole Uncle Tom” speech ensued, followed with the “when I was your age” walk down memory lane, telling them that I was a little younger than they were when this song was released in 1981, how I had practically grown up on his music. This immediately tripped the “dinner invitation” discussion. Of course! It was so amazingly obvious. So obvious that I was a little embarrassed that I hadn’t thought of it sooner. It was as if Tom Petty were indeed a long-lost relative that I had overlooked inviting to the family table.
There are a few bands whose lyrics I knew before I knew my ABC’s, and Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers is one of them. From a very early age I can recall fervently singing along to “American Girl,” “Breakdown” and “Here Comes My Girl” to name a few, and summers spent with my cousins, in that magical place called childhood?driving down the highway, hot air blowing madly through the open windows of my aunt and uncle’s Oldsmobile, all of us singing with our stadium-style voices, oblivious to the fact that we were all off key, making the memory all the more sweet.
The reflection from past to present is potent. I like to think that the recent sunset jam session with my nieces contained an epiphany. A message reminding us that the old is constantly connecting with the new?you just have to look for the bridge.
Tom, you are indeed dear to my soul, and your voice has ran a course through my world, leaving an imprint that has helped frame more than one good memory. Thank you.
My family and I cordially wish to invite you over for dinner. It would be an honor to have you as our guest. Just please give me call before you come.
