I am thankful that this song has been on my mind all week, as funny as it may sound. I was in middle school when it came out in 1989 and remember vividly the constant airplay the song and video got. Although commercially popular, it never wore out its welcome in my ears. The morning I celebrated my Half Way mark as a missionary in Nicaragua, this song came on the radio (I know, I wasnt supposed to listen to the radio). I stopped what I was doing, sat on the edge of my bed, closed by eyes and listened more intently to a song than I recall ever doing before. Petty himself said it addressed nostalgia while explaining how hed reached this level of success. I, being from Southern California and recognizing the SoCal references, became weirdly nostalgic. But not for a home that was real, but an idealized version, a saccharine-sweet California that I never knew. As I watch the video again after all these years, that same glossed-over plasticine-nostalgic California is represented even through Pettys eyes. What is remembered is not what actually was, be that people, events or locations. We remember as we choose to remember, as it were. Orange County, California is where I was raised, but its not where I am from, and its definitely not a definition of who I am. What I have taken away from who I know, from what experiences life has given me and the person I craft from them is what is real.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 01:48:16 +0000
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