When You Walk Through a Storm

I wanted to be all cool about this. I was going to find the ultimate 80s song, which could lead off a new Time-Life collection of 80s summer songs. You might order the collection when you encounter the half-hour infomercial at 3 in the morning, hosted by Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman or some other ex-MTV VJ. I went through every Duran Duran and Human League (I kid you not), and a zillion other (bad) tapes from my childhood?I even hit bottom, considering "La Isla Bonita" as an endearing summer-like song for a split second.

But rather than humiliate myself with a bad Madonna song, I'm stuck with the cheesy truth. My favorite summer song is "You'll Never Walk Alone" from Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel (also, I have learned, the anthem of British soccer games and the closing to many a Jerry Lewis Labor Day telethon). Besides the appropriate theatrical reasons, we (I was?forgive me?in Glee Club) sang this at our high school graduation. The child of two Catholic schoolteachers turned principals, my entire life has been framed by school. School dates were the important milestones. School determined obviously when but also where we'd vacation. And so it is appropriate that my nostalgia for high school is marked by such a song, which was a segue into the summer that lead to the great unknown: college, in a new town (DC).

Moreover, the song is particularly appropriate this year, as my sister graduates from the same high school, entering that mythical summer of possibilities before college. She has to do it without the guidance of our dad, who passed on last year. If he were ever as corny as me (I must have gotten it from someone), he might have picked this one this summer, too.