Street! Not String!

RR’s musical memory is insane.  We have a, quite indulgent, six CD changer in the Volvo.  Currently, it is loaded with three Music Together CD’s, a mix CD that these ladies gratefully made for us, Adele’s 21 (that kid LOVES some “Rumour Has It”), and my wife’s Valentine’s Mix CD for me from this year, which has RR’s other favorite trendy track, “Thrift Shop” (“The one with the bicycles, Mama!!”)

RR’s memory means that OUR memory has to be spot-on.  It’s like a constant game of “name that tune.”  Not only with one CD, though, but with SIX.  Good lord, why.  A future DJ in the making, she likes to make her own playlist.  Thankfully, she’s not a “play that one again!!” kind of kid, but more of a.. “hmmmm…. now what.  I know.  Play the train song.  No.. the OTHER train song.”

To her (and our) credit, when the next song comes on, she’s been raised to say “next please!” instead “AAAAHHHH!”  Parenting win!

Back to the game.  There are a few obstacles.  One is knowing which song she’s talking about.  Step fucking one.  “Bally Bee” = “Ally, bally, ally bally bee.”  (That’s an easy one.)  Step two is knowing which CD that song is on.  Step three is knowing which track (usually 1-25).  If all steps are completed, you’ve won the game!  Yay!  But that’s just in time to play again when the song is over.

Some CD’s she’ll just let play through.  Yay for that.  Sometimes she wants them turned up LOUD MAMA LOUD!  Sometimes she wants ONLY ME (usually the driver) to turn it up.  Those are the most fun days.

Sometimes, though, you lose the game.  Sometimes, you lose at step one.  And man oh man.  This morning, we cycled through CD’s 6, 5, 4, and 3 looking for “The String Song.”  WTF?, my wife and I think.  String?  Spring?  There’s a Spring song.  but it’s not that.  I, falling into some kind of PTSD, remember this SAME CONVERSATION with RR last month.  I solved the riddle then, but I couldn’t remember it this morning.  Definitely not anything to do with Spring.  OR Springs.

Thankfully, we arrived at school before my failure was obvious.  RR was very patient.  After every “wrong” song, she’d calmly say, “Nope.”

This, of course, didn’t stop me from continuing to hunt for this damn Spring String song after we got back in and drove to work.

And then there it was.  CD 2, track 19.  It’s STREET.  “As I was walking down the street, down the street, down the street, Hi Ho Hi Ho Hi Ho!”  I threw my arms up like I had scored a Super Bowl touchdown just as my wife (laughing with me) got out of the car at her office and I did a small victory dance.  Man, I’m gonna be excited to crank that shit up loud when we pick her up today!

Who needs to do crosswords to keep your memory sharp when you have a music game with your kid every single morning?