Midnight cruiser: Nighttime drives during the summer

One of the great perks of summer in Indiana is the chance to drive around with the windows down listening to music. As a stress reducer, there’s nothing quite like it.

It’s a cure all for any troubles. Insurmountable problems seem manageable after a drive with the right soundtrack. Frazzled nerves can be cured by the guitar jangle of The Byrds or the soulful vocals of Marvin Gaye.

I’d pay any price and bear any burden to drive around with the breeze blowing through my hair and the chance to sing along with any of my favorites.

Some activities are best done at night, like star gazing, smuggling spice on the Kessel Run and driving.

Night driving is a quirk of geography. Those who live in a big city might have the advantage of dozens of cultural opportunities, but it’s best suited for more geographically isolated locations where the people are few in number and you don’t have to worry about losing your parking space.

Why is it that driving around and listening to music is so much better at night?

The obvious answer is the cooler temperature, although true, is only one of several factors. Driving at night is very cinematic. It’s easy to imagine with the right soundtrack that you’re in the middle of a film.

If you have a more literary bent, it’s a chance to feel like Sal Paradise in “On The Road.”

It allows the listener to step outside the drudgery of their daily routine and create a moment that will stand out from the rest of their day.

The distractions of the modern world sometimes make it difficult to be an attentive music listener. At night, it’s far easier to connect with the emotions of a Hank Williams song when it’s dark and you’re the only person on the road. Only then can you truly tap into the senses of isolation and existentialist dread in Williams’ sorrowful vocals.

Nostalgia is a powerful feeling, it’s the driving force behind such classic films as “American Graffiti,” “Grease” and “Back To The Future.” It’s what makes night driving such a moving experience. It’s a chance to reconnect with lost youth for some, and it feeds the sense of longing some have for a time they never lived in and a place that never existed.

Far too often we as a society rush from one thing to the next and don’t bother to slow down to appreciate the things that make life worth living, like the love-struck, hiccup-y vocals of Buddy Holly or the gorgeous harmonies of The Beach Boys that conjure images of bright blue California skies and waves crashing on the shore.

Though it sounds like something ripped from a label of Country Time lemonade, summer is the perfect time for revisiting the past.

Higher gas prices are sure to kill dreams of night drives for some. It’s hard to justify being so wasteful when everything is so expensive.

It won’t deter me. I’ve got roads to drive, albums to listen to and fuel to burn.