I really like BEN FM, the philly "we play whatever we feel like station".  There, I admit it. Of course, it occasionally bothers how blatantly false their catch phase is, unless their play-list is arranged by someone with the musical awareness of a 10-year-old.  But still, they do have a wide array of fun tune for the average commercial radio station.  So, the other night they were playing a lot of eighties' tunes, and I'm thinking that I should go out and buy some of these albums already. Somehow, I never learned the normal teenage skill of accumulating  pop-culture knowledge.  Sure, I watched a lot of TV,  but I didn't listen to the radio much, and most of my movie information came from MAD magazine.  I bought almost no albums, probably had about 30-40 cassettes, mostly from the record club offers in the newspaper.  But I comforted myself with the idea that when I was an adult, I would be able to arrange my life better, so that I would know all the popular songs and movies, along with the names of their performers and actors, etc.  But then when I got a little older, I worried over the great amount of  recorded music and films from the past that I probably would never be aware of, much less see.  Block Buster only carried so many titles, and where could one find vast music repositories?  At some point in college, I became more encouraged, realizing that yes, there are music repositories, and theaters that show old movies.  I still had a chance, as an adult, to grab my fill of music and movies.  Well, now it's now, and there is new music and video spewing from every direction, and I feel like I'm in a snow-cut on a valley railroad track that just keeps getting deeper and deeper with every day's new snow.  We have no internet access at home, I have no time at work, and there are not even any more Block Busters or Tower Records around anymore.  I'm never gonna dig my way outa' this snow ditch.
I have an extremely strong memory from childhood, I suppose early teens, of being in the car with my significantly older cousins.  Carly Simon's "You're So Vain" came on the radio (already an "oldies classic"). Someone in the car says, "Come on, we all know the words," and they all sing along with Carly.  I thought that was just the coolest thing ever, and really looked forward to the day I could do that. Now when Beatles or Billy Joel or Smoky Robinson comes on the radio, my husband and I sing along.  But I know the kids are not thinking "that's the coolest thing ever." I now have a teenager, but he likes the "classic rock stations" that play eighties' hard rock that I already know or never really liked anyhow.  But one of the great moments of my life was we were in the car, and he started,  out of the blue,  humming "clap clap stomp, clap clap stomp".  And I was able to pull out the Queen CD I had just bought, on a whim,  just days before, and blast out "CLAP CLAP STOMP.  CLAP CLAP STOMP."  And sing along.