The Most Important Part of the Tractor

I've been thinking about the way music can reflect certain periods of my life, putting me right in the moment and making it seem real all over again. For instance, I heard Paul Simon's 'You Can Call Me Al' on the way to work the other day and burst out laughing at the thought of two high school friends performing the song on the stage at our county fair, recreating the Simon/Chevy Chase music video. Tracy Chapman's 'Fast Car' puts me right back in the passenger seat of the Cougar, driving around town at a snail's pace while discussing life's great problems. Garth Brooks' 'The Dance'? The funeral of a friend who died much much too young.

And so on.

So it cracked me up this afternoon when I called my dad to chit chat and found him in the cab of a tractor, pulling a disc. (A farming disc... you know, for discing up the ground? In preparation for planting. I didn't want you to think he'd done something to his back...) We talked for a bit and then I turned my iPod on, preparing to listen to a few tunes while finishing up an article, and heard 'Rosanna' by Toto. And it reminded me of a conversation with my Uncle Dave.

I was probably 9 or 10. And it was still cool to crawl into the tractor cab and ride along while dad and my uncles and my grandpa were in the fields. We were sitting on our farm and I was going to ride with Uncle Dave for awhile, but we hadn't even pulled out of the driveway because I was being quizzed.

U.D.: What's the most important part of the tractor?
Me: The key?
U.D.: Nope.
Me: The steering wheel?
U.D.: Nope.
Me.: The brakes?
U.D.: Nope. The RADIO!!!!!!!!!!!

And he reached up (tractor radio controls were on the ceiling) , cranked the volume dial, and 'Rosanna' blared out of the speakers.

With teachers like that, is it any wonder I ran the riding lawn mower into the side of the house?