Don't Go Breaking My Heart?
Chapter 7

 

We went back to our apartment and decided to turn on the radio to listen for some new music. We did that a lot trying to always keep current as much as we can afford to. We kept a pad of paper and a pencil by the phone.

Our little brother Thomas, was born as 1990 came along, we were now 18 and 16 and we both seemed to have finished growing, Joanie 'sprouted' which was terrifying for her, but interesting for me.

We've added some music recently,

"Don't Know Much"—Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville

"Have You Seen Her?"—MC Hammer (our first rap song)

"Here We Are"—Gloria Estefan

We've occasionally had some Wedding anniversaries we were performing at, so we struggled to find some music from the 50s. From 1950 we added, "Mona Lisa" and the "Tennessee Waltz," from 1951 there was a wonderfully suggestive song called "60 Minute Man." In 1955, after "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom Time" was the number one song for 10 weeks, the first Rock and Roll song became Number One, "Rock around the Clock" by Bill Haley and His Comets—and Rock and Roll took the reins.

Some other older music was added, my favorite was Dean Martins, "Memories Are Made of This" which I sang as often as I could.

As the '90s came along, Joanie and I moved to Los Angeles, to our parents chagrin. Dad did get us a cell phone and mom and he both said, 'Don't be strangers—call us just to talk."

We were getting really regular and good paying jobs, working at least one night per weekend, sometimes more. RK got out of the business and gave us all of his music, quadrupling our inventory.

From this point we were doing well, even saving money for a rainy day. On our birthdays and Christmas, we went home to spend the day with Mom and dad, with Dad either overtly or covertly handing me a check, usually for an obscene amount of money. He's such a softy!

The next couple of years went by and in September of 1995, we got a call from Mom. We rushed home to see them taking Dad away in an ambulance. We saw them load him inside, but he was covered up completely.

I embraced Mom and Joanie embraced me!

"He ... just keeled over kids and it was all I could think of to call 911. They tried to save him, but he died just—just before you showed. What will I do without him?" she said bawling as I rewrapped my arms around her.

"What can we do to help?" Joanie and I said at the same time.

"I—I can't think right now, can you guys stay for a while—I don't want to be alone," she said sputtering through tears.


It was an easy decision to move back home, although it took two trips to get everything back. As Joanie was putting her clothes back into her old room Mom came by and said, "No—Joan, you two are a couple—live like a couple!"

I was walking in the house with a load of stuff as I saw them hugging. I heard Thomas, so I put my stuff down and went into his room and saw my cute little five-year-old brother, who saw me and said, "Jerry, can I talk to you?"

I sat down next to him and said, "Sure Thomas, what is it?"

He got off his bed, went over and closed the door. He got back up on the bed, with his feet hanging over the edge.

"Can I join you and Joan—I sing too!" he said with such emotion.

"Well, even Joan had to audition first—you got something memorized?"

He got out a CD and started the song "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" by Elton John. As the music started Mom and Joan opened the door to hear,

There's a calm surrender to the rush of day
When the heat of the rolling world can be turned away

(Absolute perfect pitch—my little brother!)


An enchanted moment and it sees me through
It's enough for this restless warrior just to be with you

And can you feel the love tonight
It is where we are
It's enough for this wide-eyed wanderer
That we got this far... "

(Joan and I got behind him and sang 'ooohs')

We all hugged as the song finished, Mom added, "It's about time you heard him kids?"

"Mom, I'm 25 and Joan is 23—we're not kids!"

"To me, you are—and to your father you were. You didn't hear him talk about you, but he was so proud—telling everyone how his 'kids' are professional singers."

 
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