Travels with the King's Singers

I remember the amazing travels of our family in the early years. I remember how we all had our place in the car. Heather was in the back seat corner. Matt was also in the back seat in the other corner. That left Aaron and I to duke it out for the window seat in the front. With the advent of portable cd players, we lost something special from our exciting adventures. It was the music and car games put on by Mom and Dad! First, Mom would start us off with a rousing license plate game, then move on to "I spy with my little eye". After these games started dying down, Dad would seize his opportunity and pushed in one of The King's Singers cassettes. Then Mom and Dad got into this mellow mood and sit up at the front talking quietly and holding hands. We all remember this from the back of the car. The AC was blowing heavily on us, we had finished most of the candy Mom had bought for the trip and Aaron was staring intently out the window trying not to get sick. This is when I was forced to relinquish my window seat if I had secured it by some miracle earlier. So I sat there in the front seat without something to lean on. Everyone else was doing their own thing, and I felt sick from licorice mixed with wheat thin crackers and "healthy grapes" that Mom had packed. Without anything to lean on, I sort of slumped forward and let my head roll back and forth with the car as I tried to close my eyes. The King's Singers then came into focus and it was like they were always singing the same song, "good, good good! good vibrations!" I have since learned about the phenomenon called "classical conditioning". Pavlov's dogs are the perfect example of this. The King's Singers work in a similar way for all of us I believe. I sort of slump forward in my chair, get a pain in my belly, and start drifting off to sleep. There will always be the better association in my mind, however, of Mom and Dad holding hands, wearing their sunglasses, and talking quietly in the front of the car. Even though Dad usually didn't hear what Mom was saying, slowly nodding while she talked, it will always be a favorite memory for me of our parents completely content with each other. Your harmony as a couple is far superior to the dulcet tones of the King's Singers. And, even better, it doesn't make us all sick. I sure love you two and am so grateful for your marriage and love for each other. It has made my life so much better as a result.