Monday, October 25, 2010

Delusions of Grandeur

When I was a teen I was pretty sure I was going to grow up to be a rock star.

My parents worked in the afternoon so I was usually home alone after school. I often spent the time in our library which was this weird long room off the living room that had lots of built in bookshelves and my moms roll top desk. It also had a stereo very much like this one:


I would put on one of my many LPs and pretend I was a famous singer on stage in front of thousands of adoring fans. I was pretty sure that this was in my future because, after all I had such an unbelievable voice that who wouldnt want to buy one of my albums?

Some of my favorite vinyl were:







I'm sure there were many more but my old brain is having a hard time recalling them.
I also had a few even guiltier pleasures that truly dates me. 
As embarrassing as it is, this was the first album I purchased with my own money.... Shaun Cassidy (Do Doo Ron Ron) for $4.99 at Music Plus on Vine St in Hollywood. And it was warped and I had to take it back twice until I got one that didn't skip through the first two songs.



Then of course I had to have his follow-up album Born Late


Also in my girlie pretty boy album collection was Leif Garret (Oh god shoot me now)
What in the world is he doing with his hands??


And Andy Gibb, Shadow Dancing..... I think he took singing lessons from Michael Jackson


OK enough airing what a prissy girl with bad taste I was. The point of this post was to say that I was pretty sure I was going to hit the Billboard Top 100 by the time I was 25. 

Instead I was married and had 3 kids.

This tends to put a bit of a crimp in the whole "traveling around the world in a private jet with body guards and groupies, packing the stadiums with screaming fans night after night" thing.

So I decided since I could not have fame and fortune, it would be up to my children to make it big.

Funny thing about kids... they most often have ideas of their own that don't usually line up with your own.

They dabbled in fame here and there.... Chris did a commercial for Isuzu Trucks that was on TV for a couple of months... Sarah won several art shows with her paintings and as a baby Emily appeared naked in a magazine ad for a local hospital. Hopefully she got that out of her system and I wont be seeing her in Playboy anytime soon.

So even though these were more than satisfying enough for each of them, they were lacking a bit in the screaming fan department for my taste. But what are you going to do?

Well in my case I waited around for the next lot to get old enough so I could find out if I could interest them in singing career.

Neither really aspire to rock legend status but they are cooperative enough to learn a song and dance and perform in the school talent show.

I bought the DVD that the school had made, and while it lacked the hundred dollar a seat packed stadium, it was filled with adoring fans who would have paid anything to see the their own personal rock stars. And that was more than satisfying enough for the ones on stage.





Have no fear though, I still sing at the top of my lungs while in the car (trying to pass it off as if I am talking very loudly to someone on the phone) or in the kitchen while I cook dinner when the kids are tucked away in their rooms. I don't think those kinds of dreams ever really die, they just change venues.