The bulk of newer stuff I was listening to during the time this record came out was more dark, crashy, heavy, and sometimes depressing. Not that I don't still listen to and like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Nine Inch Nails, Nick Cave, et al. But Dookie was a nice splash of bright color in a swirl of muted hues.

There is so much substance to this punky peppy pop doled out in two-to-three-minute blasts it just kept going for me all the way through 1995 as well. I counted on Dookie for an energy boost, which I needed while I was home with a baby all day. Dookie is a greatest-hits record in itself from the get-go start of "Burnout." Get on the train and hang on for the ride, then get back on again.

1995 was such a weird year. The USA TODAY Sports and Information Center, where I had worked forever, relocated to DC in March. I didn't want to move so I took the fat severance package and stayed home with my new baby. So I had no job or idea what I would end up doing. I watched the Oklahoma bombing almost right after it happened. That was mind-numbing. Then there was the OJ Simpson trial. It was always on. You never had to say, hmmm, I wonder if there's anything on TV because you always knew OJ was on. Watching that stuff all day can really do strange things to your head, so it was good to have Dookie around to remember what fun is.

I first came to learn about this California band via Berlin. In 1991, Hubby and I stayed there with our friend Dariush, who at the time was a big Green Day fan. I had met Dariush on a train to Berlin in 1987 when I was running away from a guy in London. Dariush and I discovered we had a mutual love of punk and he would send me cassettes of German punk bands like Die Toten Hosen and Die Goldenen Zitronen.

But despite that early introduction, it wasn't until Dookie came out that I finally got around to buying my first Green Day record. And it still sounds great.

-- June 16, 2005 (DD)