Foreigner "Waiting For A Girl Like You"

There's a Steven Wright joke about driving cross country, with only 1 cassette in the car.

But this wasn't really a joke for the Finn Family. I only owned 2 cassettes, and both were in the car with us.

Now, the reason I only owned 2 cassettes, was that I had finally reach an age where my allowance was such that I could save up and buy my very own music purchases. So I was just at the beginning of my lifelong record collecting habit.

I was 12 years old, and I bought two very super cool hip cassettes: The J Geils Band "Freeze Frame" & Foreigner "4."

We weren't quite rich enough to afford a Walkman, but I did have my own tape recorder and some headphones, and knowing that we'd be spending close to 50 hours in the car together, I made sure to pack them.

It was 1981 and we were making our BIG first family trip, in the blue station wagon, to Disneyworld.

If you've ever driven the East Coast, you have probably spent a large portion of the trip spinning the dial, looking for some kind of consensus music that will satisfy the musical needs of the travelers.

(Yes, this story is so old, that I am mentioning things that barely exist anymore: station wagons, tape recorders and non-digital radio dials that actually need to be spun to be tuned)

By somewhere in Maryland, Dad was ready to try a change. He asked if what I had for my tape recorder.

I looked at the J. Geils tape. Would a song about a high school crush becoming a Playboy Centerfold pass parental muster? Uh, probably not. I passed Foreigner "4" forward.

The tracks were generically rocking enough that we were all tapping along as we made our way down 95. But there was actually some interest when "Waiting For A Girl Like You" came up. Even Mom could overtly like this one.

When the cassette finished, Dad popped it out, and to our surprise, "Waiting For A Girl Like You" was the first song that came up on the next local station we found.

And when that station faded and we picked up another, it was in short order that "Waiting For A Girl Like You" rang out again.

By this time, it was practically a game. We'd try to catch the song in each state we passed through. And we listened to the cassette a couple more times, too.

Between the trip down and the trip back, we heard the tune a couple dozen times. And even today, if by chance someone in the family hears that song, we immediately recall that trip to Florida.

I had this story on the brain, because my wife and I are taking the kids to Florida next week. And now, as a parent, I realized all the sacrifice and savings and planning that go into making a major family trip and I wonder and worry:

30 years later, will my kids mostly just remember a song they heard on the radio?


*fun fact: Thomas Dolby (not yet famous for "She Blinded Me With Science") is the playing the keyboard on this!