I went bowling with Meegie tonight and halfway into the first game, the lights darkened and Glo Bowl began. You know what I'm talking about: fluorescent lights and a rocking sound system.The theme seemed to be '80s music. Simple Minds, Bryan Adams, Duran-Duran, The Divinyls, et cetera, et cetera.
It is amazing how memories can be triggered. Olfactory stimulation is the most immediate of the senses-memory-trigger, but, hell, a song can take you back, too. For sure, for sure.
"Don't You Forget About Me," by Simple Minds. Bam! I was right back in eighth grade, dressed in my parochial school uniform, finally turning cool after seven-plus years of being a dork. Memories of Friday Ponderosa runs blasted into my forebrain. Fridays were short days (off at 1:30) at Shrine and I remembered the group of "cool kids" and I walking the block, block and a half down Woodward Avenue to the Ponderosa restaurant, much to the (I'd imagine) chagrin of the wait staff. We'd all order the sundae bar and plates of french fries and just be pubescents. Shaking salt at each other and jamming sundae after sundae down our throats, not tipping the waitresses...good times.
Duran-Duran's "Hungry Like a Wolf." First off, who the fuck named these songs?! Hungry like a wolf?! Lame. Anyway, that song played while we were bowling and--wham!--I was transported back to seventh grade when I would ball up socks and shoot them like basketballs into my Detroit Tigers dented metal wastebasket. At some point in the song, some woman in the background wails and I remembered that I used to hear that while I was up in my bedroom and I would always think that my Mom was calling me from the kitchen, maybe calling me to dinner. Upon (older) reflection, I reckon that the wailing woman on the track was probably being sexually pleasured. Whoops. Sorry, Mom. For the mix-up, that is.
It was just amazing, though, the way that the songs at the bowling alley were hitting me and my emotions. It was almost melancholy, kind of like looking back on times past, ruing lost friendships and paths that, perhaps, ought not been taken. Eighth grade is the last time that I can recall being truly carefree. Since then, I have always had at least a background grumble of anxiety in my life, in my mind. That gets old. It really does. To be one's own worst enemy for 20-plus years sucks ass.
Thoughts thundered.
So, while it was great to bowl and to spend time with my Meeg-doll, the music was kind of bumming me out. Crazy shit, man. Crazy shit.
Maybe this winter has gone on too long. Maybe I am actually experiencing S.A.D. Whatever it is, I'd like to lose the funk. That, too, is getting old.
13 comments:
You were cool? Crazy ;-)
I was never cool.
For me, music is far more of a memory trigger than anything else.
At least you got to be cool - I was a dork and stayed a dork!
Oh Adam, the music bummed you out?!? I never liked Duran, Duran. But can you believe I had a poster of Michael Jackson on my bedroom wall. Oh and before that it was Shaun Cassidy. I kissed my first poster at the age of...?...8.
"When I think about you..."
I can't believe I was singing that song at 14 or was it earlier?
I remember singing 'Hot Blooded' when I was 5, that I remember!
"Hot Blooded, checkin the sea, got a fever of 103."
Yeah, I messed up the lyrics! What?!?-I was only 5.
I love MUSIC and cheer up, the tulips will be popping up soon ;0)
"When I think about you..."
But I know what you mean by, "almost melancholy" and "anxiety". Muah.
But, Muirnie...you're cool now, right? :-)
Dane of the A: Somehow I doubt that you were/are a dork.
Meegie: Not completely bummed out, no. Just took me back in time and unleashed both good and bad memories. Speaking of Mr. Jackon, his Thriller concert was the first one I ever attended. I was in fourth grade, I think, and I went with my sisters and my--cough--Mom and a couple of my sisters' friends. I know...I am a wildman. LOL at the "Hot-Blooded" lyrics. =o) See you tomorrow...we'll check out some stars....
Spring is coming. HONEST. I can feel it. Hang in there. :)
You're beginning to be Lucy to my Charlie Brown, Caleal. =o)
Cue the football.
My mood is very much subject to the kind of music I'm listening to, it's actually quite ridiculous sometimes.
Glo Bowl though, that sounds cool. We don't have anything like that where I live.
Bunny: In Scotland, you guys must have Glo Golf! LOL! LOL! LOL?
Cue rim-shot.
:-\
I was never really one of the cool kids either, but that's cuz I didn't go out of my way to talk to any of the snobs. I figured if they were nice, they'd start up a conversation sometime too! I'm ready for the winter blues to be over too....hasta la taco cold and flu season, bring on the sunburn for shitsake!
Sorry you were gettin bummed, but atleast you were with a cool gal huh! :)
"With a cool gal." Indeed, Tizzy. Indeed. =o)
I went Glo Bowling in Vegas (they called it something else)... and it was INSANELY fun!!!
I know what you're saying about music's ability to take you back... I was listening to my iPod on shuffle the other day, and just the random tracks that would come up would instantly yank me back to another time and place. Craziness. One of my friends and I were talking on the phone while I was driving, and I had the radio on and a song came on and he made me turn it off because it was a song that affected him so strongly. That, of course, led to a long discussion of songs that have that kind of affect on us... which is echoed here in your post. Such an interesting thing to talk/read about... thanks for giving us a glimpse!
Music does that to me too. I was listening to a song the other day (can't remember it for the life of me) and it whisked me back to fifth grade and a crush I had. I actually looked up the lyrics, and they're terrible, not at all something that should be related to a crush, full of betrayal and whatnot, but the song itself sounded light and I'm still always happy to hear it on the radio. That was a really really long sentence.
I don't think we can ever be as carefree as we were when we were kids - first comes teen angst, then adult responsibility - but I try to look back with happy nostalgia while appreciating the things that are important to me now. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
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