Tom's Albums

Everyone comes with baggage. Some figurative, some literal. As I may have mentioned before Tom had both...but mostly literal. I on the other hand have mostly figurative. But anyway...

Tom had stuff. A lot of stuff. Boxes and boxes of stuff. Stuff he loved and stuff he did not know he even had. Five wallets, 18 feet of CDs, notes from high school, six guitars, two turntables and albums. Lots and lots of albums.

We never had the turntable hooked up and he never played an album. But he had cases of music which he moved from apartment to apartment and house to house. And when he died they took up more than a closet.

At one point, copying a display, I got eight album frames. Tom picked his favorite albums and we placed them in the frames. We hung them on the wall using all the math skills we could muster. It looked wonderful and Tom was so happy seeing his music every day. The artists, the songs, the memories Tom so loved.

Today, there are different albums hanging on the wall. The albums Tom loved are with his sister now. His second tier is on the wall. Bruce Springsteen, a concert we went to and loved (he listened to me talk about Bruce's butt the entire show). The Blues Brother that cracked Tom up every time he saw them. And Shawn Phillips who Tom and I saw on our first real date at Fitzgerald's. Of course there are the Beatles and Donald Fagen - Steely Dan was the last concert we saw together.

But the truth is, there are a few others that were far more in tune with Tom's music than I. Donna, Hugh, and I and would go to dinners and within minutes I would be bored out of my tree as they talked music. For hours. And hours. I would change the subject to running and it would come back to Rush. I would talk about traveling and it would come around to the Rolling Stones. I would talk about politics and they would talk about U2.

Soon, Donna and I will update the wall of albums. It will reflect share experiences, musical taste, and a love of music shared by Tom and close friends. I'll keep you posted. Cheers.