Aunt June passed away last year. Cancer. She was something of a second mother to me -- babysitting me till I was old enough to stick one timid toe into the social imbroglio that was my first blood-curdling kindergarten class.
As long as I knew her, Aunt June had one leg. She had lost the other to another cancer when she was still in her 30s. After divorcing her drunk of a husband, she was left a single mother to two teenage daughters -- Charlene and Doreen -- who, to me, were little more than rarely-seen strangers, off doing the typical things that typical teenagers do.
Despite her disability, Aunt June cruised along quite adeptly on her crude crutches -- baking her own bread, tending her own backyard garden, and making the best French toast in the history of all French toasts (lavishly-slathered with Log Cabin syrup and served alongside an oh-so-satisfying glass of Hershey's chocolate milk). (Alas, she also made me eat things like rutabaga, beets, and peas -- for which I'll never truly forgive her.)
Aunt June smoked like Bogart and often bellowed at her uppity puppy, Taffy, when Taffy took to yapping at random passing cars or less-than-stealthy mailmen. Aunt June let me watch "Sesame Street" and "The Electric Company" in the mornings, but the afternoons were hers. She liked her her soaps. I can't remember which were her favorites, but I can remember her sitting there rapt on her sagging sofa, smoking like Bogart, drinking iced-tea like a drinker drinks liquor, and every now-and-again bellowing at that poor, picked-upon puppy.
It wasn't often that Aunt June strayed from her weathered, white bungalow home with the rain-rusted, green-and-white-striped awning. But, when she did, she would drive me in her rusty, mufflerless Maverick to the corner store for cigarettes or iced-tea or sometimes all the way to Cass Lake to allow me the chance to sift through the sand, wade in the water, or just let the summer sun bake my brown hair blond. Those were golden days -- dimly-yet-well-remembered -- and forever resonant with the hope-above-hopes of enduring adventure and endless innocence.
Why do I mention these memories as preface to presenting my most pleasantly-remembered tunes from my BEST OF APRIL, MAY, and JUNE 2008 mixes? No reason, really. Just felt like it. And this IS my blog, after all -- so I guess I can reminisce and/or vent about anyone and/or anything I damn-well want. And now I've done that. And now I'm done doing that.
And here ensue those most pleasantly-remembered tunes...
Left-click [HERE] or [HERE] or [HERE] to download THE 7-YEAR-ITCH MIX: SUMMER 2008 mix.
TRACKLIST ---
01 LOS TESTIGOS NO DESCANSAN EN DOMINGO clint
02 OLD SHIT/NEW SHIT eels
03 KICK THIS CITY kara keith
04 CAUGHT IN YOUR TRAP the pigeon detectives
05 LET THE LOVE sandrine
06 PLEASE YOU the raveonettes
07 ROOKS shearwater
08 BABYDOLL the fratellis
09 COMMON REACTION uh huh her
10 ISLANDS creeper
11 WE HATE THE KIDS the indelicates
12 GET BETTER mates of state
13 PORK AND BEANS weezer
14 BLOOD FLOWERS tilly and the wall
15 FIRST TASTE OF TROUBLE the sweet serenades
16 WE WALK the ting tings
17 VIVA LA VIDA coldplay
18 WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG? the courteeners
19 THAT NIGHT IN AMSTERDAM the blue seeds
20 THE RICHEST KIDS this is ivy league
21 REVOLVE hush the many (heed the few)
22 SMILE the jayhawks
23 THAT GREAT LOVE SOUND the raveonettes
Left-click [HERE] to go to the 7-YEAR-ITCH: SUMMER 2007 mix.
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