“Crystal Blue Persuasion” – Tommy James and the Shondells
From Anthology

Sometimes, when I’m tired of the dead-end jobs I usually find myself in, I think about going back to graduate school and finishing out the MA I started 8 or so years ago. Yeah, I know my time's run out for finishing that one out. I’d have to start over, but when I left I said I was taking a year off, so it amuses me to think that this is all just one really long, freaking break. I think about how much fun I had in college, and what great things I could do with a higher degree.

Then I look at my wife. For as long as I’ve known her (and we’re coming up on ten years now) she has been a student. For as long as we’ve been dating, and then married, she’s been a graduate student. I’ve seen first hand the hard work, frustration, anger, and absolute horror being stuck in graduate school can be.

Like everybody who eventually attends college, during my senior year of high school I had to take the ACT exams. It was an all- day affair taking place at my local junior college in Claremore, Oklahoma. How I did on that exam would effect the colleges I could get into and the scholarships I might receive. "Nervous" is the word one might describe my feelings just before taking the exam; "petrified" is the word I’d choose.

On my way to the exam, that early Saturday morning, I heard this song, in cover version by Concrete Blonde. I didn’t even know who Tommy James was – I thought it was some crazy retro psychedelic juice being spilled by Johnette Napolitano and company. My surprise was great when I realized it was some “oldie” that my mother even knew.

Regardless of who sang it first, that song eased my tensions ever so slightly and allowed me to do fairly well on that exam. I went onto college and (partially) graduate school and lived mostly happy.

But I still have nightmares about those tiny little squares you had to fill in with a No. 2 pencil.

“Steamroller” – James Taylor
From Greatest Hits

My first two years of college I lived in the dormitories. I lived in one of those dorms that all the rooms opened up to the outside world, hotel-like. We even had our own bathroom. My particular dorm was on the far side of campus, and my room opened up to a rather large, open field. I suspect the powers-that-be have built something large and ugly there now, but at the time it was our playground.