When I was little, my parents divorced. My Mom remarried and lived with her husband, my Dad lived an hour away (where we all live now). My Dad got my brother and I Sunday-Tuesday, and Mom had us for the rest of the week. During the weekly hour car ride to and from my Mother’s house, my brother and I begged our Dad to listen to two Disney Classics CDs I’d gotten for my sixth or seventh birthday. It was either those two, Metallica, Iron Maiden, or the Cars (strange variety, I know). Volume One was a blue CD and Volume Two was red. Volume Two, the red disc, track 12 was my favorite song.
“Let’s Get Together” as sung by Hayley Mills from “The Parent Trap”. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that I loved that song because a part of me wanted my parents to get back together so we could be a family again. I knew, as I know now, that it wouldn’t and will never happen (both my parents are happily remarried) but I was young and naive and hopeful. What else could I do but request, “Red disc number twelve, Daddy!”
My Dad would sing along to the songs sometimes. He liked the ones that said girl a lot because he always changed it to squirrel. My favorite memory of him during those tragically long back-and-forth car rides was him singing along to The Little Mermaid with me and making me giggle by singing “You know you wanna kiss the squirrel!” Just to make me act up and tell him he was doing it all wrong. Or if you said “Country!” he would spazz out and pretend to die because my Dad can’t stand country music. Neither do I, really. I’m Daddy’s little rock-‘n-roll rebel child.
But I digress. I don’t know if Disney meant to do it, or if that song was just part of a film meant to entertain, but when Hayley recorded both halves of that song…she recorded a song that would be my ray of hope in a time when I was very confused and very sad. Thank you, red disc, track 12, for always making me smile. And thank you, Dad, for always playing it.
groundlingsup 