1950’s

My parents had a 50s oldies mix cassette in Trinidad, and The Platters’ Smoke Gets in Your Eyes quickly became my favorite song on it. On family road trips, we would play this tape –or sometimes a Chinese instrumental tape filling– the car with music as we drove.

Trinidad is a small island, but road trips were still possible. Sundays were the only days the family store was closed, making it the only time my parents could do something “fun” –at least from a child’s perspective. Sundays meant beaches, movie theaters, or visits to family friends. My Sunday road trips were a mix of music and motion: cassettes spinning, windows down, and the world passing by outside the car, all accompanied by the songs that would become lasting markers of memory.