Category: memories

The First Time

Oh, I remember the first time. Dad had taken us children out. It was just the four of us. Mom was working. When we reached home, we discovered that Dad didn’t have the key, and the door was locked. This was pre-cell phone days, back when phones were big, clumsy things a headset as large as a small child’s head, and a rotary dial.

Dad reconnoitered to find a way in and then started talking about going to one of the neighbors’ houses to call Mom. We hadn’t lived there long, and didn’t know the neighbors.

I had a more pressing issue; I had to pee. Dad pointed to a bush and said, “Just go behind a bush.”

I was shocked. Pee outside? What are we animals. But when a boy hasta go, a boy hasta go.

Yep, I remember the first time.

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The Joke

“There’s a Dairy Queen. Want to go there for dessert?”

“Okay.” She sounded pleased.

He’d been joking but he made the right turn, found parking, and they went inside. It’d been a long time since they’d been in a DQ, and the menu was different from those days, requiring a study of offering, ingredients, and calories. Finally choices were made. “Do most people take a long time like I did?” he asked the young cashier.

She smiled. “Yes, most do.”

His wife said, “We used to go to the Dairy Queen when we were dating. Not this one, but I mean, another Dairy Queen. It was the only place around.”

“That was literally almost fifty years ago,” he said. He and his wife laughed.

The cashier smiled. “Your orders will be up in a moment.”

 

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Today’s music started with a simple response to a weary situation. I thought, “Take me home,” and my stream kicked in with the Stevie Nicks song, “Stand Back” (1983). So, here we are.

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Well, did you ever wake up
With them bullfrogs on your mind?
Well, did you ever wake up
With them bullfrogs on your mind?
You had to sit there laughin’
Laughin’ just to keep from crying

h/t to genius.com

Yeah, you know what I’m talking about. I think I first heard Canned Heat perform “Bullfrog Blues” in the late 1960s. Later, though, came Rory Gallagher, and it’s his lively version that streamed through my head this morning after a peculiar sequence of dreams.

So here it is, my sweet baboos. Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Today’s song came by way of a cat. He went out through the pet door from the MBR, crossed the patio, came in through the living room side door, and then walked around behind me, greeting me as I came down the hall from the MBR.

Whipping my head back, I asked, “How did you get here so fast?”

He flicked his tail once and sat.

I nodded. “Everything you do is magic.” I knew, of course, that it wasn’t magic, but quantum walking. Cats are adept at walking through universes from one to another, turning up at odd times and places.

That simple phrase, though, invited the stream to begin “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” (The Police, 1981).

I need to watch what I say.

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Friday’s Theme Music

Okay, I knew this song, but, one, I didn’t know who performed it; two, I didn’t know the song title; and, three, I didn’t know what year it came out. I also only knew a few choruses. None of this stopped it from streaming in my head as I was walking yesterday. Boisterous, with a thumping beat, it’s an excellent freakin’ walking song.

I needed the details. I mentioned the song to the barista yesterday, telling her it was stuck in my head, and sharing some of the song with her.

“That’s familiar. Wait.” She stared into space. “I know it but I don’t know who did it or the name of it.”

“Well, I need to go look it up.”

She nodded. “Please tell me if you find what it is, because now it’s stuck in my head.”

Well, I found it. Took a good five minutes, but the net is an impressive place. Here is Fitz and the Tantrums with their song, “The Walker”, from 2013. Let me know if you recognize it.

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Thursday’s Theme Music

How ’bout some prog-rock about some sailors? Amazing, but songs about sailors aren’t that uncommon in the rock world.

You might have something from Styx, Blue Image, or Gordon Lightfoot in mind. This one, though, is from Kansas and 1977. Not their biggest hit by far, I’ve always been teased by that line, “How long to the point of know return?” It’s like, “Well, I don’t know.”

I also always remember Jerry, a buddy of mine, when I hear this song. He loved being the vocalist while playing air keyboards when this song played.

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Going through some papers yesterday evening, I decided, I’m throwing this all away.

My mind is like Siri or Alexa. “Playing Genesis, “Throwing It All Away”.

Me: “What? No! I never — ”

“Throwing It All Away” begins.

Me: “Stop it! Stop it!”

But the mind no longer hears. It’s singing along. “Throwing It All Away” continues on an endless loop until I go to sleep. Then it starts up again this morning.

So, here’s a little soft pop-rock for you day. From 1986.

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Sunday’s Theme Music

With all this Apollo 11 hoopla going on, naturally I thought of moon songs, and ended up streaming The Police and “Walking on the Moon” (1979).

I’ve read many account of Americans who decline to categorically embrace that humans walked on the Moon, despite NASA’s evidence. Ryan Newman, a NASCAR driver, isn’t ready to embrace it; he’s only seen photographs. Photographs, videos, rocks, etc., can all be faked.

I know how he feels. I’ve never met him. I’ve only seen photographs and videos of Ryan Newman. He might not exist outside of CGI. For all I know, he may not have said the words attributed to him. So really, if a fake person who only exists on photographs, videos, magazines, and newspapers claims that another event is faked, does the first cancel the second?

It’ll take some giant steps. If humans ever get to Mars, I wonder how many of them will believe it?

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