Music: Why I'm Going To Be Deaf One Day

When I was little kid, my brother(s) would play music on a record player in the back bedroom. It had a built-in 8-track player, and different colored lights that would flash on the beats. Kinda disco. But there were no disco records. Oh no. It was KISS, Cheap Trick, Foreigner, more KISS...and occasionally, even some KISS. I would literally fall asleep on the floor in front of it.

By the time middle school rolled around, we had graduated from records to the wonder of cassettes. Oh yeah. The rattle of the tape! The Walkman! So, the headphones would go on, and the volume would go up. LOUD.

By high school, we were on a full-fledge cd revolution. The stereos started getting bigger. Fancier. Louder.

My first rock concert was the summer before high school, 1990. You guessed it: KISS. Then the day after freshman year it was off to Carowinds Paladium to see Poison. Then the next year, Van Halen. Then Aerosmith. Then I recall noticing that my ears never stopped ringing.

So, my love/obsession with music all my life has led to some tinnitus(sp?). Ear plugs are the norm for me if I go to a show. I preach ear protection to our teenagers. I didn't take care of my ears growing up, and because of this, someday I'll be wearing hearing aids. I should've listened to Dad years ago:"if you don't turn that down you're gonna go deaf!".

I would have listened, but I was probably too busy being inspired by Cinderella.
Adam