scrappy

From San comes an open invitation to self-bestow the "Honest Scrap" award, yet another prompted opportunity for intentional disclosure on a "riveting" scale. Riveting? This may just be nuts and bolts.

1. The first album I ever bought, for $1.99 at the PX at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, was "by" the "group" Dino, Desi, and Billy. Sons of Dean, Desi, and Mr. and Mrs. Hinsche. Billy - having just checked - has his own web site, worked with the Beach Boys, and not without some level of redemption, also sang back-up vocals for Warren Zevon. Something tells me that Billy was probably the only member with any resemblance to a musician.

2. While we're still at Fort Leonard Wood, my favorite Supremes song was "Whisper You Love Me, Boy." Especially if I was dancing in close proximity to Norma Torres or Elaine Collard.

3. In ninth grade at FLW Junior High, I had a crush on Susan Addison, at just the time that the Buckinghams came out with their less than smash hit "Susan." This knack for having a soundtracked life continued later, when the Monkees agreed to provide backing vocals to my love of Valerie Reid.

4. I will always associate the song "Itchycoo Park" with the locker room at Fort Campbell, Kentucky's high school, because that's where I first heard it. Why there was a radio playing in the locker room, I'll never know, but what an awesome idea. I remember, too, that we were trampolining that day. Go figure.

5. For the two months I lived in Fort Campbell (very close to "Last Train to Clarksville" Clarksville, Tennessee and Edgar Cayce's Hopkinsville, Kentucky), I had a mad crush on the twins Mary and Marty Hughen. Fierce crush(es).

6. While at Fort Campbell, I won the local Optimist Club Oratorical Contest, with an insipid speech entitled "The Golden Opportunities of Youth." Sadly, the Tremeloes were not around to provide soundtracking with their hit "Silence is Golden." I was supposed to go on to compete regionally in Paducah, Kentucky, but we moved back to Tres Leches when my stepfather was sent to Vietnam . . . as an Army band conductor.

7. One of my soon to graduate seniors recently asked me if I had ever had a Zero candy bar. Did I ever - for a time, during the soundtracked daze, they supplanted my love of Paydays. I'll be damned if I can figure out how the hell I ever gave up eating chocolate. Just what you'd expect from a kid whose first album was by D, D, and B.

This is a self-selecting prompt/award. Bestow at your own risk. Your entries needn't be so "elegantly" interwoven as your Muravian host's.