Juke box hero

Today, the kids and I went to Pizza Hut for lunch. My favorite part of lunching at Pizza Hut, a favorite summer past-time for my mother and I, has always been playing songs on the juke box. When my boys asked for quarters for the gumball machine, I gleefully handed each of them a quarter and kept one for myself, had I had one more quarter I would have given both of them two leaving none for myself. I skipped over to the juke box to select a song, while the boys were disappointed with the bracelet that the gumball machine spit out at them after taking their combined fifty cents. After this disappointment they asked for more quarters. I took pity on them and gave them a dollar so they could get four quarters to try again at the gumball machine. This time they were rewarded with a giant bouncy ball. The younger boy decided that he wanted to use his other quarter to play a song so he and I perused the juke box selections together. While searching for my song I thought about how everyone could see me up there selecting a song that they would all have to listen to. I decided I had to find a tune that would make all of the customers happy. There were two sheriffs, some mechanics, some middle aged men, and a few families dining. I figured my song choice should be from the classic rock row. There were choices like Hotel California, Back in Black, Turn the Page (the Bob Segar version), and Crazy Train. I have several of these in my own collection so I didn't want to play a song that I could listen to for free any time I wanted. While all of this was going through my head, my boy made his decision. He chose some Toby Keith song. I was a little worried that everyone would think this was my selection and then think I'm one of those typical Fremont girls who love Toby Keith and beer. After a moments consideration, I realized how silly this was; to think that all of these people in Pizza Hut would judge me based on my selection at the juke box. Just because I do it, doesn't mean that everyone else does. Most of the people could probably care less about what song I chose. With that in mind, I followed the boy's precedent and chose Wide Open Spaces by the Dixie Chicks. I don't own the song and I like it and I don't care what people think of me based on this choice. Maybe in the future, I'll be more merciful when judging people based on their juke box choices. I have to make a conscious effort not to close myself off to any genre of music due to the stereotypes associated with it. Just because a person enjoys the occasional Dixie Chicks hit, that doesn't mean that he or she cannot also enjoy Rufus Wainwright or Beck.