For more information about these states and what I did there, see my WeBiography, or
- find out what MIDI is,
- get help on playing MIDI files, or
- read notes on how this page came about.
I lived in
- Leonia, New Jersey (in Bergen County, near Manhattan) from 1953-1956.
- Tulsa, Oklahoma from 1956-1960
- San Diego, California from 1960 to 1962.
- Seaford, Long Island, New York from 1962 to 1965
- Tulsa again from 1965 until high school graduation in 1971
- Dallas, Texas to start college in 1971
- Minneapolis, Minnesota (ok, in the suburb of Golden Valley) from 1988 to 1996
- and now, Cleveland, Ohio
For details, see my auto-Webiography
Click on any colored state to hear a song associated with that state.
Please read the MIDI file credits, some of the song lyrics, and descriptions of
how I found and chose these songs.
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How this page came about
I was inspired by a genealogical page that showed the family's migration over a couple of centuries, and thought it would be fun to add some songs. I should address both copyright issues and how to make the sound files play!
I was shooting for very familiar songs that are associated with the state in some way, so it was easy for me to avoid music that was written and published specifically for the MIDI format (where copyright would have been more of a problem). Some of the songs I used are "traditional" songs, and not copyrighted as far as I know, but I have tried to provide credit to the authors and performers where I can. Some of the sites where I found the sound files declare that the renderings themselves are free for public use, and although some music publishers might disagree, I tend to consider MIDI renditions such as these to be "fair use" of copyrighted songs.
Playing MIDI files
Unfortunately, not all MIDI files are created equal, and not all browsers have all of the right plug-ins to play MIDI files. If you get an error message telling you you need a plug-in for any MIDI files, you can (not really) follow these (now useless) instructions (from 1996) to set up the browser to use Microsoft's Media Player to play Midi files.
I should also note that some of the MIDI files are quite good and some are pretty poor musically, but they all convey the simple notion I was looking for: "Here's a song that relates to this state." If the relationship seems obscure, look here.