My 60 Years of Life Through Music

I begin typing this during halftime of the Wisconsin vs Oregon Rose Bowl Game. Plan on watching Georgia in the Sugar Bowl and then get some sleep – I have to wake up bright and early to be in line at DMV tomorrow morning to renew my Drivers License – I promised the nice lady there a biscuit when I gave up Monday because of the long line. UPDATE: Got to DMV Thursday morning at 7:48am – doors open at 8:30am – with 8 McDonalds Sausage Biscuits – line is about 100 deep – doors opened at 8:30, I went towards the kiosk line, nice lady was there, I gave her the bag of biscuits and she gave me a hug – was out the door with my new driver’s license at 8:54am 🙂

I was born on January 3rd, 1960 to an awesome family. I had an amazing dad, https://limbaugh2020.com/dad-my-advice-to-graduates/ that we lost way too soon:

and a loving mom, https://limbaugh2020.com/mom/ that we lost last July

I grew up in a cotton mill village house that was always filled with music. Papa loved his John Philip Sousa,

and Lawrence Welk (Papa loved Polkas and the Lennon Sisters)

We got the first color TV in the neighborhood, a huge Curtis Mathes, in 1970 when I was 10, because Papa’s VFW friends told him Lawrence Welk looked better in color – it had a radio in one end and record player in the other. I probably watched this with Papa when I was 6 on our black and white TV:

Mom and Dad loved their Decca and Sun Records. I grew up hearing such songs as

to

to

to

It is funny what you remember growing up when you are about to turn 60 years old! Mom loved

and

My sister Johanna loved

and my sister Jerrie was a huge Three Dog Night fan

Mom also loved to play the piano and organ…

In elementary school we had ‘music day’ and you brought in your spindle case of 45s and drew names out of hat of who’s turn it was to play a song. I had a whole spindle full of 45s (remember the little plastic yellow things?)

Some of my 45s were these songs:

My sports teams were instilled into me early in my life, 1966 Alabama football when I was 6 and you had to declare a team in first grade and Sunday School, Boston RedSox when I was 7 because they were playing Papa’s Cardinals and I fell in love with Yaz, Cubs (Ronnie, Ernie) in 1969, Celtics (Jo Jo White, John Havlicek) and Washington NFL team (Sonny Jurgenson, Larry Brown, Charley Taylor). I have never wavered from those teams although I did become a huge Johnny Unitas and later Bert Jones fan – I just loved they way they played – I had the Johnny U ‘shuffle’ down pat!)

I can remember when Daddy got sick and our last family camping trip in the Summer of 1971 and going to summer camp in 1972, singing Okie from Muskogee as a solo at camp (I made all-state choir in the 7th grade, was advised by both the school and church choir directors to take up a musical instrument in the 8th grade – LOL) and two days before camp was to end Aunt Liz and Aunt Lot coming to get me because Dad was getting worse and was about to pass away.

Mom’s go to song when Dad died was

and

How Great Though Art would become Mom’s ringer on her fancy water proof, break proof, cell phone she was so proud of…

After Dad died mom went to work and going to school at night to learn to be an LPN and was still taking care of my, my two younger sisters, and Papa until we lost Papa.

I can remember hearing …

and thinking it was Lynyrd Skynrd because it sounded like

My best friend Stevie from the time we were born bought albums by people like

and

and

and

and Pink Floyd (We loved our Pink Floyd!)

I was more of a Doobie Brothers

and

and

and

and

and

I remember falling asleep many a night to

Funny how you remember things. I remember loving this song

(Love how movies are using old songs!)

and

and I was a HUGE Chicago fan

I can remember Stevie and me making mixtapes for girls… Good Times!

After Papa passed away Mom remarried and we moved to Manchester, Tennessee and then on to Smyrna. Growing up I spent part of my summers at Uncle Ernest and Aunt Ophelia’s house (they were really cousins but a lot older and I just grew up calling them Uncle and Aunt) in Wartrace and I remember playing these two songs a lot at Schaffer’s Whispering Oaks Campground while playing ping-pong or swimming:

Growing up in Smyrna, I had my KDF FM 103 window sticker (back when it was one of the best FM ROCK stations in the country) and listened to the KDF Top 100 every Labor Day and Memorial Day Weekend – First CD I bought in Holland in 1983 was “Yes Fragile” and I still have that CD and it still plays! “Roundabout” was always #1:

The songs I jammed to in my 1970 Chevelle Malibu SS with my 6×9 Jensens in the back and 5″ Craigs in the door with my Radio-Shack purchased Craig 200-watt slide-mount AM/FM 8-track player was:

and of course (Frampton Comes Alive 8-Track was so long sometimes the player would eat it – UGH! Kids don’t know about having to clean 8-track player heads – slide-mount helped there – clean them in the house!)

One of my first serious girl friends in Smyrna gave me this album for Christmas my junior year (her senior year)

Top Songs of 1978, the year I graduated High School (Loved me some Meatloaf!)

