An Admission

Okay, I'm going to admit something that not everyone knows.......


I love Lionel Richie!!

So it's not a really dirty little secret, but it could be kind of embarrassing in some circles, I guess. You couldn't really hold it over my head and blackmail me with it, however.


I had one request for my birthday this year. I wanted 'Lionel Richies first album, appropriately titled, Lionel Richie. You know the one. It has "Truly" on it. I fell in love with that album when I was fourteen and babysitting. I used to sit for this couple who were real partyers. (My mother doesn't know this! She does already know I love Lionel, though.) They would go out and wouldn't come home until the wee hours of the morning. So by the time I put the kid (yes, just one) to bed at 9, I would have at least 5 hours of uninterrupted time to watch "Saturday Night Live" and other shows I wasn't allowed to watch at home. However, this was the "olden" days, as my kids call them. There were only 5 channels on the television and the "Star Spangled Banner" or "Taps" or whatever it was played at 1 am and they were gone. So, I was left with several hours to kill. Because I was a goody-goody, (Gee, I'm admitting a lot in this post!) I was afraid to fall asleep. I thought they would come home and find me asleep on the couch and be mad because I wasn't watching the kid! Looking back now, I realize that they were so stinking drunk at 2 am, they probably didn't know they had a kid, much less what my state of awareness was.


ANYWAY, back to Lionel! I discovered the cassette tape on top of their stereo on night. Do you remember that the stereos used to be the size of a bookshelf with twin tower speakers on either side? I put it in and put on the mongo doughnut headphones (didn't want to wake the kid! What was that kid's name, anyway???) and heard the beginning stains of "Serves You Right". I was hooked! After that it was me and Lionel forever! I actually bought my own cassette and wore it out by my senior year of high school. I wasn't babysitting any more, but I was still jamming with Lionel! I will forever remember him as the guy that kept me company those nights.


So, this year, I asked for that album on CD for my birthday and my husband, who follows most gift-giving instructions to a tee bought it for me. I love it just as much now, as I did then.


This prompts the eye-rolling from the children. Again. Oh well. Having said how much I love Lionel, I need to say as a mother, (getting on my soapbox) that I'm not pleased with his child-rearing skills and the morals he has instilled in his daughter, but that's a whole other story......