It's Just A Thing, Right?

No time like right now to do some long overdue spring cleaning, right? What have you gotten rid of recently that you held onto too long?

I was surprised how easily I initially agreed to let go of the PA system I bought in 1976 to use in my - then new - solo act. I carried that system in and out of dozens of bars over the next few years, plying my trade. Though I never counted, I'm sure I did well over one hundred and fifty auditions using it.

When my wife and I met in April 1978, I was singing through that system; it was the same one my next band used rehearsing in the basement of the first house we purchased in 1983; the same house we were married in that year. During my wife's 1988 pregnancy, she swore the baby would react each time she heard my singing voice coming from that system, though when others in the band sang, the baby remained still. I clearly recall nights our newborn daughter slept peacefully through rehearsals as that system amplified our voices. And, the first time my daughter sang in front of people - at a party in 1995 - it was through that system. The song was My Favorite Things. 

I continued to use it sporadically after my last band dissolved, including a few nursing home gigs my daughter and I did early in the millennium. The last regular use it got was with a duo that lasted from 2003 until 2011. From 2011 until earlier today - when it disappeared from the curb soon after I carted it there - that system mostly sat in the garage. Aside from inertia, what drove me to hold onto this old unused thing for almost a decade? A lot of musical history probably had something to do with it.