Back to the Sixties In One Song....What a Trip!

Awake at 4 a.m. to try and  beat time, to try and beat dying really.  Yeah, I did the 5:30 a.m. spinning class.  The instructor is fantastic and always has great music to help with the pain the class brings me. All joking aside, a song came on that's one of my favorites, so I closed my eyes while my little feet peddled as fast as this old girl could go. Eerily, the song took me back to my youth. 




 There's a line that I've heard before, but this time it triggered a very clear idea that I was being taken back even deeper into another time and another place:

 In winter of 1963
It felt like the world would freeze
With John F. Kennedy
And The Beatles.

In a moment my mind, my heart, and maybe something else that I can't quite put my finger on, went back to those teen age days. 







 Life was so different then, I smoked, most people did,  I didn't drink, I cussed a lot, still do, and even though I had very little confidence, looking back, I was a pistol.  

My best friend Carol and I 'snuck out' once.  We decided to get a bottle of beer...yep, one bottle, and head downtown. We headed out on foot and stopped along the way, crept under a bush and opened the glass bottle.  We wound up breaking it because we forgot to bring an opener. So much for the drinking. But we did finally make it to the weekly dance . 

A young girl and her boyfriend; her boyfriend who had the biggest most beautiful blue eyes you'd ever see.  Yep, she was me.  And yes, I had a real boyfriend with those amazing eyes.

As I sat on the spinning bike, peddling, sweat pouring down, I didn't feel like it was an effort as I listened to that song. Another memory popped in my mind like a fish jumping out of water. My boyfriend and I eating fried chicken and smoking cigarettes in his car in the park while skipping school.  Clear as day.

A Salvation Army Band played
And Children drunk lemonade
And the morning lasted all day,
All day
And through an open window came
Like Sinatra in a younger day,

                             I fell in love with him. 

We went to two proms together, but he'd only slow dance with me. 

We skipped school a lot and spent time in the country playing on hills near his grandfather's farm.  The longer we dated it seemed the more addicted we were to each other.  But we argued in the end, A lot.  Until finally one night I told him I never wanted to see him again. Two days later he was out running around, and the jeep his friend was driving  flipped. They both were killed.  

The evening had turned to rain
Watch the water roll down the drain,
As we followed him down
To the station
And though he never would wave goodbye
You could see it written in his eyes
As the train pulled out of sight
Bye-bye

Read more: Dream Academy - Life In A Northern Town Lyrics | MetroLyrics 

That was September, 1969. By that time, Kennedy was dead, both of them, and Martin Luther King was shot too.  There were more things to think about now other than getting caught skipping school. My adult life was just beginning, but so many other things had ended. The '60's were over, so was a huge part of my youth.  

But that song took me back. It's incredible how music does that; it does so many things don't you think? For me to be transported to all those years ago.....That beautiful song has haunted me all day long. I haven't blogged in a while, but there ya have it. That song!  

Take it easy on yourself.