Am I Who I Was or Am I Who I Am
As I thumbed through an old missionary journal from my late teens while posting here yesterday, I came across a brief entry that I found quite comforting. It seemed to cast a line across time to reassure me that, even after a journey of more than 30 years filled with seemingly endless, often wonderful, but also sometimes daunting change, I’m still me. And more importantly, I still rock!
Thursday, September 6, 1984: As of right now we are teaching 11 families and most of them are progressing… Also, on a different line, I heard some awesome heavy metal on 99 FM today!! Examples: Thin Lizzy, Ozzy Osbourne, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Ronnie James Dio, Foreigner, Ratt, Scorpions, Black Sabbath, Saxon, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Led Zeppelin, Def Leppard, Billy Idol. I wrote all those so that when I am old and withered I can read this and find my way back to the fountain of life and youth: HEAVY METAL!! “The Source”
And just for shits and giggles, here’s a note from 15-year-old me to my mom and stepdad that Mom kept. I guess seeking to foist share my music has been a long-running proclivity. (Note: “D.I.” stands for Deseret Industries, a Mormon Church-run thrift store. Sadly, I have no memory of what treasures I had found.)
Victim of the Fury 
The image of you as a young man of the church sitting down with your Mom to listen to Black Sabbath has made my Melbourne Sunday morning. Thanks.
(Yes, I know I just picked the most incongruent band from the unrelated radio list, but put it down to dramatic licence, would you?)
Nice! Actually, Mom might have been down for it: she was pretty supportive of my “hobby.” I owe her for expanding my early horizons to include Chicago and Blood Sweat & Tears.
The addition of classy brass to one’s musical palette is, overall, a good thing, I think.
I was a Mormon throughout the 90s and one of the big things that attracted me was the fact that if I joined, I wouldn’t be expected to burn my record collection. I still have a lot of regard for the faith but in 2000, I no longer wanted to follow all their rules.
Thanks for commenting (and for your role in spurring my previous post). Yeah, happily I never had to deal with much negativity about my music choices, which I know was different from your own experience.
You’re welcome and I can say that being a Born Again Christian in my teens did more to mess my head up than any heavy metal music ever could have.
Nice post – and it is awesome printing!
I enjoy finding these old files, especially when the younger versions of ourselves had such good taste – I can’t say all the mixtapes made by younger me have held up as well!
Thanks much. It is fun to unexpectedly run across some concrete record of one’s past self that doesn’t make you cringe. (Sorry for the delay in responding by the way. Your comment somehow got stuck in the spam folder. The bots probably took issue with the idea that anything other than keyboard strokes could be “awesome.”)