Candlebox Rocker

One of my favorite memories takes me back to my years on the high school varsity tennis team and turning our school’s losing record into one of the best for the girls’ tennis team. Believe it or not, music — rock ’n’ roll — was a BIG part of us getting into the “winning” frame of mind; songs brought our team of diverse young ladies together!

During the summer/fall of ’93, when Candlebox released their self-titled CD (around they same time they were included on the With Honors soundtrack — one of my old favorites), I was entering my junior year and keeping busy shortening the hems on my tennis skirts and running the dreaded never-ending “Spartans” — our coach’s nickname for the conditioning line drills which would span the length of six tennis courts. Still manages to make my legs ache just thinking about it today!

During tournaments, or those rare practice breaks, we’d have a chance to escape the court’s summer heat or the early fall snowfall chill — Minnesota weather for you — by piling as many of us as we could in our team captain’s old red Honda Prelude and making Gatorade runs. She was one of only a few on the team with a driver’s license — let alone a car — and a working CD player! We’d rush off for our Gatorade, enjoying a little bit of teenage freedom, blasting her new Candlebox CD, singing “Far Behind”…quite unladylike, and dedicating it to our opponents, since that’s where we’d plan on leaving them, far behind! Grrrrr…

DJ: Midori

Station: 94/9 FM

Shift: Sunday–Friday

10 p.m.–2:00 a.m.