Very few songs genuinely remind me of when I was child. There are several songs out there that are about the subject certainly, I've just never found myself to be terribly captivated by them.

The songs that truly remind me of when I was young enough to actually have fun at Chuck E Cheese's are all in Spanish. They are either the Ranchero music that my parents used to listen to on Saturdays after they had kicked us outside to play or the funny kids' songs written and performed by a man that I only know as Cri-Cri. They're cutesy little songs that are about animals doing funny things or kids learning valuable lessons about sharing, etc. I've forgotten them all and my mom only has them on vinyl. But now she plays them for her first graders who reportedly crawl around on their hands and feet pretending to be elephants swinging in a spiderweb.

The song these days that really inspires nostolgia in me is REM's "Nightswimming." There are two things wrong with it though. I first heard in high school, and it still reminds me most of high school. And I've never gone night swimming, except at the public pools in summer with my family.

But still. It's a great song.

Nightswimming
REM

Nightswimming deserves a quiet night.
The photograph on the dashboard, taken years ago,
turned around backwards so the windshield shows.
Every streetlight reveals the picture in reverse.
Still, it's so much clearer.
I forgot my shirt at the water's edge.
The moon is low tonight.

Nightswimming deserves a quiet night.
I'm not sure all these people understand.
It's not like years ago,
The fear of getting caught,
of recklessness and water.
They cannot see me naked.
These things, they go away,
replaced by everyday.

Nightswimming, remembering that night.
September's coming soon.
I'm pining for the moon.
And what if there were two
Side by side in orbit
Around the fairest sun?
That bright, tight forever drum
could not describe nightswimming.

You, I thought I knew you.
You I cannot judge.
You, I thought you knew me,
this one laughing quietly underneath my breath.
Nightswimming.

The photograph reflects,
every streetlight a reminder.
Nightswimming deserves a quiet night, deserves a quiet night.

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