July 23, 1967

There is a page on Facebook called Anything & Everything Music that pops up frequently on my feed, and it's so good. It is music charts whether it be yearly, monthly, daily, top forty, top twenty, and so on. Today, I was treated to the top ten for the day.

On July 23rd, 1967 was ten years old. It was Sunday morning and I was in my room playing Solitaire when my Mom and my sister Stephanie came in with wet eyes. Mom said 'Grandpop passed away.' I've never heard that expression so I asked what it meaned. Mom said, 'he died.'

So much information: A terrible new expression, Which Grandpop because Mom's dad was more energetic, and tears that I had never cried like  that. My first heartbreak. 

I always listened to the radio constantly courtesy of my two older sisters. Most of these top ten jewels are my favorites.  I never knew what was on that chart, but today it means so much. Light hits like 'Windy' and 'Up Up and Away' bring me back to the long rides to the mountains to bring my grandparents to their vacation destination. These songs are happy songs and I feel happy. 

More hits like 'Light My Fire,' 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' haunt me with their dark, heavy melodies and instruments that make me melancholy. 

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It was a simpler time up until that time. It was fun with 'C'Mon Marianne,' 'Little Bit O' Soul' and I liked that there were apostrophes in the titles. The rest on the list I loved even though I didn't know what they meant.

My maternal grandfather passed away 55 years ago today.  I was so devastated. I saw him a few days later and he looked like Grandpop. It was summer so there was time to think. Maybe this was the time where I grew a little because in time my Grandpop made me smile. I remember hearing 'Windy' picturing clouds and 'Up, Up and Away' with a nicer place than the one we live in now, and I still picture him on the way to Heaven. It's a nice feeling!

A lot of years, a lot of heartbreak, and the healing that happens, albeit the grief we endure.  I still think of Grandpop with a pause, then I smile because I knew him and I loved him!