Sunday, September 8, 2013

I remember summer '63...





I remember the summer when
all they played was "Sukiaki"
 over Portland's  KISN
radio  91.3
Age 15, I lay down a towel
on the hot cement to sunbathe
only to bring to the surface
more freckles on my arms and face
Looking over the river to
another bigger little town
freighters made their way East and West
we, unaware of lives aboard 
No concept of "What Was Going 
On", as Marvin sung out his song
Protected we were from it all,
we had idealistic dreams
Rock 'n Roll and hot summer sun
"Don't worry, there are no regimes"
they said but we did anyway
I remember when "Teen Angel,
Can You Hear Me?" made us all cry,
haunting us as we wondered "Why?"
School on Monday seemed a long spell
from Saturday's four o'clock show
TV's dancing with Dick's "Band Stand"
The years all run together now
 From 1955, Brothers
Righteous and "Unchained Melody"
to "Ba Ba Ba - Ba Barbara Ann"
 don't forget that "Old Moon Bilbao"
"A Summer Place" and "Mack the Knife"
"Sugar Shack" and "Be My Baby"
I remember the music well,
just yesterday we were crazy



For dversepoets.com today Karen from manicddaily  invites us to write about
 "remembering'...as in "Try to Remember" (by 
The Brothers Four).  I quickly wrote this.


21 comments:

  1. smiles... music for me as well makes a strong connection to specific times and hearing some songs transports me like in a time machine to specific moments with all it scents and feel and temperature and all... nice on the freckles.. i find freckles so charming..smiles

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  2. smiles...i think we were a little crazy at times....music played a big part of my teen years and beyond...prior to that i remember it at christmas and through peter paul and mary records...ha...protected, we were just a bit but in different ways than today...maybe we were more innocent...

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  3. Music can bring us back...mine are a little later.. but some songs brings forth strong emotion of falling in love and just floating around on clouds... other brings forth sadness of break up and others just get me back in that mood...

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  4. The music makes me remember certain years in my life too Katy ~ A little or over crazy, we all have those times ~ Thanks for sharing this part of your life ~

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  5. Oh how I used to love the "Righteous Brothers." Hadn't thought about them in a long, long time. Funny, isn't it, how music can transport a person back to the past and make it live again. I really enjoyed your piece, Katy, and the music that triggered some memories for me too.

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  6. A very wonderful bit of nostalgia here - and with such your own twist - I loved that Sukiyaki song - so fifties but so very strange with the Japanese side. In the East Coast, one does not understand how different the Northwest is, and must have been back then. I especially liked the images of the sunbathing and freckles--which were of course abhorred then--and the bigger little town across the way with the steamers. A really vivid and beautiful tableau. Thanks. k.

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  7. Lovely nostalgic memories. Great music that transported me back to those times.

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  8. Ah yes nostalgic moments do seem like just yesterday

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  9. The soundtrack of youth, well captured in your verses. It is amazing how our lives can be defined by the music of the time. The tastes we develop as teens stay with us throughout.

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  10. It always amazed me that Sukiyaki was so popular when no one understood a word--and the mix in your poem of understanding, reaction, and experience is a good metaphor for that, I think. Love the last line.

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  11. Oh I remember all these songs well. I was a little crazy then. And your poem made me remember. Enjoyed this very much.

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  12. "just yesterday we were crazy"... love that line! A great read.

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  13. those were the days, eh - you really sent me down memory lane with this one

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  14. Music does bring us back into the past! You have shown this very nicely.
    I love the line about the "more freckles on your arms and face".

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  15. Wrapping the memories in music, what a nice touch. Very well done.

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  16. OMG - you have me in tears. I have not heard this since those days - also at the heart of my own time. I was 16 with one more year in boarding school.

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  17. funny how it can be years later in the oddest place and that one song plays and we are taken back to another time and place

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  18. Wishing I could say I did not recognize any titles here.
    Flashing back in time here was fun...

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  19. Isn't it funny and charming how music brings back the days gone? Your poem made me smile and reminded me of those growing up films. I can see the sunshine and the sepia tone and the happy time before adulthood took them away.

    Thank you for the video, too. The music is familiar (in the English version though). :-) And yes, I remember Unchained Melody and the Summer Place - they came before me but they are timeless.

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  20. Thank you for stopping here and following!

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All comments, constructive and otherwise, are welcome and appreciated here. Thank you to those who show an interest in my quirky style of writing, photography, painting, and presenting a feeling or thought and for stopping by A Dwelling by the Sea..