♪♫ Oh, you ain't gettin' no younger ♪♫

My 70's music choice in Pandora was playing in the background while I loaded the dishwasher the other day.  I think listening to music can be considered multi-tasking and I needed the company anyway.

Just as Desperado by the Eagles tugged on  my ear,  I willingly turned up the volume.  I leaned up against the sink, but when I closed my eyes they filled not so willingly with unexpected tears.

That song debuted 47 years ago. I know that because I know how to count to 99 on ten fingers.   I could not stop my mind from drifting through all those years, and those thoughts kept my fingers busy.
 
When I entered high school the World War II hits were twenty to twenty five years old.  Twenty year old songs were longer than a lifetime of a teenager. I remember considering them ancient.

 "The Charleston"  from the "Roarin' 20's" wasn't even thirty the year I was born. One random thought reminded me that that dance was closer in years to my infant days than "Desperado" was in years to my senior days.    It doesn't make sense now, but at the moment I felt it was poignant.   (Meanwhile our 11-year old granddaughter 'Charlestoned' perfectly on our patio yesterday after grandpa showed it to her on an internet video.)

There was music in my house from my earliest memories. My mom listened to the radio often as she clothed and fed and cleaned and instructed.  My siblings and I all played piano or other instruments.  We had a little phonograph that played our limited records over and over and over. And then played them again.   My older siblings added more LPs  to our little collection after my parents bought a small stereo that sat near the window in our living room.  There were hours of Tennessee Ernie Ford, Burl Ives, Gordon Lightfoot, The Kingston Trio; plus various instrumentals such as the Philadelphia Philharmonic, Percy Faith, and Martin Denny.   

I eventually completed the dish washing task that day, but not before vaguely arranging major events and music in my head.  I quickly acknowledged  that they were already entwined up there in some wonderful or, in some cases, quite brutal ways. 

 A bit brutal  in fact on that very day when those lyrics, so beautiful in 1973, reminded me in 2020 that ...... ♪♫ Oh, you ain't gettin' no younger ♪♫





















Comments

Coffeypot said…
Yes, music does have a way of bringing back memories. Songs like Walk Like A Man and Sugar Shack instantly bring back memories of sitting on a stool at the counter of some hamburger shop in Long Beach yacking with a shipmate or two. You get the drift...
12:37 PM, August 11, 2020
Far Side of Fifty said…
Oh I love the music from the late 50's and all of the 60's and sometimes even into the 70's. Love the Eagles and I had a CD that I wore out Common Thread; Songs of the Eagles. WE have favorites that when they show up on the music list in the car we remember when! Stay safe!
5:58 PM, August 12, 2020
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Apparitions in my Garden

Image
Karmyn is the host of Fun Monday this week with a subject that is near and dear to her heart. Not to mention her knees and fingers. But I mentioned them anyway. The subject? --- What's Growing In Your Garden. As soon as I signed up I grabbed my camera and headed out the back door. Alyssum, lady's mantle, gaillardia, Jupiter beard, and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember is blooming in this photo. We didn't put as many annuals in this year so I miss all the yellows and reds that we often enjoy. But, something else showed up in that surprised me. Can it be that my yard is haunted? Cheeky little ghost! A shot from the deck near the hammock shows off some ornamental grass, petunias, pond plants ... and that bold apparitio
Read more

An Old Cold Spot

Image
My brother Mike emailed me this photo last night.  He said this was a goodbye salute that he snapped today in his garage where this old freezer has been chugging away since 1988.  That was the year our mama decided she was tired of bending over and digging through it.  Besides, she no longer needed the capacity and hadn't for several years. Mike and my sister-in-law  spent the next 25 years "digging" through this old freezer.  My sis-in-law was very good at keeping it and the cupboards stocked.  The two of them kept promising each other that "It is going to die soon, so we will just keep it until that day." Twenty-five years may seem like a very long life for a freezer.  It is MUCH older than that. Sears only sold Coldspot through 1976.  I thought that my parent's purchased this freezer in the sixties.  My brother said he put the serial number 'on-line' and it matched a 1953 manufacturing date.   Here is a close up of the make and model that
Read more

I Can Almost Smell it

Early this moring I got a Sn@pch@t from my 13 year old granddaughter. A short video panarama of the students and the classroom in one of her 8th grade subjects. In that moment I regressed sixty years to the little rural six room school I attended. The chalk odor greeted my nose at the front entrance. The hallway seemed dark and wide from my childish perspective. The steam radiators clanked and hissed throughout the winter days. Sometimes wet gloves were set on them to dry, which reminded me of wet dog as the wool singed from the heat. What we called 'the cloackroom' was a large open ended closet that contained hooks for coats and a built in bench. As there was no cafeteria, the large closet also held our lunch boxes. So by the late afternoon the over-ripe banana peels and the left over peanut butter sandwiches were in a winning battle to offend the nostrils. I don't even need to mention the stinky boots and wet socks. But hey! The windows were push up to open
Read more