Sunday, October 25

Blasts from the Past.

Sometimes a scent or a song, or even a colour will suddenly send me right back to a former life, with a former me, feeling just as I did way back then.

One such song, is Boys of Summer, sung by Don Henley.

I was a shop owner back in that life. I could please myself what I served and how. I had a menu of 'healthy' foods, most of which I prepared myself, fresh, each day in my shop.

I had a Silver Torana car, which I loved driving, & I would have the radio playing loudly on my way to & from work.
One of the hits of that time was Don Henley's Boys of Summer. So every time I hear that song, I am instantly transported back to the freedom of my own car, my own shop, my own hours of trading.

Occasionally Gom would come to help me in the shop. Sometimes our Daughter came & helped me. I had one assistant, a girl, who worked part time, & she & I got along very well. We both loved the same music and both had the similar senses of humour.

She was married to a lean, mild looking man, who periodically turned into some type of Swamp Monster, for want of a better term. He did not drink, but he would turn suddenly into a fiend from Hell, and beat his wife. She would run to her Mother in Law's house, with her two children. Her MIL would slap, & hit, her son, when he came rampaging after his wife.

It seemed incredible. I would never have believed him capable of such lunacy, if I had not witnessed the broken teeth, the black eyes, the bite marks on her body. The scratches.

Her tales of splintered wardrobes, shattered mirrors, sounded farfetched.
His rage seemed to somehow, completely transform him, and give him incredible strength. As I said he was a smallish built man, who seemed so couth, so sane.

Everyone advised her to leave him. Each attack seemed to escalate. She finally did leave him, before he killed her. They remained 'friends', unbelieable as that sounds. I don't think even he knew what demons drove him.

She came to visit me, when I was another person, living another life entirely. I was so happy to see her, and see how well she looked.

The life and times of the Boys of Summer had passed by then.
Boys of Summer had meant a new house.
A son staying before he left for his Overseas Experience.
Another son, gaining an apprenticeship he really wanted.
That same son meeting the girl, who was to be the one of his dreams, for the next seventeen years. We loved her too.
Our Daughter, leaving a huge hole in my life, as she went back to live in New Zealand.

As in Fairytales, the world turned, our lives dramatically changed.
I sold my shop.
I found another life as an office worker. I became another me, happy enough.
Then our lives changed again.
I became another me, entirely different to any other, previous 'me'.

The Boys of Summer, didn't sing in this new life.
I no longer had my lovely house.
I no longer had my beloved Silver Torana.
On Saturday nights, nerve shattering music invaded my life, shattering more than my nerves.
I broke.

From the ashes came a new me.
I can listen to Boys of Summer now, and recapture the wonderful feeling of driving in my car, the happiness of that era.
I can see past the sadness, the sounds of other music, and still feel the joy of that music .

Don Henley, Boys of Summer

10 comments:

Unknown said...

your post makes me sad! I have many songs that transport me to the time I listened to them. chillin in my room, breakups, parties, funerals. Some good some bad.

Fi from Four Paws and Whiskers said...

Music is like that...
but sorry to hear so much sadness on the journey since those heady days of summer.
I guess it happens to us all - makes us appreciate the good times more!
fi

Marja said...

Amazing how music can take you back
and also how life can change so much from time to time and how you grow into a totally different person. Sometimes we have to go through very difficult times to make that transformation happening and you become a stronger person Like you are Meggie

Kathy's Klothesline said...

You speak of the different "you"s and I know exactly what you mean. Funny how we transform to meet the different needs and circumstance. Seems like only yesterday I was looking so forward to the future that I failed to enjoy the present. Life is funny like that. Thank you for your kind words and thoughts.. about the death of my son. I am healing, I suppose. Still, some little thing will jump out and smack me back into the depths. I always seem to climb back out.

Stomper Girl said...

I love that song, but I am very anti- people who can't control their tempers.

Thimbleanna said...

Another interesting, but sad post Meggie! At first I mis-read your sentence about your friend -- "before he killed her", thinking that he really did kill her, then I think I figured it out. Funny, I never think of Don Henley as having a life of his own -- he's always been an Eagle to me.

Cathi said...

It's amazing how much some songs can evoke a feeling of a time gone by or remind us of particular incidents.

Lone Grey Squirrel said...

This post is so well written. I enjoyed reading it very much.

persiflage said...

All those different lives, all our different lives! Suddenly memories impinge and bring back so many experiences, partly forgotten, sometimes overcome, sometimes survived, sometimes having damaged lives and unwillingly relived. What an evocative post, yet again.

The Sagittarian said...

Oh I adore Don Henley, he's a very handsome chap I reckon. Thanks for this post!