Performer: Santana
Songwriters: Leon
Chancler, Tom Coster, David Rubinson
Original
Release:
Amigos
Year: 1976
Definitive
Version:
Moonflower, 1977.
When
I arrived at Wabash for my junior year in August 1984, I wasn’t the first at the
apartment I suddenly fell into with two seniors sight unseen (good ol’ No. 470).
I said Todd would be there first, but it was Brian. Brian had been living there
for more than a week—he was there when I agreed to be the third roommate—and
was working at the radio station as part of a skeleton crew getting it up and
running for the new school year.
I
unpacked, began to prepare for the upcoming football season—there was a
practice game the next weekend—and bought all my books ahead of time, along
with a copy of Moonflower. Because Brian waited until everyone else arrived at
the apartment—and because it ALWAYS took time when dealing with Indiana Bell—we
didn’t have a phone until after school started that next Tuesday.
This
wasn’t a big deal. It was inconvenient, but I could use the payphone at the student
center to call home or Beth. It was like old times having to keep my voice down
and keep the conversations short, so I wasn’t hogging the phone.
Of
course, no one could call me. That wasn’t a big deal until it became a big deal,
and our apartment’s lack of a phone became a big deal almost right away.
The
big news of the year had been Laura’s pregnancy. It had been assumed that Laura
was unable to have kids, but modern medicine had advanced enough that, after a
few surgeries, she could.
Everyone
was excited by the news. Beth was excited, because she loved babies, and she
wanted to get me acclimated to being around little kids. Jin was excited,
because she wanted a sister and to have a sibling living with her at Dad and
Laura’s. Scott was excited, because he wouldn’t be the youngest any more.
Laura
was due at about the time I left to go back to school, but nothing was
happening. When I called after I arrived at Wabash, Dad said there was no news
to report, and the doctor said there probably wouldn’t be for another week or
two. Fine, not having a phone was no big deal.
I
had a huge schedule that fall: Aside from the football games, I was taking two
English classes, a History class, a Speech class and Biology 1, or Baby Bio, as
it was called by the science majors. I was going to be busy.
At
the end of my first History 9 class on Wednesday, the professor—a visiting
prof, we learned that day—asked me to come back to his office. He said he was
given a note by the Dean’s Office for me. Now what have I done? It was a
hand-written note to “call home immediately for good news.” Oh! I said out
loud, my stepmom must have had her baby!
I
ran out of the offices in Baxter Hall and made a beeline to the Student Center to
call Dad from the payphone. When he answered, he said, yes, Laura had her baby—a
boy they named Matt. She had him TWO DAYS AGO, the day after I left for school.
Yeah,
he said, you didn’t have a phone, so we couldn’t get a hold of you. Finally we
called the school office and had them relay you a message. The Dean’s secretary
wrote up the note, looked up my class schedule and ran the note over to my
history professor.
(Editor’s
Note: For any youngsters in the audience, this is something that wouldn’t
happen in the cellphone/Internet age, although because I’m not on Facebook, I
could see not being contacted at all if such an event took place today.)
My
junior year was off to a rousing start.
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