On the Radio - Melody Cryns

The radio blasted Led Zeppelin music as we bounced down the road in the Star Cruiser, me and all the kids. Sometimes the radio blasted Beatles music, or the Who, or Pink Floyd, but right now, “Been a long time, been a long time, been a long lonely lonely time!” blasted on the radio as the Dodge Aires Wagon that needed shocks and a muffler careened down the road, the teenagers and baby Megan strapped in her massive carseat yelling and singing along as I drove and Megan in her childish voice shouted, “The riva, mommy, let’s drive by the riva!”

“We are driving by the river Megan,” one of the older kids said, and Megan giggled and laughed.

Someone had hung a wind chime on a hook that was most likely once used for hanging clothes in the old car so it jingled as we drove along and made a tinkering noise that seemed to blend with the radio music. Peace and love stickers adorned the back of the Star Cruiser, the old Dodge Aires Wagon, which sometimes I was convinced made me a magnet for cops who stopped me for every little thing, a burnt out light, whatever. It wasn’t until years later that I would learn that my 15-year-old son took the Star Cruiser out a few times on “joy rides” with all of his teenage friends while I slept…never messing the car up, but still!

But today was a glorious cool day as I drove the Star Cruiser with all of my kids down River Road right outside Salem, Oregon. The kids loved this road especially because of all the rolling hills and every single time I drove across one of the small hills, it felt as if the car was about ready to fly and take off into outer space, thus the name of the car.

The radio always played in the car, whether it was the Star Cruiser or the red Ford Escort wagon I had before the Star Cruiser, and I still remember all three of my kids when they were much younger swaying in the back seat to “Hip To Be Square.”

The Led Zeppelin song ended and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Freebird began to play, the familiar beginning riffs filling the car, “If I leave her tomorrow, would you still remember me…’cause I’m as free as a bird now and this bird you cannot change!” Everyone knew all the words as the car leapt over another small hillside and everyone in the car laughed and I wondered if this was truly safe and hoped the car wouldn’t fall apart, but it seemed sturdy enough.

I didn’t know at the time that less than a year later, I’d sit in the Star Cruiser in the middle of the night,,, right after my shift at Hollywood Video, and I’d listen to the radio – to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Freebird and think of my mother and say, “It’s okay Mom, you can go now” and two days after that I’d be riding around with a metal box in the way back – that was “Grandma’s Ashes.” We had them for a short time before our ceremony on the beach when we scattered mom’s ashes into the ocean.

But for now, it was a beautiful, happy day in the Star Cruiser, the car my kids loved best, that I kept until it almost fell apart, and was able to afford a “nicer car” and the Star Cruiser went to where all good spaceships go when they retire and when the teenagers are no longer teenagers and Megan is no longer a baby.