Note: I may have gone a little link crazy.
Around the time I finished high school, my dad got me a job at the warehouse that provided parts to his auto parts store. The job was to serve as a way for me to support myself through college, and I spent a good 4 or 5 years working there. As time went on, I got my friends jobs at the warehouse as well, until about half of the night shift were people I went to high school with.
Two of those people were Nate and my cousin Curt. Since we all lived in the same town, we would commute to St. Louis together. A feature of that commute was late night Mexican radio on KDHX, St. Louis' community radio station (something my new home of Indianapolis is really missing).
As Nate and I would joyously flail about to the latest sounds of what seemed to be the Mexican version of Bon Jovi, Curt would look on in disgust and voice his unhappiness with our musical choice. This only lead to the radio being turned up, and an increase in the ferocity of our dance moves. Eventually I'd turn on the wipers on my truck, scraping the windshield and rear window along with the beat, until everything around Curt was dancing. He'd react by calling us both idiots and making a sort of angry face. Good times.
It really makes me smile now, honestly. Maybe you have to know Curt to know how funny it is.
Eventually we moved on to different jobs. Curt went back to school and then ended up working for the border patrol in Arizona, Nate moved on to a career involving interpretive dance, and I took a job in Indianapolis.
After Nate got married, he and his wife paid us a visit in Indy. On this trip, he brought along an album that he said would remind me of dancing on the way back from St. Louis. It was Calexico's Feast Of Wire, and album that quickly became a personal favorite, but not because it reminded me of dancing in the truck, but because it reminded me of a romantic vision of a life out west. A 2004 trip to Colorado further fueled that vision, and a planned 2006 southwest vacation may push it even further.
In the meantime, Calexico gives me a little taste of what I see in my head.
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