After watching a movie called Ex Machina, Dave and I were discussing our earliest memories. It’s funny the things you remember.

When I was like four or five, one night my mom and I came home from a picnic and interrupted a break-in at our apartment. They set the end of the sofa on fire as they darted out the back door with our record player and miscellaneous knick-knacks. Without missing a beat, my mother unscrewed the lid to the jug and dumped the remaining Kool-Aid on the fire.

I remember the scent of sizzling Kool-Aid. There’s a reason we don’t drink the beverage hot.

When they made off with the stereo, they also took the lps that were on it. Cream (the album with White Room), Simon & Garfunkel Sounds of Silence, and a band called The Mob.

I don’t know what happened to the Cream album cover, but we were left with empty pockets for the other two. I still remember The Mob sleeve.

After an extensive Google search using a variety of key words (there are a lot of Mob related musicians), I found it. I don’t remember listening to their songs, unlike White Room and Sounds of Silence which I remember dearly, but according to Mike Baker, The Mob were, “one of the early rock bands that featured brass in the lineup. They were still charting records in the mid-1970s, and were quite influential on the Chicago scene.”

I was also able to download this album from iTunes. Crazy. I mean, there’s a very good chance that if I’d recalled this ten years ago I might not have been able to find it at all, but today, not only can I read about it, I can listen to it. It’s pretty good. Very Chicago-esque. The band, I mean, not the city.

I may still have the album cover, somewhere. Many years and many moves later. Not sure why I would have kept it, not sure why I would have thrown it away.

But this is where it gets very weird…

I not only remember the band name and album cover, I remember them coming to Rockford to play. I kid you not, I remember being around the band members. One of the musician’s girlfriends showed me how to make tissue paper flowers. Gigantic ones that were colorful and smelled pretty. I remember her scenting each layer of “petal” with  a dusting of perfume as she wrapped and fluffed. Their van was filled with flowers.

It’s funny the things you remember…

I would love for you to take a minute and dig deep into your memory archives. Please share something that’s funny you remember.