GLEE is devoting a whole show to Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours Album!!
Rumor – Rumours. Get it?
Sometimes I am so clever I amaze even myself.
Anyway, when Kelsey told me about it last week, I about flipped out. GLEE is one of my favorite shows and Rumours is one of my all time favorite albums. In fact, it must be a lot of people’s favorite because as of 2011, it’s the 10th best-selling album in US history.
Truly, I love every single song on Rumours. Although I will admit that I got a little sick of “Don’t Stop” when President Clinton got elected and they played it over and over and over. But enough time seems to have gone by where I don’t automatically fast-forward to “Go Your Own Way” now.
For me, Rumours is kinda like Journey’s Frontiers– one of those albums that immediately transports me to another place in time.
You guessed it!
***Nostalgia Alert!!!***
When Rumours was released in February 1977, I was nine years-old. We lived just north of town (up by the German Church) where the new Wal-Mart and Super H Discount had just been built. I was in Mrs. Warren’s third grade class. My friend Greg lived down the street from me. I remember his family had the cutest little Pekinese dog who thought her dog toys were her babies and would gather them up from around the house and take them to her bed. Greg and I had lots of fun adventures (some of which included my bratty little brother.) We rode our bikes all through the neighborhood and played on the giant dirt mounds behind the Wal-Mart construction site. We also collected Squirmles and made houses for them out of old shoeboxes.
Honestly…the stuff I remember. I can remember bullshit like Squirmles but have no memory whatsoever of where in the world I put the ENTIRE CASE of kitchen garbage bags that I bought from our school fundraiser.
Anyway, also in 1977, my parents were very active in our local parish. They taught CCD classes on Wednesday nights and were part of a multi-denominational prayer group that met in the parish hall on Thursday nights. Most of the time, my little brother and I would tag along with them and hang out with the other parents’ kids. We’d spend the evening playing hide and seek outside or in the parish hall and then getting all jacked up on cherry Kool-aid. Fun times! But for some reason, one Thursday night we didn’t go with my parents. Instead, another couple’s teenage son came over to babysit. His name was Mike and he was 17. And I was in love with him.
I remember when he came over before my parents left. He made a comment about the Rumours album sitting propped up against my dad’s stereo system and my dad gave him permission to play the album on his stereo while they were gone. (I would just like to add here that very few people were even allowed to touch my dad’s stereo system. For sure not his two little rugrats. And I think Mom maybe got to play her Janis Joplin album once in a while whenever Daddy wasn’t home.)
Anyway, after the record finished playing, my bratty little brother was driving Mike crazy because he wanted to watch CHiPs on TV. Mike, my bratty little brother, was sitting on the floor in front of the TV and Mike, my handsome babysitter, was sitting on the couch not too far from me. I was a ball of nerves and butterflies. And I thought for sure my heart was going to beat out of my chest. He was so cute with his tousled, sandy brown hair and blue eyes. He didn’t have actual sideburns, but there was that one little tendril of hair that was begging to be tucked back behind his ear. So while he was turned and facing the TV, I timidly reached over and gently pushed this unruly piece of hair back where it belonged. He turned and looked at me with a bewildered expression. Then immediately scooched down a bit on the couch.
I was completely mortified and left the room to crawl in a hole and die.
But the good news is that’s not the only memory I have of Rumours.
In May 1993, right before Kelsey was born, Tripp and I went out for ice cream one night after dinner. Tripp sat across from me in the booth at Braum’s and watched in amazement as I inhaled an entire double dip, brownie fudge sunday. On a whim, we stopped at the music store next door on our way home. We happened to notice the Rumours CD on the sale rack and bought it right then. Once in the car, we immediately unwrapped it and put it in the CD player. We spent the rest of the evening driving around Stillwater with the windows down, music blaring, and singing our hearts out to “Second Hand News” and “I Don’t Want to Know.”
And you know what…“Love keeps right on walking down the line.”
Peace, Love, and Music, Kelly
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