How do you know you're old (& it's Saturday)?

There was a point when I was still living in Massachusetts, where I would listen to a certain Boston college radio station when I wasn't listening to National Public Radio. I was able to get the station on the dial, but ended up having to go to their online streaming at some point because I was finding it easier to have it on in the background when I was doing work in The Dungeon. I also was using the streaming service when I was out of state and connected to the internet on my laptop. I remember different types of music and sometimes NPR type news casts on that station, but what I always looked forward to, was Saturday and Sunday nights. 

Saturday and Sunday evenings was when the station played a block of kids music. Stuff we all grew up on and loved. Didn't matter if it was something from the newest cartoon, the oldest musical or the craziest Weird Al parody. They played everything. 

If I didn't listen on Saturday, I listened on Sunday because radio conflicts arose - it was either A Prairie Home Companion on NPR (which coincidently was another college station) or it was The Playground on the other station. I had my weekend priorities. 

Sometimes if I were traveling on Saturday mornings, I'd have it on for the "coffee house" block of music, but my favorite was still the evening stuff. 

I miss the ability to just turn the radio on and hang out, take a drive, or do something to take my mind off of life for a moment. These were things that I made in to routine and unfortunately, slowly started deviating from the routine. I moved and no longer turned on the stations I was familiar with. Streaming is great, but it's not the same as actually being there.

The longer I've been away from the favored moments, the more I'm researching if they still exist, and sadly, they don't. People grow up and old and styles change. What was once a hit for a decade, has been taken off the list and something new added. If you "can't teach a dog new tricks", then I'm not learning anything new.

I've not really noticed anything similar to what I once sought out, down here in Florida. The local NPR station airs the same news casts, day in and day out, but just formatted slightly different per hour - it's all the same information for the better part of four years. It's become too problematic to listen to the station now because I'm tired of hearing the same story get rehashed. The other stations that come in clearly (in my car) usually are religious (all in the name of Jesus and God), Spanish, Country and Rap / Hip-Hop. Occasionally I find a rock station or an alt rock station but every time I leave it alone, it seems to get bought by something completely different. 

There is a "Throwback  Hip-Hop and R&B" station here that 'brings me back to my youth', but I don't always listen to it. After hearing the same 20 odd songs play every day, it gets older than the year it was dropped. Played out. I think I heard Kris Kross' Jump three times in one week a couple weeks ago. Not that I'm saying it's horrible, but there has to be something else you can play - maybe from their second album? That's not to say I don't turn it up when it's playing, but 3 days in a row must mean there's nothing else to air. 

So change of station it is. Or I leave the radio off, which happens a lot more these days. It's hard to find a decent pair of headphones, or else I'd just throw a podcast on while I am driving, as using the Bluetooth on the radio is hard because it comes through so low. I have to turn my phone volume all the way up to be able to use "volume 7" on the car. And sometimes that's hard to hear as I listen to mainly talk stuff. 

I've gone totally away from what I was going to write about. But nostalgia is nostalgia and I tend to ramble and get off topic a lot. 

Today is Saturday. We've had a lot of cool weather this week - high 50s, low 60s. Windows have been open and I've got to drive with my windows open. We've had the windows open in the house all week too. 

So this morning I'm in the kitchen, making my smoothie and coffee, and I start getting the Newsies soundtrack in my head. More specifically Carrying the Banner, Seize the Day and King of New York (which happened to be the most played song on that kids show). Of course, I had to find the clips from the movie online and start watching them in full. You forget how young Christian Bale was when he did this movie - he looks all of 12, but I think he was closer to 20 when it was made.