Driving around in the snow, in search of a port of passage, I fumbled upon a radio station. This station is one of my favorites as it plays things from all varieties. Erratic is my style you know.

Mesmerized by the marvelous White Death, my mind drifted into a state of anesthesia...you know, the kind where you just don't care how bad the traffic is? The music was adding to my immobilized thought processes and for a brief moment I was completely satisfied with who I was, what I was doing, and the size of my bank account. But then, an interruption.

This wasn't a bad interruption though. No, this memory that was butting in was actually quite welcome. I hadn't remembered it in some time now. Perhaps it was repressed, but why put down something so shiny and clean? No matter, it's here and I'll enjoy it I thought to myself.

It was 1987 and I was 5 years old. My kindergarten class was having a show and tell day and I was going to be one of the show-ers and tellers that afternoon. I walked in with my favorite album in hand knowing that Mrs. SoAndSo had a record player for special occasions such as this. She gladly popped my parent's copy of Scarecrow onto the turntable and cued up my song to share with the class. My song, of course, was Small Town by John Cougar Mellencamp.

I remember being nervous as it started to play thinking, wait a second...no one ever brings music in to show and tell. That didn't stop Mrs. SoAndSo from getting things started though. After the song played for thirty seconds or so my teacher got everyone in the class to clap along with the beat. The entire class was clapping in unison (which is a miracle in itself for kindergartners) and she turned it up even louder. I can see an image of my 5 year old self grinning from ear to ear as that song played. When the song came to a finish everyone cheered and asked if we could play it again, and we did later that day. On that day, I felt like I was the champion of the world.

The day of show and tell playing my favorite song was one of the greatest single days of my life. What was one of your days of victory like?

Oh yeah...have a listen:

Allayna Teddie Winkler is my sister-in-law. My wife's youngest sister to be exact. She is fifteen and she writes songs and plays music. She's played at Kidd Coffee before and recently had a chance to play at Zen and Now Coffeehouse. I'm not sure if she knows it, but I love her very much and I'm proud of her.

My wife Allison took these photos: