Side By Side, And Locked In Tight

I'm pretty obsessed with the country song by Keith Urban - Cop Car.

The first time I heard it, it just really took me back to being young in my home town. And let me tell you, my home town is one of those places. A place that is a living, breathing, drinkin' country song. Church pew or bar stool kind of life.

The song is more than just a good country tune. Just reminds me of being young and so so innocent, even though you thought you were so tough and adult and mature. Laughable. And, thank goodness, I grew up in a time before internet and social media. We talked to each other one on one or land line and that was the only option. Boys asked you out to your face in the hall at school or, if they were pussies, called you at your house, on a land line, when your dad answered and asked who they were and then handed you the phone with a stern look on his face. They had to promise to one of your parents they'd drive safe, keep you safe, have you home on curfew, with a clean record and your hymen intact. (that last part was implied through the look in your father's eyes, silently standing behind your mother)

It was a time when boys would totally pledge their hearts to you after one night of warm Boons on a back road holding hands. And if you got in trouble together, like in the song? Oh man. That boy was yours forever. Nothing a country boy loves more than seeing a sweet girl lose her temper. And the cops in my town did a pretty good job of keeping us just scared enough to behave a good percentage of the time. They'd take our booze, let us off if we promised to go home. But not before they cuffed us and set us in the back of their car while secretly laughing to each other to really make us cry or really shut us up. Nothing sounded more menacing than the sentence "Can I call your parents to come get you?".

As kids, we weren't trying to text each other naked pictures or score drugs, for fucks sake. We were holding hands and running through fields to a keg party and a bonfire where we'd get just drunk enough to pretend to be really drunk and fall down laughing. We feared our parents and we feared not being let out of the house again because that's how we communicated and that's where our fun was. We bonded face to face, hand to hand, or toe to toe - if we got pissed.

Sometimes I think about it and it all seems so simple and ignorant, and maybe it was, but man, I wouldn't change it. You never get to have that innocence again. Not just the innocence of holding hands and falling in love while getting in "trouble", but the innocence of running through a field of wet grass, dodging your curfew, not worrying about climbing the work and social ladder.

I read something the other day - "forget your age and live your life". Man. Truer words were never put on a Pinterest pin! Hold on to parts of that youth. You'll be much happier if you do. And remember that feeling in the back of that cop car. It doesn't get much better.

"By the time they let us go, I was already goooooooone!!!"

I was already gooooooone - for your listening pleasure.