Records that just take you back whever you are
Discussion
I always listen to /sounds of the 60's and enjoy the music, and the memories that some records recall, but there are three that just put my mind into rewind and i am back there, whenever i hear them
The first is Ray Charles' Hit the road Jack' and i am back in the cafe on the corner of Finsbury Road and Commerce road in Wood Green back in 1961. School was just up the road and the atmosphere was one that can never be repeated nowadays. Imagine Oct/Nov, wet day, cafe full at lunchtime with cooking going full pelt, condensation from the food being cooked, teas brewing, and fag smoke, plenty of it.workmen noshing up on massive fry ups or a pie chips and beans. Seven of us with mugs of teas, having a quick Rothmans, and spending the rest on the pintable in the corner. We found out that if you put a couple of tobacco tins under the front lgs it lessened the slope and you could keep the ball in play for ages. One thing you couldn't do was the heavy 'nudging' as the weight that caused the 'tilt' to come on was now way off centre. The thing that does stick in my mind is the display at the back had a monkey that moved whenevr you got a replay, we hammered that machine so much the head fell off the monkey and a lonesome body just told us each time we got a free game
Second one is 'Bridge over troubled Water' Was absolutely gaga over a girl at work and eventually got her to go out with me. trouble is she was a bit reluctnt to chuck the current in. So i used to wait for her in the car until he buggered off. It was Feb 70 and bloody cold, and i just froze in the car waiting for her. The heater in the old Daimler wasn't great on tick over, and even now i shiver with cold just hearing it. A bit of a weird feeling in July!
Third one is Happy Together and it was playing when i proposed to my first wife. It was one of those moments when you really felt that she WAS the one and a pig in s
t couldn't have been happier.
It was the first record on at our reception. Sadly it only lasted three years and i bumped into her in 2003,just before my quad bypass op. She had settled down and had two kids, but that one had just gone south when he buggered off with a younger floozy.. Lost touch and was given her address in 2009 by a guy at work (Marvellous what 192.com can do)I was in the area on a job and went to see her it would have been our 36th anniversary a few week previously, only to find she had been cremated the previous Thursday, died of cancer of the back. Diagnosed in Feb gone by June.
I still think of her a lot,and of what might have been. But realise that Que Sera Sera.
I could say i still loved her, but wasn't IN love with her, and i think thats the difference.
So whenever that one comes on , its back in the pub in Muswell Hill in Nov 1971, and then the wedding 18 months later
Sorry its a bit rambling, but i do feel a bit old and fragile today.
Any others out there with similar tales?
The first is Ray Charles' Hit the road Jack' and i am back in the cafe on the corner of Finsbury Road and Commerce road in Wood Green back in 1961. School was just up the road and the atmosphere was one that can never be repeated nowadays. Imagine Oct/Nov, wet day, cafe full at lunchtime with cooking going full pelt, condensation from the food being cooked, teas brewing, and fag smoke, plenty of it.workmen noshing up on massive fry ups or a pie chips and beans. Seven of us with mugs of teas, having a quick Rothmans, and spending the rest on the pintable in the corner. We found out that if you put a couple of tobacco tins under the front lgs it lessened the slope and you could keep the ball in play for ages. One thing you couldn't do was the heavy 'nudging' as the weight that caused the 'tilt' to come on was now way off centre. The thing that does stick in my mind is the display at the back had a monkey that moved whenevr you got a replay, we hammered that machine so much the head fell off the monkey and a lonesome body just told us each time we got a free game
Second one is 'Bridge over troubled Water' Was absolutely gaga over a girl at work and eventually got her to go out with me. trouble is she was a bit reluctnt to chuck the current in. So i used to wait for her in the car until he buggered off. It was Feb 70 and bloody cold, and i just froze in the car waiting for her. The heater in the old Daimler wasn't great on tick over, and even now i shiver with cold just hearing it. A bit of a weird feeling in July!
Third one is Happy Together and it was playing when i proposed to my first wife. It was one of those moments when you really felt that she WAS the one and a pig in s
t couldn't have been happier.It was the first record on at our reception. Sadly it only lasted three years and i bumped into her in 2003,just before my quad bypass op. She had settled down and had two kids, but that one had just gone south when he buggered off with a younger floozy.. Lost touch and was given her address in 2009 by a guy at work (Marvellous what 192.com can do)I was in the area on a job and went to see her it would have been our 36th anniversary a few week previously, only to find she had been cremated the previous Thursday, died of cancer of the back. Diagnosed in Feb gone by June.
I still think of her a lot,and of what might have been. But realise that Que Sera Sera.
I could say i still loved her, but wasn't IN love with her, and i think thats the difference.
So whenever that one comes on , its back in the pub in Muswell Hill in Nov 1971, and then the wedding 18 months later
Sorry its a bit rambling, but i do feel a bit old and fragile today.
Any others out there with similar tales?
There are lots that do the trick for me. The places are many, the times are spaced over the last 45 years or so, from school days, to college days, to motorcycle rallies, to travelling the world etc.
In fact there are so many I couldn't even begin to document them, but when one plays I can feel, hear, even smell the scenario that it holds.
Often I listen to my iPod in my bunk here on the ship, in the dark, and it is like a time machine whipping back the years.
Most of the memories are sad, from sad times, lost loves, broken hearts, or sadness that a good time has gone. Some remind me of when I was in a strong place, with the world on my side, and some of when things were really down and miserable. I've been both up and down so many times, been to so many places, and the adventure is still going on, accumulating those special records in my head.
In fact there are so many I couldn't even begin to document them, but when one plays I can feel, hear, even smell the scenario that it holds.
Often I listen to my iPod in my bunk here on the ship, in the dark, and it is like a time machine whipping back the years.
Most of the memories are sad, from sad times, lost loves, broken hearts, or sadness that a good time has gone. Some remind me of when I was in a strong place, with the world on my side, and some of when things were really down and miserable. I've been both up and down so many times, been to so many places, and the adventure is still going on, accumulating those special records in my head.
Maybe a lot of people simply don't have any memories worth recalling? Some people live painfully tedious and unremarkable lives.
I was determined not to do that from my earliest days. Maybe growing up as a child in Singapore instilled the urge to do things differently than 'the norm', who knows, but following the usual school-girlfriend-job-married-kids-retire-die path never appealed to me much.
I was determined not to do that from my earliest days. Maybe growing up as a child in Singapore instilled the urge to do things differently than 'the norm', who knows, but following the usual school-girlfriend-job-married-kids-retire-die path never appealed to me much.
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