from 2007 to 1976 in less than a measure.....

I've always loved the movie "Back to the Future" because of the time travel aspect. Seeing something in a movie that you know is impossible in real life is part of the fun. But I believe that certain aspects of time travel are actually possible. Happens alot of times to me when I hear music.

A week or so ago I was sitting here at my desk working on a spreadsheet or some other sort of document when I heard the England Dan & John Ford Coley song I'd Really Love to See You Tonight. I was instantly transported back about 30 years to 7th grade at Blountville Junior High. (Yeah, I'm so old that we didn't have middle schools back then.)

Everybody had a study hall period in 7th grade at Blountville. I'd never had a study hall before so I didn't know what it was supposed to be like. But after talking to others about their study halls over the years, turns out Blountville's was unique.


Picture if you will a room about 20 feet wide and 60-70 feet long, with about 4-5 rows of desks lining the room longways, and a total of about 75 desks. About midway back sat a wooden pedastal about 6' x 8' with a desk and chair sitting on it. Mr. George Akard was the "teacher" for study hall. We thought he had one foot in the grave then; he was probably in his mid 60's but looked much older, especially to 13-year-olds. Just over Mr. Akard's head was a small shelf, and on that shelf sat a radio tuned into a top-40 AM radio station out of Bristol.

So we listened to music while we "studied" (at least, I was studying; I was serious about my academic life. I don't know about all those others who were just goofing off). Music like Silly Love Songs by Paul McCartney and Wings, Chicago's If You Leave Me Now, She's Gone by Hall and Oates, Still the One from Orleans, Gary Wright's Dreamweaver, Whatcha' Gonna Do by Pablo Cruise, and Brothers Johnson's Strawberry Letter 23. This was the good music from the 70's, not the disco stuff that they tried to do on American Idol Tuesday night.

See? Time travel actually is possible, if only in your mind.....