Mom, for years, scolded me for ever losing her. She was awesome! The last time I heard, she was happily married and living in Louisiana. I went on to marry my high school sweetheart I had started dating then. One night we were out at the lake, and after telling her I never get stuck, we got stuck in my 1970 Chevelle Malibu SS. I carried her until we got out of the mud and then we walked to a house we found to borrow a phone to get help. I remember telling her we would be telling our grandkids about this and she laughed. I wish she could tell them, we lost her to ALS. We would sing this song and talk about that night after we got married:

and I loved singing this song to her driving down the road:

We loved music – she loved her

and

and

We saw Little River Band and Rod Stewart Live in Schüttorf, Germany in 1983!

https://www.setlist.fm/festival/1983/schuttorf-open-air-1983-7bd6f20c.html

We are in this video somewhere – LOL!

I started liking

and

and

When we got back from Holland I started working long hours and traveling and we became more and more distant and I found slowpitch softball and she was stuck at home raising our three kids and I knew she was not happy. We had a strange divorce. We went to one lawyer and we agreed on how much child support and everything and we lived together for about 6 months until I saved up enough money to get my own apartment and another car, since I agreed she could keep the new Ford Escort we bought when we got back from Holland (I didn’t want her having car problems with 3 little kids in the car!) I sang these two songs to her (I can remember it like it was yesterday)

and

One of our favorite movies was Streets of Fire, A Rock and Roll Fable.

I remember the night I had to walk to work because the car I bought didn’t start and I had to get some stuff done for a customer factory acceptance test, and it was about a 6 mile walk in the rain, I had a walkman on listening to

and thinking how much I missed her… She remarried. I never did…. If I hear this song I get a tear in my eye and remember our high school dating times..

I did meet someone else though. I was a beautiful day in May. She had on a yellow summer dress with big orange polka dots and pretty orange shoes – years later she told me I was wrong, she didn’t have that outfit, and I went to one of her many closets of dresses and shoes and showed it to her and we laughed. I miss her:

Our slow-dance go-to song was

and we loved to dance to (we would do our “Eye-Eye” with our fingers – LOL!)

and of course what became my signature, girls ask me for my autograph, legendary STOMP:

Since I am typing with with 2:38 left in the Rose Bowl and my 60th birthday is in two days, I guess my goal of marrying her before I turn 60 is about to not be achieved – LOL! My songs to remind me her are:

and

On Sunday afternoons, I would sit in the back yard and listen to these songs and others and think her – the kids told me I was playing my ‘stab yourself in the eyeball’ songs – LOL!

I have been blessed to have made some other great friends over the years! One Alabama football-game friend of mine is happily married and living in Florida now with her husband and grown (did I mention I am old?) son. This song was the song I dedicated to her years ago (she is awesome!) – I love how facebook keeps us friends!

Instead of a song, for another one of my Alabama football game friends, and still facebook friend, that is also happily married, is a movie scene – we used to go out together and I took her to see this movie – and to this day she still tells me this:

Another best friend is an ex-coworker in Atlanta who can do an awesome Bob Dylan covering other people’s songs – he rocks!

When Brenda was diagnosed with ALS I had to leave my Atlanta job and move to Murfreesboro to raise our 3 kids and take care of her.

https://limbaugh2020.com/about-us/

I rented a house and moved Mom in to help watch the kids and rented a hospital bed and we had a nurse come check on Brenda for time to time. That was 1992. She became too ill around 1995 and had to go to a nursing home and passed away in 1998. She was in an experimental program at Vanderbilt, one of the reasons we had her in our life for so long, and a condition of that was we had a memorial service, not a funeral, because she went to Vanderbilt to be studied.

One night Luther Vandross was coming to MTSU for a concert. My daughter was a huge En Vogue fan and they, along with Lisa Stansfield, were the opening act, so I took Tricia to her first concert.

I was there for LUTHER! One of my life-theme songs (and a HER song) LOL!

and every Fathers Day I play this song several times (it will be different next year with Mom gone!)

We lost our sister Johanna to a heart attack on August 24, 2003

A few years later we would lose her fiance Ronny to a heart attack as well. 

My go-to songs later in life have been

My 2016 Presidential Campaign song was

My 2020 Campaign song is

The last two concerts I went to were Anthrax/Slayer at Municipal Auditorium with an awesome friend that had just been cleared to go out in public after kicking Leukemia’s butt and

Pablo Cruise at 3rd and Lindsay:

As you can see, I love all kinds of music, from (Another HER song ) LOL

and

to Buffett (I saw him 3 times in 2 weeks one summer, Atlanta Lakewood, Birmingham’s ‘Barn’ and Engel Stadium in Chattanooga) – 20 years too young:

(I lived in Biloxi for 6 months once:)

My Sunday afternoon HER songs include

and

My morning wake up song is

I still love my Eagles

My go-to Karaoke song is (Make sure you use the right version! There are 2 different ones)

I like the new stuff

and the old stuff

and I will close with the song my best friend for almost 60 years sent me the day Mom died (Georgia is about to score, at the 6, 0-0, 1:23 first quarter and I am starting to tear up for some reason?)

Thank You to everyone who has ever been a friend, a customer, or a stranger who said hi! I love ya!