Have you ever seen this movie? It's the typical John Hughes movie with great music and a teen romance that every girl wishes would happen to her. I bring this movie up because back in 1987 I so wanted to be Mary Stuart Masterson's character Watts. Although Watt's was a bit of a tomboy, she could play the drums and at the end of the movie got a nice pair of diamond earrings. I was a sophomore in High School at the time and I so desperately wanted to be a cool drummer. I even bought a pair of black drumsticks and carried them around in my book bag. I practiced daily on my bed and I was good ... real good (HA!).
It must have been the summer of '87 or the following summer of '88 when I went to Ireland to spent time with the family. My cousin was in charge of this variety group made up of kids in the town and they were putting together a show for the upcoming competitions in Mosney. The show was complete with house band. Of course, the first thing I wanted to do was play the drums so I sat myself behind the kit and started to pound. I was attempting the dramatic scene in this video where Phil Collins goes through the kit sort of like in his song In The Air Tonight (or was it a Genesis song? I forget) anyway, with this in my head I began to play. In reality, I just sounded like an untrained monkey that was banging on drums. The kid in the band shows up for practice and he's only 9 years old. He sits behind the kit and proceeds to blow me away with some U2 song (we were in Ireland remember). From then on, I never picked up the sticks again. Obviously, I was not meant to be a drummer.
You may be wondering why I bring this story up now (maybe your not). Well I have just learned to knit and I have been carrying around two sticks with me. It reminded me of my brief dream to be a drummer but it just got me thinking that maybe I should have learned to knit back in High School instead. Maybe in exchange for a scarf I can finally get those diamond earrings, which is what I really want anyway.
