The Sounds of Home
Congratulations, Kristi! Your name was the one I drew this morning for a signed copy of "Socially Responsible Investing for Dummies." Please email me by Wednesday, January 27 with your contact information. fivecoat@ozarkmountains.com
Today's post.….
When we moved, we anticipated the major things – how much we would miss our friends and family, Dale’s long time job that provided us 4 weeks of vacation (and a salary to take them), even being 10 minutes from any major attraction or activity our big city had to offer.
What we didn’t take into consideration were the small things, such as finding a good radio station.
We’re big fans of music – Classic Rock to be exact – and since we’ve lived here in the Ozark Mountains, we have had a time trying to find a radio station we enjoy.
My love of rock goes all the way back to watching my big brother’s pure enjoyment when the Beatles came on the radio. He finally bought me a cassette player/recorder and the new Cat Stevens cassette for Christmas one year and I played the song, “Peace Train” until the tape finally wore out.
That affair with rock grew and by the time in high school, I not only wanted to be a journalist, but a journalist for Rolling Stone. Like the millions of other high school journalists with the same dream, I never made it to Rolling Stone, not even freelance as depicted in one of my favorite movies, “Almost Famous,” but my love of rock never subsided.
Sure, I have my extensive CD collection and my Ipod (I haven’t gotten even ¼ of my CD’s on the iPod and can only download when I’m in the city with a high speed wireless connection), but I still like the randomness of radio.
Besides that, when Dale and I are together, we both like listening to music while driving along and our CD player broke in our truck – right after the warranty expired of course– and the last time I tried to put a CD in it, I almost lost my prized Jefferson Starship Greatest Hits!
This weekend, while running the necessary grocery, bank, and post office errands, a basketball game came on the station we have tolerated for nearly two years. We aren’t sports fans and were desperate to find anything else.
It isn’t a horrible station, it’s one of those pop/rock Top 40 hits type stations that play a little of everything. Staying current on pop culture isn’t a bad thing and it did introduce me to some of the more contemporary rock artists, some of which I like a lot.
Sometimes though, I think if I hear Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus or Tim McGraw one more time, I think my ears might start bleeding! (Sorry, readers, I loathe Country unless it is the really old classics such as Patsy Cline or even Alabama).
In the city, I had no fewer than a half dozen stations programmed into the truck stereo. Here, if I find a station out of Springfield or Little Rock, it will go in and out, depending where in the mountains we are and usually won’t ever tune in at the house. (a very low quality “high speed” connection prevents us from streamlining on the Internet).
When we were looking on Saturday, we did find a wonderful new station out of West Plains, Mo., 93.9, Jack, which we also had in some form in Kansas City. Like the other station, it plays a wide variety of old and new, but only rock. Yay!
I’m so glad, as I can now listen to Robert Palmer, Skynard, Duran Duran and Fleetwood Mac in random succession and skip Miley’s “Climb,” Taylor’s “Love Story,” and Tim McGraw’s “Living Like You Were Dying.”
As we drove along, both of us enjoying the no-request Jack station, I turned the volume up to one of our favorites.
“This feels just like home,” Dale said.
Who knew something as little as a radio station could make our new hometown feel like home?
(As a post script), when we returned home on Saturday, I noted the call letters and dial number and ran to my office to see if I could find our new station and after wiggling around that little wire on the stereo that acts as an antennae, I did (never mind I had to put my photography umbrella up on the table where the radio is and wrap the little wire around it!) but now I can happily listen to the station while I work too!
Have you ever thought about the little things that make your home, city or town “feel” like home?
We listen to Radio Paradise on the computer here at the store. They ROCK!
One of these days I will be able to listen to any station I want on the computer!
I live on a small island where there is virtually no choice of radio stations — I think we have 2 and can pull in another few — none of which I care to listen to at all. A couple of years ago, when I bought a new car, it came with free Sirius XM satellite for 3 months and I became addicted so, when that ran out, I switched it to my house. Sure, you have to pay an annual subscription fee but, to me, it is worth every penny and more. I would give up almost everything else before I would give up my music — and yes, I am a classic rock fan as well, although I do listen to other stuff.
Hi, Olivia,
I love Sirius as well. We have it on the television as part of our satellite package!
Ahhh, the power of music! I love a good radio station over a CD anytime. Like you said, the randomness of it and hearing the voice of a DJ brings it all to life. Rock on!
Rock on, Megan! That made me smile this morning.
My taste in music run from classical to new age, to country to classic rock. I also like listening to nature tapes (thunderstorms especially when we were going thru our recent 2 year drought) Really enjoy native american inspired music as well…Nicholas Gunn has some good ones.
I listen to some others as well, but classic rock is my favorite. I used to listen to nature tracks when I meditated before our move. Now, all I have to do is open a window!
I moved from KC to Table Rock Lake in 1972. I've never been satisfied with a radio station since. So I created my own. I ripped all of my CDs onto my computer, bought a $100 pair of computer speakers, installed Winamp, and leave the "random" button on. The computer acts as a DJ that plays only my favorites! It even displays the album covers!
KC does have some great stations, even today. You have an excellent set up. I do have some of my CDs on my Mac and my iPod. Unless I'm in the mood for one particular artist or song, though, I just really enjoy radio.
At The Little House we have satellite radio on the television, so I can pick the era of classic rock.
Like you the move to this current house brought a change in radio listening. I like the new age instrumental jazz, but unavailable in this area. The local radio station, 99.9 KMOO, is country. I listen it mostly in the mornings to hear about the local happenings in the region. They really do lot for the community.
The local stations are great for their community involvement and for the news as well. I have been turning on the other pop/country/whatever station for news and weather this week.
P.S. Thanks for selecting me as the contest winner. I plan to put the book to good use!
Whenever I contemplate moving, which isn't even on my radar right now, the thing I have the most angst about is leaving my gardens. Not the plants, the soil, which I have nurtured and tended to for over 20 years. I could not imagine starting over with strange dirt. Home is in the soil for me.
You're welcome, Kristi!
That's interesting about the soil. When we moved I had to leave a plant my mother gave me when we bought our house (wrong time of the year to try to move it). I still wish I could have brought it with me.
I don't know what I would do without NPR, I'm a complete news junkie! I have it on every day in the afternoon,and always when driving in my car. It would definitely be hard for me to live anywhere I couldn't get reception for public radio.
It is funny how we all prefer to get our news fixes, isn't it? I can get NPR out of Springfield here and will listen to it sometimes, but I prefer reading my news or watching the evening news while I'm cooking.
Oftentimes the news can be such a downer and I need to be in the high where music lifts me when I'm writing.
This hit me in a big way when I moved to Paris, France in 1970, wow, 40 years ago. Now, of course, there's lots of American music on the radio there, more than French culture ministers would like.
Oh, my Paris in 1970? I bet that did make for some musical culture shock!
The thing that has amazed me so much here are the small cultural differences and we are just 300 miles south of our native city! Although we visited The Little House often before our move, these just weren't things we paid attention to before making our stay permanent.
That is a big thing, Mary. I am also feeling like I'm making some friends here.
What makes me feel at home/like home is a biggie.
This is the longest I have lived in one house or place. I am beginning to have friends and loving it.