Rocker Mom not Soccer Mom!
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I remember watching the Partridge Family on television in 1970. I was 10 years old, and I tuned in to watch Shirley, with her shag hairdo and gaggle of five kids, singing “C’mon Get Happy”. I wanted to be just like her—a rock star.
By the end of the 1970s, I was so busy cutting Peter Frampton’s picture out of magazines that I never got around to learning how to play a keyboard. I went from wanting to be a rock star, to dreaming of dating one instead. I ended up marrying my college sweetheart in 1981. He was not a musician but he was a dead ringer for Roger Daltry, and for a long time that was good enough. I gave up my childlike dreams, had a couple of babies and was content to being nothing more than a member of the audience for next twenty years—until I went to a show that changed my life.
In 2002, I saw Jack White (of White Stripes fame) play guitar in, of all places, the gymnasium of my sons’ elementary school. White had a niece who went to school with my sons, and he performed a small concert as a favor to her. In between playing “We Are Going to Be Friends” and “Apple Blossum” he spoke to the kids about what it was like to be a musician. And as he did, my Shirley Partridge imaginings came flooding back. I know White was trying to inspire the children, and not their parents, but I could not help myself. I signed up for guitar lessons the very next day.
As a full-time working mom, I had little free time. I went to a music store in a strip mall during my lunch hour on Tuesdays for the next month. A guy named Kemp taught me how to play a few chords. But that was not enough. At a Memorial Day neighborhood picnic (with 4 guitar lesson under my belt) I bamboozled 3 of my neighbors—Kara Rasmussen, Paige Gilbert and Pat McGough—to form a rock band with me. Make that an all-mom rock band.
By the end of the summer, 4 middle-aged women (who had no previous musical experience) were rehearsing in the laundry room. I bought an electric guitar, Paige borrowed a bass, Pat found some drumsticks (she used a laundry basket as a snare drum until she could afford the real thing) and Kara sang. Kara’s husband (a real deal 1980s punker) wrote catchy little 3-chord ditties for us. We learned songs like “Soccer Mom Stomp” and “Take Out the Trash” while our kids were upstairs trying to flush silverware down the toilet.
We decided to call ourselves the “Mydols” (a name my husband came up with) after rejecting suggestions like The Snotwipers, Momzilla, Hot Flash, and Midlife Crisis from (sometimes snickering) friends and neighbors. I came up with a logo and we ordered 4 dozen t-shirts. After all, nothing screams “I’m in a band” louder than a fluorescent t-shirt that says “I’m in a band”.
Member Comments
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yanaFabulous(( Online ))
HOW ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!!!
Mydols, this is a riot…..well, when do we get to hear your music? How about a video? We are going to be adding video’s to our site next week.
Looking forward to seeing Midols on OPRAH!!!!
Have a fantastic Day!
Yana
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SilverOffline
ROFL!! I love the name “Mydols“!!
Rock on! I am considering getting some Moms together
(I used to be in an all girl heavy metal band, way back in the 80’s..we did OK, we put out 3 albums…maybe someday I will share my music)
I told my husband it would be good for the arthritis in my hands (help keep them limber). But no way am I going on the road again or doing the kind of drinking and drugs that went hand in hand with being in a heavy metal band in the 80’s!!!
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GoldOffline
What a wonderful idea- The Mydols, classic.
You proved that pursuing your dreams really does lead to happiness.
I like that you are evoking reality (take out the trash) through a song, perhaps sending a subliminal message to everyone out there about how important your role is in life & family.
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SilverOffline
About this author
Judy Davids was forty-two when she picked up a guitar for the first time and conspired with the neighborhood moms to form an all-mom rock band. Within weeks, The Mydols were born. Did they have a clue what they were doing? Nope. But from that point on, it was full steam ahead and never mind the laundry.
