The First Album Played on Jimmer's iPod was...

First I want to thank everyone who voted in the poll.

Next - I want to tell you a story. (You knew that was coming.)

I love my girls so much, and like any father I want to find things to share with them. I've been fortunate enough to have many memories with my girls. Today, I want to tell you about one of the strangest.

Sweet Treats the sign said above the glass door, below on the shelves were cookies galore...

Say it out loud, in a sing-song voice. Kinda catchy right? It's from one of the books I used to read to the girls when they were little.

It's also the phrase that I found ringing in my head while playing hockey one evening about 10 years ago.

It's not a bad little rhyme, but it's not exactly hockey music. My first thought was; "Jim, if you keep this up you are going to get run (into)." I cussed a couple of times to "tough out" the game, and when I got home I immediately put a tape in my vehicle that would be much more effective for playing hockey.

I needed some really high octane, turn it up, bad mother music that could help me really take it up a notch. I wanted something that would take me back to my teenage days when I was that cocky kid riding around on my bike, boom box jamming and swinging. Music that would help me to remember to be that kid that wouldn't come off the ice.

I had the perfect album.

The next week and many thereafter I cranked that music from home to the rink, and actually played sort of good I think. It felt like it anyway. ;-)

The girls decided to come along to watch a game one night which is always really cool, but when K got in the car, (Delaney was riding with Mommy.) I looked at the tape; looked at her, looked at the tape, looked at her - The tape was AC/DC's Back in Black - the child was very young. Hmmm... What to do? Well, I wanted to play a good game in front of the fam so in the tape went, and so began the "pumping up the volume explanation." Kailey loved it. We rocked it out to the rink and had a great time.

We did that a few more times over the next couple of years and then one Saturday as we were headed out to one of K's first basketball games she asked for "the pump up music." Yes, I was surprised, but it was all good. Surely this wouldn't last right? It was just an “I wanna be like Daddy phase.” Right?

No, that would be wrong.

I'm happy (I think) to report that K rocked it out on the way to every game through the end of her basketball career in eighth grade. Delaney rocked it a little bit until she gave up the game this year, but not quite as much as K. I think part of the reason D didn't get quite as wound is that we only had one tape, and when the girls played in different places so we didn't all travel together K took the tape - with her sister's blessing.

For those of you who are wondering - I'm pretty sure Annette was secretly laughing, okay sometimes she laughed out loud at all of us, but we were having a whole lot of fun.

I thought this was all really cool until Kailey's 8th grade year when she and I would crank the volume and sing along and I realized she knew a lot of the words, a lot better than I did. (Though she claims she still doesn't know them all.)

I know the album is pretty much all raunch, with sexual connotations, drinking references, and on and on, but I mean – who knows the words - right?

Um, Kailey knows the words Jim you idiot.

Okay, better be an informed Daddy so onto the Internet I ventured. Holy Schniekes'!!! I quickly deduced that I didn't want to know all the words because I might have to explain some things to my daughter that even I didn't necessarily know all the details about.

Still, one evening driving home from Bww, (Because I’m a good Dad like that.) I talked to Kailey a little bit about Back in Black. I expressed my concerns about the many "adult" things in the song, and wondered if she had any questions. Did she want to know about any songs in particular - etc...?

It turns out - ALL of my concerns were completely unfounded. While K knew what the words and the songs meant, she didn't care. That's not what the tape meant for her. This was our tape. She shared it with her Daddy, and that was really all that mattered. (Yes, K I was paying attention.) Whew...

Alright - give me a minute here I'm all verklempt.

D - I'm not leaving you out. We all saw you banging your head back there. ;-)

Sharing AC/DC with my girls, from my childhood to my children's childhood. Does it get any better than that? Whoda thunk?

So, while a Billy Joel song was the first to echo through my iPod. The first album my friends was AC/DC's Back in Black.

Guess who was the first person I handed an earphone to?