West Coast Aspiration

 Song 655: This week on the playlist you can hear California Dreamin' by The Mamas and The Papas, written by John and Michelle Phillips, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Growing up in a fundamentalist home, I soon found out, when the family saw the Fab Four arrive in February of 1964, that the parents, grandparents, and my older brother perceived the rocking sounds as being the devil's music, and only my younger brother and I liked what we heard. I tried to be a good boy as much as I could, but it felt difficult to curb my attraction to RnR, and in the spring of 1966, when Monday, Monday (Song 302) hit the charts, I could no longer resist that captivation. A few months later, on a visit to our Ohio relatives, I got to hear my cousin play the entire If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears disc, and I really enjoyed every song I heard, including this sparkler that opened side 2. When, a few years later, I moved to the Chicago area to become a college student, I had much greater freedom to dive into the music I relished, and I soon acquired the M&P debut album. Experiencing the frigid winter weather of that region got me to appreciate this piece's message even more, and when I found out about the moderate West Coast temperatures, I began my own California Dreamin', which I finally had come true in the summer of 1978. In the neighborhood where I reside now - the same one I grew up in - currently All the leaves are brown and the sky is often grey this time of year, although not always, and considering how chilly it can possibly get, I can't complain about any winter's day in the last month when I had to go for a walk.