Tuesday 12 July 2011

Zenyatta Mondatta

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I was hanging out in a bookshop, as I do, when my youth came rushing back at me in a burst of sound bites.

  • Roxanne - cassette player perched on my knee taping Countdown. 
  • Message in A Bottle - Year 10 social - white vest and blue skirt. Dead Ants.
  • Walking On the Moon - back in front of Countdown, cassette player held to the TV speaker, scowling if my family threatened to talk, move or breathe. 
  • Driven to Tears - drive home from MCG after the 1980 Grand Final. Enough said.
  • De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da - detention (writing lines)  for mucking up in Modern History. (Again)
  • Spirits In The Material World - late night HSC study. Pine trees outside my window.
  • King Of Pain - morning after a College ball.
  • Can't Stand Losing - Melbourne Showgrounds. Synchronicity Tour.

Had to have that book! On to the YA section and another barrage of memories.

  • Wooden schools desks, brown knee high socks and games on the school steps.
  • Mrs Phillip's voice filling the classroom as she read A Wrinkle In Time.
  • Metal balcony rails. The teacher's Great Dane padding by.
  • Lounging on the courtyard lawn in the sun, baby oil coating our legs.
  • Reading in front of the open fire, pausing only to look up at Tommy Hafey or Peter Moore  on World of Sport.
  • Marking lambs, wearing Mum's gumboots, while being battered by icy wind. 
  • Crying when I finished The Outsiders (How I loved Pony Boy and Soda) again.

Books and music have always been a major part of my life, so I guess it's not surprising that my memories are tightly woven through them.
I wonder what memories Powderfinger, Graffiti Moon and This Is Shyness will evoke in the future.

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