The Back Door of Rosa's

Last August, in a post titled Both Sides, Now, I mentioned about my Pavlovian response to country music . Some country music makes me sick. Literally sick. Headache, Nausea, Dizziness. For the longest time I figured I just had a great dislike for this music.

Sometime in my twenties I figured it out. The only music that made me sick was the music my Mom played when she drove me across town to nursery school before I was 5 years old. With being small and seated on the seat, I couldn't see out the windows, so I often become car sick. My mother's radio was always tuned to the local country music station playing Hank Williams, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton, are a few of the names I remember of the music on the radio. The country music I heard years later did not have the effect on me. I've never liked country music much, but there some country artists that I like and respect, Willie Nelson being one of those. I also enjoy authentic Bluegrass music, but even now, over 40 years later, when I hear those songs that were played on the radio when I was getting car sick, I still become physically ill.

Where did all this mental conditioning took place? "Out in the West Texas town of El Paso........"

Steve Martin version: El Paso (spoof)

Now if I can only stop drooling everytime hear that song. This is another freaky thing about me. When I lived in El Paso, my mother often took us to this German Restaurant, Augusta's Stube, and the owner would play that Marty Robbins song over and over and over again while we dined on Schnitzel and home-fried potatoes. That song makes me hungry for German junk food. Until today, it had been years since I heard that song. Weird! Because I avoid junk food these days. DAMN IT!

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