Reminiscing

As I stand there looking at all the dishes piling up in the sink, on every counter, and on the stove, I remember the post-dinner routine when I was 12 or 13. I looked forward to cleaning the dishes, not because of the actual cleaning, but because of the accompaniment.

My parents gave me and my brother the chore of scrubbing all the pots and pans clean, I can only assume, in the hopes that we would acquire a good cleaning ethic. But we both hated it, so we'd pop a tape into the kitchen tape machine and listen to music to lessen the boredom and wasted time of washing dishes.

Without the music, it might have taken us 15 minutes to finish all the dishes. Because of the music, it usually took us between an hour and an hour and a half. The music in question was either a bootleg of the Allman Brothers at Woodstock '94, or some mix tape that had 'Freebird' on it.

Both of us have a natural talent for air guitar. We should probably start an air band and tour. This is what kept us in the kitchen all that time. 'Freebird' on repeat, 10 straight minutes of dual air guitar, over and over, with a few dishes scrubbed while the tape rewound, or while the slow first half played, until all the dishes were clean.

'Freebird' was the only reason to do those dishes. So now when dishes pile up, and I sit on my lazy ass in front of a computer, wishing I had 'Freebird' on a tape somewhere so I could get them done.