Artist:	Bruce Springsteen
Song:	I'm On Fire
Album:	Born In The U.S.A.
Year:	1984

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About The Artist

Bruce Springsteen came out of New Jersey in the early 1970s sounding like a cross between Bob Dylan and early Tom Waits, backed by the rambunctious...
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Born In The U.S.A.

Born To Run

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Crooked Fingers
Dave Alvin
Iron City Houserockers

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juliemelissa | MEMORY FROM 1984

Farmer Kent and his daughters

LOCATION: Tasty Freeze , Small Town, IL

YEAR: 1984

TAGS: heat, father, ice cream, summer, I'm on Fire, The Boss

PUBLISHED: May 7, 2008

Vanilla ice cream cone dripping down my fingers. sunroof open, full moon, music on. My sister and I share the back seat and every few minutes we reposition to unstick our thighs from the vinyl. Bruce Springsteen. The Boss. The man who fills my memory from my childhood fills the humid air as I watch the red light turn to green.

One of those simple, yet profound summer nights when time could easily stand still. My father is a kind, kind man. Midwest raised farmer who knows how to use his hands for his labor. Handsome, funny, unique and humble. A man who loves his daughters.

Born In The USA was just released and my dad had the cassette in his car. Every time I'm on Fire would come on, I'd take pause. Something about that song haunted me with love. I did not understand the depth of the song, but I understood the first line "Hey little girl is your daddy home, did he go and leave you all alone"

My mom left my father at a young age and broke our hearts as well as his. My sister and I were too young to understand divorce yet aware that things would never be the same. Seeing dad on the weekends were special times filled with anticipation, love and random adventures. Ice Cream trips were a given on hot summer nights.

This song will always take me back to the car ride home. I was filled with the love of my father and content knowing that it was only June and summer had just begun.

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COMMENTS (5)

RHMF said: Love, love your memory. It's beautiful...I got tingley. Props to your Dad...bet he'd like reading your memory and hearing Bruce. (5/7/2008)

juliemelissa replied to RHMF's comment:

Love, love your memory. It's beautiful...I got tingley. Props to your...

Thanks. I stumbled upon this site last night and this memory came to mind right away. I added a photo of my dad and I on his farm taken a few summers ago. (5/7/2008)

Myke said: This is a teririfc piece of Americana - love and farmland values, tempered by the hard reality of divorce and melted ice cream. Your allusions to the ice cream, for me, evoke the Sting lyric from "I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying," which is also about dads and divorce. In the middle of that tune, Sting describes weekend visits with the kids: "The park is full of Sunday fathers and melted ice cream / We try to do the best within the given time." With your memory, the theme comes full circle. (5/13/2008)

juliemelissa replied to Myke's comment:

This is a teririfc piece of Americana - love and farmland values, tempered...

Hey Myke- Thanks for your note. Funny, I love that Sting song, but I never knew that it was about divorce. I've since read the lyrics and was totally blown away. Thanks for the kind words and I am glad you liked the memory. -Julie (5/28/2008)

MusicPub said: In reading "For You," at first it's hard to believe that one performer could possibly have touched this many people this deeply â lifted them from depression, kept them from suicide, helped them through divorce or the death of a parent, or worse, a child. But story after story reveals just how much Springsteen's music and his almost superhuman presence on the concert stage have penetrated people's lives and, in as much as it is possible for music to do so, made them whole. (9/27/2008)

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