Tomato Talk

You know the kinds of songs that make you want to dance around the living room? That suddenly make your heart happy? And your body feel like strutting? Or even doing a private bump and grind which makes the cat look at you funny?
How about, when you’re in the car and something comes on the radio and you don’t even care that you’re stuck in traffic because you are moving in ways no one could even guess.
They are often old songs. Ones for which you know the words. Ones that make you sometimes recall people who are not the father of your children. If you really thought about it, you might remember a certain place. You might even remember what color your hair was at the time.
Juicy Tomatoes like to move. We don’t even care if our kids see us on the dance floor, although I’ve gotten worried looks from my daughters when we’re walking through the grocery store and I start to rock out to really bad pretend-Dylan tunes.
I believe that we would never have been drawn so completely to health clubs had it not been for those early aerobics classes with the great music for doing the Pony and other memorable moves. We flocked to those classes, not so much to work on our abs and pecs but so we could dance and even sing along. Now we dance whenever we feel like it. No more waiting for our partner to have one more glass of wine to get the courage to join us.
When I was in the middle of writing THE JUICY TOMATOES GUIDE TO RIPE LIVING AFTER 50 I sent out an email alert to some of the women I interviewed to tell me their favorite dance-alone-who-cares-what-the-neighbors-think tunes.
One clever woman asked, “Oh, you mean those songs from our libido years?”
I like to think of them as Tomato Tunes. And here are a few.
American Woman - Lenny Kravitz
Cry Baby – Janis Joplin
Cecilia - Simon and Garfunkel
Crazy Love - Van Morrison
Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag - James Brown
Dancing Queen – Abba
Gimme Shelter – Stones
Hey Girl - Michael McDonald
Hey Ya - Outkast (Belongs to another generation but some songs become yours the longer you hear them thumping from the kid’s room.)
Love Shack - B-52s (Okay, not everyone has to agree.)
Old Time Rock n Roll - Bob Seger (But doesn’t everyone adore this one?)
Proud Mary - Tina Turner (And don’t we all know how to growl like Ms. Tina?)
Okay, now tell me your favorites – the why, the when, the where and who with?