Three of the Things I Never Had

Stevie Wonder’s “Songs in the Key of Life” was released in 1976. That would’ve made me around 12. 

It was a double album that won three Grammys, including Album of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

It included smash hits such as “I Wish,” “Isn’t She Lovely,” and my personal favorite, “Sir Duke.”

It has sold 10 million copies.

This is notable, because it didn’t sell 10 million and one.

My friends and I were big music fans. We listened to the radio all the time. I had a radio on my bicycle. I would fall asleep in bed listening to WLS-AM out of Chicago.

The Western Auto store in my little town was the only place that sold records.

One particular friend and I would ride our bicycles to town just to look at the “Songs in the Key of Life” double 8-track package.

He would pick it up, look at it over, front and back. Then he would hand it to me, and I would do the same thing.

It stopped just short of being lust.

I want to say it cost around $12, but I can’t recall for sure. But regardless, the business of returning Coke bottles for a nickel apiece was a little soft, and we both knew asking for $12 from a parent for something like this would be seen as frivolous.

I don’t know how many days we rode down to the store and yearned for those tapes, but it went on for a while.

I never got the record.

We can blame the Sears Wish Book for two other laments regarding things I wanted but never got. For all the excitement getting the Christmas catalog created, it could also be a torture device for a 10 year old.

That’s about how old I was when I got the hots for a go kart.

If I told you I could remember what page they were on, you wouldn’t believe me, but I think it was 252 one year.

Yes, this was a multi-year fixation.

I would open the catalog to the go kart page and lay it on the couch, the kitchen table, the recliner and any other place a parent might see it.

I begged. I pleaded. But I could never crack the code.

The only place I would’ve had to ride it was at our farm which was 10 minutes away from home. I had it figured we could just toss it in the back of the truck when daddy went to feed the cattle, and I could ride while he piddled around down there.

At the time, it was a perfectly logical scenario.

All these years later, I still don’t think it was too outlandish.

That brings us to the 20 gauge Mossberg shotgun, which ran concurrent with the go kart.

Oh, good heavens, it’s only $89. What is the big deal? I’m almost 11.

And you know, the squirrels and doves are overpopulating like wildfire. Somebody’s got to get this plague under control.

I did get a shotgun when I turned 13, but not that one.

So that’s it — three things I really wanted that never transpired.

It doesn’t sound like I have much to complain about.