I was listening to my playlist yesterday while I was feeling more homesick than usual for a person who doesn’t consider themselves very patriotic. I added “Come Sail Away” to the line-up and let it play all the way through. I kind of avoid listening to Styx and there’s a reason for that. Anyway, I listened to the whole song yesterday and it reminded me of one of my bittersweet memories, thus the avoidance.
Fun fact: Tommy Shaw’s daughter went to my high school. I always thought that was cool…
Any who, I was 17 at the time and life was very difficult and heavy you could say. I was battling an untreated major depressive episode and operating on fumes more or less. I lost my best friend the year prior and I didn’t handle it well—whatever that means. I always had a close relationship with her dad and found him to be one of the kindest people with an incredibly soft side. He was funny and encouraged us to be kids. He’d take us on his jobs as a contractor and let us paint walls in exchange for spending money. We’d ride in his work van to the ice cream shop and he’d let us hang our heads outside of the window while we screamed the lyrics to Paradise City or Fat Bottomed Girls. When his daughter died, I’d visit him every week to check on him. He’d come to the coffee shop where I worked and bring me dinner. We’d sit outside on my lunch break and eat the “Kendall” dinner he packed. It would be vegetable soup, a side of mashed potatoes, pickles, a boiled artichoke and sometimes, macaroni and cheese. He’d bring the meal in a little cooler and he’d endure this weird meal with me just for the company.
The summer in-between my junior and senior year, he got tickets to see Styx at the outdoor concert venue nearby. He asked me if I wanted to go and I was stoked. He told me to be ready at 5pm sharp and he’d come pick me up at my house. On that day, I looked out my window and saw him standing out of the sunroof of a limo with his arms spread wide. Turns out he had a client who owed him a favor so he insisted we rode to the Styx concert in style. Not only did we ride in the limo to the concert but he took me out to dinner before we went, too. He took me to Cracker Barrel which in hindsight is more hilarious than it was at the time. I loved Cracker Barrel at 17 years old and so that’s where he took me to eat. If you’re unfamiliar, Cracker Barrel is not a place where you’d find limo parking… lol
We went to the Styx concert and we sang along to every song. I can still remember seeing him feel joy which made me happier than I could have imagined. For a man who endured cruel loss, he had a night where he enjoyed himself again. I, myself, felt this same feeling this year at the Fred Again concert. A core memory of mine where for the first time in a long while, I felt I could enjoy myself and exhale.
Anyway, here’s to Styx and Mr. Beach, my two old friends.