dTunes

I was diagnosed with diabetes in June of 1986. The end of my senior year in High School. On the cusp of... well, everything. My school had a program called L.E.E.P., which allowed seniors to take exams 6 weeks early, and finish up their year volunteering for a local business. I secured a docent slot at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. I took the train downtown each morning, in sneakers and 'business clothes', wearing a walkman and pretending to be grown up. I considered my LEEP project to be the second coolest one that year: the first being my friend Cathy's gig, at the Philadelphia Zoo. She edged me out because she got to commute with, and work near, Brian Cuff. Sigh...

I listened to top 40 radio (I was a teenager, after all) for the hour commute into the city and the hour commute back home. As you probably know, the playlist for those times of day on a top 40 radio station usually consists of the same 4 or 5 songs, over and over. I knew that, at some point during the ride, my current favorite song would come on.

In June of '86, that song was Howard Jones' "No One is To Blame". For those of you not intimately familiar with pop music, mid-80's style, here's a snippet:

"You can look at the menu
but you just can't eat,
You can feel the cushions but you can't have a seat.
You can dip your foot in the pool, but you can't have a swim,
You can feel the punishment but you can't commit the sin.."

This, of course, was the time in my life when I was developing diabetes. The pounds were melting off, and I knew the location of every bathroom and water fountain in the entire Franklin Institute. The coldest fountain, by the way, is up by the library (staff only, sorry!) I missed the last few days, as I was spending quality time in the doctors office. I still haven't technically finished high school, as I believe I owe them some sort of report about my LEEP experience. Luckily, school was pretty understanding.

So, corny as it may seem, I have always considered that song to be my 'diagnosis song'. Some of the lyrics were highly appropriate (the bit about the menu, punishment without sin, and a line about a doctor and a cure). Hearing it brings me back to riding the train from Chestnut Hill, nodding off out of sheer exhaustion and probably due to ever climbing blood sugars. Counting the minutes until I reached Suburban Station, where I could stop and buy a soda to quench my thirst before walking down to work.

I know others who have a 'diagnosis song', or a memory that brings them right back to diagnosis time. What's yours?