These are particularly personal tales about a significant moment in someone's life, with a song to match.
There's no hard or fast topic for the stories featured on Changing Tracks, just "a song that was playing when your life changed tracks".
Send yours to: melbournedrive@abc.net.au.
This week's Changing Tracks is for Roxy.
I grew up in the 70s and 80s during Apartheid in South Africa. What I've since learnt, is what I knew as 'normal', apparently, wasn't 'normal'.
Normal for me was hearing a siren go off at 9pm – and I knew all black people had to be off the streets. Normal for me was having a live-in maid, Poppy, who cleaned, ironed, cooked delicious meals, and took care of us when my parents went out – but when it came to caring for her own children, they were banished from the age of six to go live in the townships with their grand-parents. Normal was if Poppy's husband wanted to come visit her at our home, he needed a special 'pass' to be in the white area.
Normal for me was having holidays with the family, and as we lived near Johannesburg, we'd go on long drives to the coasts of South Africa. Depending on the time of year, Durban and Cape Town were our favourites.
Poppy would prepare padkos – delicious food for our car trip and we'd set off early in the morning. Dad would drive all the way and mom (the South African word for "mum") would make it her mission to keep him awake.
We'd play eye spy and similar car games. Mom would read a book to my dad while my brother and I entertained ourselves (or fought if he took any of my designated space).
We had a radio with a tape deck in the car. Fortunately for my parents, my brother and I hadn't developed our own music tastes yet and we enjoyed listening to their music. Pavarotti was my dad's favourite. I preferred Vivaldi but we all enjoyed ABBA and particularly Neil Diamond.
As an aside, years later, my brother found himself living in America and I in Australia. At the news of Neil Diamond coming to town – we both raced to buy tickets in our respective cities. We loved every minute of his concert!
My dad was a man that went through many different crazes. This was reflected in his various hobbies. He collected medium size display planes, or buoys that had fallen off boats. One holiday he collected fishing ropes that had washed up on the beach and spent his time in the sun unknotting the ropes. By the following year, he'd bought a book about knots, and he spent the holiday studying how to tie different knots with the ropes he'd collected.
But way before this, was the CB craze. We thought ourselves pretty special when dad installed a CB radio in our car. For the life of me, I can't remember what dad's call-name was, but my mom's name was Lady Blue Jeans.
The CB radio was our new entertainment on our long journeys. We'd listen to how truckers were calling out to each other – giving tips as to where the police were setting speeding traps. It was especially great fun trying to connect with a trucker while passing them on the road.
So when this song came on the radio, we could identify. A little boy playing on his dad's CB radio.
What I didn't expect was years and years later, whilst listening to a random Spotify mix, this song would bring me to tears while travelling to work on the train. I know I looked a sight! But there was no stopping the beautiful family holiday memories flooding back.
The taste of Poppy's delicious padkos, the beautiful South African scenery and the quirky hobbies of my late father.
My mom, Lady Blue Jeans, is still an avid reader, and together we now enjoy road-trips around Australia (minus the CB radio).
Roxy's Changing Track is Sad Song Teddy Bear by Red Sovine.