---

---

This week’s song brings me back to my high school days… so nostalgic!!

---

This month we’re going to recall Summer Songs. These will all be records that topped the charts during August.

1) Number 1 on the charts in August 40 years ago, the lyrics to “Shout” encourage us to “let it all out.” When is the last time you raised your voice?

In anger? A while. In jest, probably yesterday. We’re a joking, irreverent family, so it happens often.

2) This week’s featured artists, Tears for Fears, were a duo — Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith — who met as teenagers in Bath, the largest city in Somerset, England. Bath has been named one of The Great Spa Towns of Europe. Popular spa treatments include massages, facials, body scrubs and wraps, mineral baths, manicures and pedicures. If you could treat yourself to a spa treatment today, which would you choose?

A Thai or Vietnamese-style massage, which often include several of the above, plus some excellent stretching.

3) When they first met, one of the things Roland and Curt bonded over was that they were both raised by single mothers. Who was your best friend during your teen years? What did you two bond over?

My friend Susan. We bonded over the usual things teenage girls bond over. With the exception of music. She was into mostly dance pop, but I was into punk, rap, metal, and hair bands.

4) Curt’s wife, Frances Pennington, has had a long career in marketing, beginning in the record business and transitioning to fashion. Which industry do you think you’d enjoy more — music or fashion?

Music. I can appreciate fashion, but I don’t get caught up in it. Music, however… I grew up singing and playing instruments and continue to feel music in my soul.

5) Roland married his childhood sweetheart, Caroline Johnston. They were together for 35 years, until her death. Do you know whatever became of your childhood sweetheart?

Married with a bunch of kids, living not all that far from where he grew up.

Let’s look at the summer of 1985.

6) That summer, Chicago teenager Balu Natarajan won the National Spelling Bee. Are you a good speller?

I am. Ironically, my mom was an English teacher, and she sucked at spelling.

7) Tinker Bell took her first nightly flight at Walt Disney World in Florida. Do you recall which Disney movie introduced us to Tinker Bell?

I’m assuming Peter Pan.

8) Derek Hough was a baby in the summer of 1985. In 2007 he became a regular on Dancing with the Stars, acclaimed for his ballroom dancing. Are you good on the dance floor?

I used to be. Now injuries and health have tempered my sweet steps.

9) In 1985, Michael J. Fox became the first actor to have the #1 movie at the box office and the #1 TV show in the ratings. The movie was Back to the Future and the TV show was Family Ties. Have you seen the movie? Were you a fan of the show?

I’ve seen the movie a ton of times, the show regularly. I was a fan of the show back in a day. Doubt it would hold up today.