PRIZE INSIDE!

I was always a fan of The Monkees.  As a child, I loved watching their crazy TV show when I was young. I caught it on Saturday mornings, for some reason, and I always laughed at their wacky antics, funny clothes, and crazy hair.  But mostly I loved the songs:  Last Train to Clarksville," "Daydream Believer," and, of course, the opening theme.  I still can't see the shore of the beach without envisioning Davy, Peter, Mike, and Mickey gingerly stepping into--and that out of--the breaking waves.

So imagine the thrill I got when my mother told me that on the back of our box of Honeycomb cereal was a little record I could play on my turntable.  And the song was by The Monkees.  It was called "I'm a Believer," and instantly I loved its infectious melody, it's catchy verses, and Mickey Dolenz's superior "Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs" at the end.  

Long before I knew this song was penned by pop star Neil Diamond, it was a hit with a five year old from San Diego who put the cardboard record with the shiny little grooves on his boxy turntable and learned a little bit more about the vagaries of love and totally believed that the song came from four young men who supposedly "lived" just up the coast from him in a funky house by the beach in Malibu, California.

Nearly thirty years later, my brand-new girlfriend and I were watching a local bar band the night before New Year's Eve.  Our first date had been on December 8, 1994, and I had just decided that day that I was in love with her and wanted to tell her.  When the bar band launched into a cover of "I'm a Believer," I briefly thought of that box of Honeycomb, leaned in close to her, and said, "Listen closely to the lyrics," hoping she would realize that when the singer sang, "I'm in love. . .Oh, I'm a believer. . .I couldn't leave her if I tried," that I was talking to her.  I told I loved her the first time that night in the parking lot of the local Denny's after dessert.  

We've been married for nearly twelve years now.