So I downloaded some songs on my playlist entitled, "Old Fogies". This is a playlist on my phone which can also play on the car, of 40's and 50's music from the original artists like Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra with an occasional guest appearance of some random singer. I put some songs recently on there from the Andrews Sisters. Not really sure why, I guess it just reminds me of the days and nights at 710, with that blue haze in the living room. Ah, but then there is just the one song that gets me every time. And although I sort of downloaded it, I sort of didn't. Because the version I wanted intertwined two songs and iTunes doesn't apparently have it in their "extensive" collection. And I'm bummed because I really, really wanted that song.
So the upshot is that I downloaded the Picnic theme, but not with Moonglow interwove (interweaven? interwoven?) with it. And on the way to the store today, I played it on the radio/media player in the car. And the song hit me right in the gut, well, maybe the heart. I could picture those myriads of days at the old place suddenly as if I were a teenager again. Listening to the radio in the living room as mom got dinner in the kitchen. Dad rocking in the recliner doing the crosswords or cryptograms or whatever the hell those things were he did all the time. The nostalgia was overwhelming. I don't think of Dad all that often anymore (which sounds awful when I say that out loud). But when he comes to me in memories, it is always with that radio playing. Even in those last days in the front bedroom, it playing those songs. And Picnic and Moonglow were right there in the air around him. The last song we talked about. The last coherent conversation. And even though a lot of time has passed, it suddenly didn't seem so.
