Fabulous Friday: "Shake Your Groove Thing"

Today is the twentieth anniversary of my father's death, the wonderful Howard Ryan. It might seem a little incongruous that the song I would choose to pay a tribute to him would be "Shake Your Groove Thing" but it's part of a heart-warming story about him.

I went to college at UW-Madison and, like thousands of other Madisonians, stayed there for many more years. Eleven years, to be precise. They used to say that Madison had the most overeducated cab drivers on earth. That Badger Cab guy driving you to Ella's Deli? Doctorate in chemical engineering.

My dad started a tradition in the 90s that whenever my mom was going out of town on a weekend (probably to Chicago with her sisters) he would come up to Madison, take me grocery shopping, and take me to lunch. This only happened a handful of times but it was deeply meaningful for both of us.

One Saturday we were driving from Woodman's on the west side to my apartment downtown, listening to Saturday at the 70s, a feature on one of the local radio stations. Dad was in the middle of saying something and I said, "Oh my God, stop talking, stop talking!" and I turned the radio up. It was "Shake Your Groove Thing," a song I love. I apologized and he laughed, he understood. We both grooved out to the song. We stopped at a red light and Dad pointed out the people in the car next to us grooving out to the same beat. Dad said, "Look! I think they're shaking their groove thing, too!"