Over the weekend, I realized that I graduated from high school 23 years ago. Let’s face it…high school wasn’t great for me. I was still the giant nerd I am today, but just wasn’t okay with it yet. Then I went off to college and everything changed for me… I realized that brains were a good thing and had an incredible cadre of professors and college staff that recognized my talents and helped me figure out what to do with them. When lots of folks gained the freshman 15, I lost it. I learned how to have fun. After that first year of college, I was a different person…and I went home for the summer.

I still have all my cassette singles…Check out these bad boys.

I remember being at Camelot Music one day (remember those?) looking for cassette singles (remember THOSE?) and bumping into a guy I’d known only casually in high school. I said hello and he didn’t recognize me at first. And then his response was, “Damn girl, college been good to you.”  It was. I spent a lot of that summer driving around in my 1983 Toyota Tercel and hanging out with high school friends. I dated a Marine. Worked a crazy number of hours dipping ice cream. Made a lot of trips to Philly to go dancing and hang out on South Street with Kimmy. But mostly, I listened to those cassette singles and counted the days until I could go back to school. It turned out to be an amazing summer, but my hometown definitely seemed a whole lot smaller. It hadn’t changed at all, but I sure had.

So, it must be fate that I wrote about Triple J’s Like a Version in my Spring Mix liner notes a few weeks ago and found myself late night YouTubing a bunch of performances last night. Triple J is this awesome Aussie radio station that does a segment called Like a Version where artists cover other artists. And last night, I found this version of Chet Faker covering Sonia Dada’s “Lover (You Don’t Treat Me No Good No More).” It took me right back to that summer in Bridgeton, when I must have played the original of this song a zillion times…  I can’t help but post it. It’s just too fun.

Here’s to the memories.