The F.A.Q.: Wwhat in the WWorld is WLYLA??

          I'm often asked the question "What the heck is WLYLA?" as well as what the 'deal' is behind the WLYLA FRIDAY HITS, so I'll try to give you an explanation of how it came to be and what it's about. So here goes...

     I guess it must have started for me the same way most folks of the 1900s: the radio. In my case,  that would specifically be the hand-held transistor radio. If you're reading this and you were born after 1980, you'd be better off Googling the term 'transistor radio'. Be sure to ask for images in your search, because you are more than likely to get more than one....er.....shape. My ChiefHubby still has one of the twisty ones - and LORD have mercy!- it's white. Mine, which I also still have, is dated a bit later in the 70's; was in the shape of a Mickey Mouse head/face. I remember laying outside listening to WLS out of Chicago with all the best of the 50s, 60s & early 70s coming out along with the static we rarely hear anymore. Music back then was mostly out of radio stations that were pretty close by compared to nowadays. My fave-and by MOHO- was WLS out of Chicago, 4 hrs away in current driving time. Radio by hand-held or in the car was it- unless you were fortunate enough to have a record player and later, a 'stereo' -which I did by the time I was 14- along with my own small collection of albums. Uh-huh...yeah, those 'vinyls' or '33s' and lots more '45s' that played on the 33 stick with a cute little yellow tri-shaped S in the hole of the 45.....still have a few of those in there, too. MY collection was (& still is) mostly BEATLES, which are THE best musicians in the world. EVER. Of course. And my ChiefHubby's is lately mostly newer CHRISTian Rock, and he still has all his old collection, too; the lesser-but-loved Beach Boys, and alot of great good old RockNRoll bands of the 60s & 70s. Let's face it, folks; if you were alive anytime after 1950.... you lived during the BEST music creation era. EVER. 

      Ok, having rehashed all that....I really think my love of music began well before I had that transistor radio, or a stereo. I think it actually began partly with my maternal Grandparents. My Grandpa Raymer could always be humming some kind of tune, and he played the guitar (and, in the evenings on the farm where I mostly lived my first 5 yrs, a banjo). My Grandma Raymer played the piano, and had at least two accordians that I knew of. She could really ROCK those things when she got them out to play just for me! She later had two great organs that I was only allowed to touch when she was sitting with me as they were pretty costly. But she would turn on different beats and really get it going! I CHERISH those times! They would sing to alot of hymns, but Grandpa could belt out some great Gene Autry, and other country songs, if he was in the mood. Personally, my favorite memory was his rendition of "Animal Fair". They played in church together before I was born, but what I most remember is the live concerts they attended and took me along with them.
      The other influence was TELEVISION. By 1970, almost every household own one TV. Most of those were still black and white, too. My kids can remember the huge backsides of TVs, but they never knew "console TV/stereo" like we had. My earliest memories of music on TV (aside from The BEATLES) were: Glen Campbell on his own show (my crush), Tom Jones, Mac Davis (swoooooon!!), Sonny & Cher, and lots of variety shows as well as one that I'm sure will bring many funny thoughts to mind for my readers: "Laugh In" with it's groovy 'Sock it to me, baby!', bikini-clad-dancing Goldy Hawn, and Ruth Buzzy- still makes me wanna sit in any HUGE rocking chair I find (and I HAVE). But THE moment that sticks out in my mind the MOST: the evening I was watching the news while my mother was ironing her latest sewing project in the middle of the living room while watching the news. That night, there was a top story from England....The BEATLES were 'formally dissolved' easily worded by the news anchor; broken up.....I understood THAT. My heart was broken, too. I was all of 4&1/2 years old. I really fell hard in love with The BEATLES. And still am in love with them. I don't agree with all they each did in their private or public lives, but I still loved them and their music. 

