Caroline Winchester
December 3rd, 2012
Dr. Ferguson
Family Music
“When you have your own car Caroline, that is when you can pick the music,” if I had heard this statement once, I heard it one million times by my parents every time I got in the car. The Major and mom had very strict rules for my sister and I to follow and questioning there rules or in this case, their music, was not a good idea. Long family car trips were similar to the scene in National Lampoon’s Vacation when Clark and Ellen make the kids sing oldies songs as a family. Mine was the same way, the “70s, 80s, and Now,” was my mother’s radio of choice while my dad insisted on the doo-wop classics of the 1950s and 1960s. I grew up listening to a wide variety of music from the 1950s right up to modern day music. As much as I tried to be the rebellious teen that listened to crude, sexual music I always found myself listening to the “oldies” radio station in my car.
My parent’s music genres have influenced my taste in music completely, especially my mom. My mother, LuAnne Winchester was born in the summer of 1963 in Tallahassee, Florida. She grew up with her two older brothers in the perfect suburban house, across from a park that would make the Brady kids jealous. Mom has always talked about how lively her house was growing up. Aunts and uncles were frequent visitors because our family loves to get together and play cards. No card game is complete with out cigarettes and my Pawpaw’s old record player. Mama Lucy and Pawpaw would play their favorite big band records while they played hearts out in the den. Mom, can remember that whenever the Glen Miller band record was playing and In the Mood came on, all of the adults would dance. I’ve grown up hearing my Pawpaw hum or whistle that tune my whole life and within a few seconds of hearing its’ opening melody I know exactly what song it is.
It was during these card games that my mom and her cousins, who were all in elementary school, would go back...