Taking A Trip Down Mama's Memory Lane

Hi everyone!! For this blog entry, I chose to interview someone who's my heart and soul, which happens to be my very own mother, Juleen Hainrick.

My mother was born on a small island called Pohnpei located in Micronesia. She is the fifth child out of eight so you can only imagine how chaotic her life has been growing up. The stories she would tell me about her life were endless but I never heard her talk about anything music related. It made me wonder if music even existed in Micronesia at all. I was curious to see if this was the case and thank God it wasn’t otherwise, there wouldn’t have been a blog at all (just kidding). 

One of the earliest memories of music my mother remembers was classic country;  Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, and Johnny Cash. She said that grandma would play these on the radio when they would do chores and my mother fell in love with country music since. She also claims Grease as one of her first memories. Her and her sisters would watch the movie on repeat on the VCR and pretended they were the Pink Girls, so cuteeee! 

I asked my mother what was her first experience with music and she said that it was actually through church. My mom would have to wake up and get ready, put on her traditional church dress, and walk to church with the family. She said walking to church irritated her because it would be hot as soon as the morning started and by the time she reached church, she would be drenched in sweat. My mom said she remembers singing a lot in church: the people would sing first, then pastor preaches, singing again, praying, and the cycle just repeats over and over. She said singing in church would always be about giving thanks to God, to never forget what He’s done, and to always respect and take care of our family. My mother said singing in church was the only form of music she was involved in because the school she went to didn’t have a music program at the time. 

Another thing I was curious about was what genre of music my mom never listened to or heard of until she came to America. She never heard of R&B until she came to the States with her niece. Let's just say, my mom loves Ciara and even had me hooked on her at the age of five!

One last thing I wanted to know was how does she feel about the music she hears today. She says that today's music isn't her taste and prefers modern Christian music when she's driving to work.  She says that today's music all sounds the same to her so she gets annoyed when she hears me or my sister blast our music haha! But between you and I, she was singing Lady Gaga's 'Bad Romance' not too long ago.