I remember visiting my grandparent’s farm in Saskatchewan as a little girl.  In the evenings, after all of the chores had been completed, my grandfather would climb the steep, narrow staircase to the second floor where he kept his stringed instruments.  He would pull up a spindled wooden chair, select one of his many guitars or banjos, and proceed to strum and sing.  As a young girl, I loved going up there with him and perching on my own spindly chair to listen to him as he performed a concert just for one.  Sometimes he would play the guitar and sing songs I heard before on the radio.  Sometimes he would sing songs I am sure he made up himself.  But sometimes, on fun and rare occasions, he would pull out the 8-track player and sing along with the bands that joined us in the room. 

Now, an 8-track cassette is a unique kind of beast.  Unlike other forms of canned music, an 8-track tape has no end.  The tape winds neatly in the case and circles around endlessly, switching between tracks with the occasional off-key clunk.  On nights when the player came out, the music was as endless as the tape.  There were country songs.  There were western songs.  There were ballads and toe tappers. 

Even though my grandfather was a man of few words, our evenings spent together in the upstairs room were the best memories that I have of him.  Our conversations around music, instruments, and song lyrics gave me an appreciation for the qualities of tenacity, hard work, and love.  Replaying those memories is a way of anchoring my past to my present.  It is also a way to remind myself that strong core values never end, and that no matter what happens in life I have the strength of my own character and the character of family before me to keep me on track.

It has been a very long time since I was a young girl perched on a chair listening to my grandfather and the never-ending loop of the 8-track.  A lot of things have come and gone since then, and even though life might change tracks with an equally off-key clunk, memories of my past are as endless as an 8-track.