Music and Movies. That was always our thing. Pop fostered my love of the arts without me even realizing it. He always said I was an old soul. I was just 6 years old when I fell in love with music by “Fleetwood Mac”, “Journey”, “ELO”, “Styx”, “Bee Gees” and “Styx”.

I remember being in his old, red Ford pickup truck, with my pink jelly sandals on and Rainbow Brite dress, with him singing along to Journey’s “Oh Sherrie”, the beautiful smile on his face as he sang it horribly on purpose, the sound of his chuckle, the way his hands looked as he turned the volume up.

As I got older to my teen years, is when I discovered Tracy Chapman’s “Give Me One Reason,” Spice Girls “Wannabe,” and Aqua’s “Barbie Girl”. I think I played those so many times he really wanted to introduce me to other artists, and he succeeded.

I was 15 years old when I discovered I loved country music as well. During this time, Pop and I really delved into not only listening to songs, but discussing their meanings and how they must have felt when they were writing the song.

I have 3 favorite country songs that I hold close to my heart because of my Dad. The first song is the first country song he played for me, “Everywhere” by Tim McGraw. I still remember the grin on his face, as the sun beamed down on him through his truck window as he turned up the song and began singing the lyrics. His favorite part was “down in Georgia, picking’ them peaches” and “in my heart I’ll always see you everywhere”. Now that he’s gone, I keep that song close to me because in my heart, I will always see Pop everywhere.

The second song is “How Do You Like Me Now?” by Toby Keith. He loved telling me the story about this song, how it was based on a true story and we loved watching the music video for it. This became one of our most favorite songs, we listened to it a million times on the way to school in the morning.

Then there was the country song he loved to annoy me with which was “Before He Cheats” by Carrie Underwood. Funny enough, Pop drove the exact same color red, Dodge pickup truck featured in this video. This song used to drive me bonkers. Now, I’m thankful for all the laughs and memories it gave me with my Dad. I’ll never forget all the songs we shared and laughed about together.

Now, let’s talk movies. One of my all time favorite movies we used to watch all the time was “Grease 2”, I made him watch it so many times when I was little that we could still recite the songs as I grew up! He also introduced me to “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” when I was in high school. Our favorite song to sing was “Dammit Janet” and “Time Warp”. He even took me to the Alabama Theatre to see it on the big screen which was so much fun. Pop gave me the world. He changed my life when he introduced me to music and movies. He fostered my love of painting, he encouraged me in everything I did and gave me some of the best memories while we listened to music, in his truck, on the way to school. For all you movie whizzes out there, Pop always told my then boyfriend, now husband “Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner” as he firmly shook his hand before we left to go out on our date. You guessed it, that’s from “Dirty Dancing”, yes that movie will always be phenomenal to me!

Pop loved Johnny Cash, Aerosmith, CCR, Highwayman. If I had to describe how much Pop loved me by picking lyrics from our songs, it would be “Hey Brother” by Avicii. The lyrics “if the sky comes falling down, for you, there’s nothing in this world I wouldn’t do, oh sister I will help you out”. Next, would be “Butterfly Kisses” by Bob Carlisle. “There’s two things I know for sure, she was sent here from Heaven and she’s Daddy’s little girl”. I’m thankful I got to dance with Pop to this song at my wedding. In the photos, my sweet husband has tears in his eyes as he watches Pop and I dance. We too, had tears in our eyes. I loved every single second of that moment.

For awhile after Pop died, I avoided music and movies like the plague because I was trying to avoid feeling the hurt, remembering all the memories we shared. But not now–now I listen to those songs, I watch those movies, and every time, I look up to heaven and proudly say “this One’s for You, Pop.”