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No longer on the river and, again, an empty nester. Back to living on Fleming Island and making some more friends!

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Listening to old music with old ears

Some of the time spent at Lori's at Holmen was once again playing with the old vinyls. David and Lori still have a usable turntable and had great fun digging through the archives of albums-bins and bins worth-carefully sorted and catagorized. Lori wanted to surprise me with the albums, not letting me peek ahead of time, to see if I could guess the artist and song in "record" time, like we used to do when younger. To my surprise, I did fairly well, not always remembering the titles but most often the lyrics.
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The reason this came to mind today is that I was lying in bed, watching a strange movie with Hugh Grant, and the lyrics to "Free Man in Paris" suddenly passed through my mind. I got myself a bowl of cereal and then located my copy of "Court and Spark" by Joni Mitchell. We'd listened to some of that album at Lori's which was extremely cool to do again. Such huge contrasts in my musical tastes, Joni and Janis and Sarah! Unfortunately, the Schipper collection has no Janis in it, those were all mine, but David did manage to find the Buffy Ste. Marie albums to play, none of which had the "Must I Go Bound" song I needed to hear! I'll have to research that on-line or something to find it.
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"Must I go bound and you so free? Must I love one who doesn't love me? Must I be born with so little art as to love the one who would break my heart?" Can't you just hear Buffy's quivering voice launching that question? Perhaps not, if you've never heard her sing...I hear it often in my head, that, and "Free Man in Paris".
David the Troubadour, playing his guitar at Justin's graduation, entertaining our Goddaughter, Sarah
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One last thing about Buffy: I became a fan of hers many moons ago (a little Indian lingo there) when I babysat for my cousin's daughter, Cheryl Lynn. David and Rochelle lived in Newton, a suburb of Manitowoc, and I'd often stay overnight due to the late hour and long ride. TV used to go off the air just after midnight back in the day, so I'd listen to their albums on the console record player. That's also when I discovered Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Dolly Parton, what's his name Waggoner...did I mention David was a truck driver??? This must have been 1972 or 73, I think.
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I told Rochelle one day how much I enjoyed listening to Buffy and she told me to take it along home with me, that they didn't really like her singing after all. Great! That started it for me, and Lori as well, since we were into folk-style music at the time. I loved Buffy until she got all nuts with the politics and anti-war stuff. We did get to see her up close and personal in Milwaukee at a fund-raiser for the Indians that took over the novitiate---in support for Wounded Knee, I think. That was back in 1974 or 75, can't remember, only wanted to see Buffy! Lori drove down from Manty and the three of us went to UW-Milwaukee to hear her sing. I was still a newlywed at that time....back in the day.....
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Okay, so I am ashamed of myself for whimpering about climbing the stairs these days! Yesterday, as I was leaving to have dinner with the Rosses, I met my 5th floor neighbor, Michelle, on the 2nd level, heading up the stairs, pushing a bike. The poodle rode in the basket...I asked what she was doing and she said they've had to do this every day in order to get the bike up and down. I was astounded!!! I didn't ask why she needed the bike down stairs everyday but she said the dog loves to ride in the basket...okay.......what? You'd think there was a place it could have been secured downstairs, even on someone's patio, rather than moving it on the stairs....oh my! And I fuss about carrying my purse down and up again!!!
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Kerry sent me a video tape of the terrible storms that passed through their area (Oshkosh) last evening. I can even hear the storm sirens howling above the pounding rain. She said she's such a goober for standing there with her camera, but I'd do the same thing if I were her! I'll have to check the TV stations in her area to see what the reports show, as far as touchdown or anything.
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The river is calm today and I'd love like anything to jump in the car and head for the beach! It's supposed to be 81 above zero today and I have nothing pressing until the Symphony tonight...I really should unpack my suitcases though and put that stuff away once and for all. It looks like such a wretched mess in here, could do that instead of going to the beach. I could also sit by the pool, if I want to.....it's great to be home!