           My heart's been broken twice since: the shock of John Lennon's death in the early morning hours while getting up for school....that was one of the last things  I remember being able to HEAR clearly over the radio. Sometime before that...around 1976....I came down with a case of the Flu. But I stayed sick longer than just the usual Flu- it got worse and I remember having a very high fever.  It turned out to be Scarlet Fever which developed into Rheumatic Fever. Not much was known back then about it except that RFever affects the heart. I began having problems doing things I loved- running, basketball, playing hard wrestling, etc. I lived the life of a 'tomboy'. Several trips to the hospital and lots of tests later (back then they were called EKGs) would show an abnormal heartbeat that skipped beats,or beat too slow, or too fast. But what I remember is what I still live with daily: the pain. Since then, I am always aware of my heartbeat because I am always FEELING it, no matter what I am doing. Only those with similar pain can understand. I was 11 yrs old during all those tests. By the time I was a Freshman in HS at 15, other Teachers seemed to be noticing that I was not hearing them in class. Then came the dreaded words HEARING AID. They were smaller but still noticable on my ear. I began with one just before I met my ChiefHubby. My hearing, and health along with it, kinda went downhill slowly from there. By the time I had both our boys in 1989 and 1992, I had nothing left at all and 2 hearing aids still didn't allow me to understand speech any better. In 2004, I experienced a sudden chest pain that nearly knocked me entirely off my treadmill. It all led to some other major surgery in the middle of 2005 and again at the end of that year. Then came on the Fybromyalgia and Rheumatoid Arthritis. TRUST ME: you NEVER, EVER wish those on ANYONE. ANY. ONE. They make giving birth sound like a nice tropical, happy, LOVELY, TOTALLY painless time that never ends! I currently take about 20some Rx meds/supplements to help deal with the progression and esp the PAIN.
     Flash-forward to about 2009, when my ChiefHubby came up to me in the kitchen (Yes- it's a keeper memory!) with YgrPurdueNukeEngSon's iPod and 'earbuds' saying "Try this, honey! I really think you could maybe hear this a bit!" and since I had totally stopped any kind of hearing aids by then (they do cramp yer pool lifestyle) and the Cochlear Implant was not a good viable solution- which was a very last resort anyway... I took the buds with the usual 'ok, I'll TRY it just because YOU guys WANT me to'. And he was mouthing the words that he could waaay hear at that volume (so could the Son across the room)....and....OH...MY....GOD.....!!!!!!
             (REALLY thanking HIM here, not swearing!)
    I could feel it and hear it a little bit!
    Sorry for shouting there, but you have to imagine how EXCITED I was!! One thing led to another and in the years following, ChiefHubby got me a really GOOD set of earbuds (they go almost all into the ear canal like hearing aid molds do) as well as the iPad, an Android tablet, and recently- a new phone...all which I can get onto YouTube for music that I can understand like I used to. If I forgot the words, there are channels that print lyrics, or like "DeafSubtitles" putting Closed Caption onto the songs for the deaf. Not only that, but it has opened an entirely NEW WORLD to this deaf gurl as far as FB and Twitter. Maybe I cannot hear all that goes on, but I can now BE AWARE OF IT ALL!! I live in a rural area that is incorporated with the rest of our county in tornado drills/severe weather watch. Closed Caption on the TV flashes are great- until the electricity or cable fails. We have a set of the largest sirens right on our own road (8 speakers) that everyone in the township should be able to hear...but I can't. So you SEE how much more this all helps me?! And it made me come up with the idea of WLYLA. I used to dream of being a DJ or on  stage, doing Narator or do the 'DJ talk' as a joke to everyone when they were telling me what song was playing that they all were listening to. But now; I CAN SHARE, TOO !!! Why wait for a dream to happen and just get busy doing it myself?!
     Like everyone else, I have a Bucket List...more yrs of happily married to my ChiefHubby; see my kids finish marrying and growing their own families; see some of the West Coast with my ChiefHubby, and maybe even meet a couple of my fave famous ppl (hehe...he won't liiiike thaaaaat....if it's Randy Mantooth & Kevin Tighe!!), but I no longer feel like I'm totally alone in a hearing world. SOMETIMES....I still feel cut off and 'wish' for this not to be like it is. But, with all the tech that has come so far, I'm alot more willing to just have faith that I will be among the first to actually HEAR JESUS COMING BACK. I can live with that!   

   That's what my 'craft' every Friday is: WLYLA FRIDAY HITS,
and I'll be more than happy for more Followers on Twitter
( @LylaLarimore ), or on my FB page ( Lyla Larimore ) to celebrate each gift of another weekend as it comes. Thanks for checking in and reading this, and .....HAPPY BLOGGING!!!!