Ah, the summer of 1983! Alas, I remember it well. It was the last summer before I became an undergraduate at Lincoln Memorial University. Oh, how I looked forward to being surrounded for four years in an environment completely saturated with Lincoln lore and memorabilia. In the entire time I lived on the Harrogate campus, I never tired of seeing Lincoln everywhere I turned. I was in heaven on earth!

I did not look forward to four years of living in dorms, especially since I was reared as the only child in the household. I spent my last summer in nervous anticipation of that experience. I was somewhat comforted by the fact that several of my graduating classmates were also going to be living on campus, but none of them would be my actual roommate. My concerns were greatly relieved when I received an extremely nice letter from the fellow who would be the first of four roommates throughout my undergraduate years. Anxiety still remained, so to cope I read books from which I to this day don’t recall one word. Most importantly, I took comfort in music. Music for me is heaven on earth.
My sainted mother, God rest her soul, scraped her savings together and bought me a Quasar stereo from Brown’s TV and Appliance for my eighteenth birthday. Mother always knew how to make heaven a place on earth. I spent my entire eighteenth birthday listening to my stack of 33 1/3 RPM records. I was experiencing Heaven on earth. (For those who are not familiar with turntable stereos or record players, RPM means revolutions per minute, the number of times the record made complete turns in one minute to produce the proper recorded sound.)

What a joy it was to hear the records I had listened to most of my life in full stereo! That stereo brought out sounds on some of those records that I had never heard before, and the bass was terrific! I still have that stereo. She shows her age—the turntable now only produces sound in one speaker, and the cassette player started dragging long ago, but the radio is still a honey, and one speaker for the turntable still works for most records. That stereo still is a piece of heaven on earth.

My collection of records was not large. Stacked in their covers, they might have risen nine inches (and that’s being optimistic) from a table’s surface. But what treasures they were! They were practically all gospel. The Chuck Wagon Gang was my favorite (there were five of those). I also had a Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, Bill Monroe, the Blackwood Brothers, Martha Carson (a good source for a Google search), and a few other similar types. Heaven on earth, I tell you!

I was reminded this very morning in particular of one of those records. For some mysterious reason, my DVR had a recording of The Johnny Cash Show. Perhaps I programmed the DVR to record the show, though I don’t recall. There’s only one other culprit in my house that could have done this, my wife. I don’t think our Precious Kitty, heaven on earth/hell on wheels wonder cat that she is, has yet reached that capability.

Many classic country music fans know that Johnny Cash was married to June Carter, daughter of the famous Mother Maybelle Carter (another great source for a Google search). One of my treasured records was of Mother Maybelle. On the television episode just mentioned, Mother Maybelle and her cousin Sara (who was married to Mother Maybelle’s brother-in-law A. P. Carter) were featured. A. P., Sara and Maybelle comprised the original Carter Family. Johnny Cash announced in his introduction of Mother Maybelle and Sara Carter that it was the first time they had appeared together in twenty-seven years. (Per Wikipedia, A. P. passed away in 1960.) He also announced that the Carter Family had recently been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and the plaque was shown on the program with the date of the induction (1970) prominently displayed. The rich heritage of good country folk music also makes a little heaven of this earth.

Yet another source of musical comfort I carried with me to higher education was the hymn singing and organ playing at the First Baptist Church, Maynardville. I might stray far from God during the week, but those hymns were engraved in my mind from early childhood and kept me more on the straight and narrow than might otherwise have happened. King Saul had his David to play the harp, but I had my K. David Myers to play organ at the First Baptist every Sunday. I hummed whatever he played all week long, and hummed it silently in my head during class when sound was inappropriate! A taste of Heaven on earth indeed.

When I began my first quarter (no semesters then) of dorm life, during my first days of homesickness I played those records, hymns and organ solos over and over in my mind, looking forward to the weekend when I could hear them once again in person. They made the home away from home more of a heaven on earth.

You might wonder why I didn’t take my stereo to college with me. There are many reasons. My stereo and music were personal to me, and I didn’t feel the need or desire to share it with others. Besides, I didn’t figure anyone else would be interested in the kind of music I liked. I was a light traveler. I knew dorm life was temporary, and I only took the basic necessities with me to survive one week. I took less with me to live a week at LMU than my wife takes with her to church on Sunday morning. Interestingly, not having the music at my fingertips all week made it all the more special when I got home or went to church. Home became all the more of a heaven on earth.

Not only was the music in my mind helpful during times of homesickness, it was also helpful in times of stress, when a major paper was due, or when there was test anxiety (from which I still have post traumatic test syndrome exhibited through recurring nightmares).

I was fortunate to attend college and live in the dorms during the 1980s. The popular music played during that decade was some of the best of its kind. It wasn’t my type of music, but after I heard it for several years through dorm walls on many occasions when I was trying to conjure up words for a paper or study for a test it got into my head. As is true for me with most types of non-gospel music, I would learn a few repetitive words of the songs and appreciate the good bass of an upbeat song, but to this day I cannot tell you the names of the singers or, in most cases, even the words. The happiness conveyed in the melodies produce joy, making more heaven of this earth.

When I was thinking of what to write for this article, I thought back on the song lyrics, “Ooh, baby, do you know what that’s worth? Ooh, heaven is a place on earth”. I conducted a Google search and played Belinda Carlisle singing the song on YouTube. It instantly took me back to those wonderful years of striving to find my way in the world through undergraduate education. Though a Google search shows the date of release as the fall of 1987, just after my graduation that summer, the song seemed a fitting tribute to the success of the college years for me. I was blessed with several college friends whose presence made those years indeed a heaven on earth. In most cases, I learned more from them than any course I ever took.

Life wouldn’t be the same without music. Children learn best when knowledge is set to music (e.g., the ABC song). I learned the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States from Schoolhouse Rock, which came in most handily when Harrell Edmondson had us memorize it in high school civics class. I have heard that those with Alzheimer’s and similar diseases who have lost their ability to speak can sing or respond to music.

It seems music does indeed “make Heaven a place on earth”!
Next week I’ll turn my thoughts to what make a person wise. Until then, I leave you with another thought from my world of email:

RESPECT YOUR ELDERS.
THEY GRADUATED FROM SCHOOL WITHOUT THE INTERNET.