Friday, March 16, 2012

#Scintilla Prompt #3 What Song Brings Back Memories for Me!

Scintilla Prompt #3. Talk about a memory triggered by a particular song.

BadGirls, by Donna Summers. HELLO, every time I hear this song, I think about the time April (one of my BFF’s) and I came up with a dance routine. OMG, we worked all summer on a dance for this song; GEEZ, I don’t think we were anything close to 11 years old. I remember working on this particular move where we hopped and landed on our heels as we made our way in a circle. It was serious, we were going to Hollywood, and if we didn’t get that move the whole dance was ruined. The pressure was ON.

I remember being jealous because April’s mom had Donna Summers on Vinyl (okay I know I’m dating myself here. But listen up Whipper-Snappers, I used to save up all my money from collecting Pepsi Light glass soda bottles until I had enough $. Full albums cost a lot back then. Just for a point of reference, I think I paid $12 for Kajagoogoo’s debut album). OMG totally dating myself here.

But anyway let me digress. I grew up in Ukiah, (U Know It’s All Here) a small Northern California town where nobody locked their doors, kids would play until the sun stopped dancing on the rooftops and if you got in trouble, everyone would know by the next morning.

I grew up in a time where video games were known as pinball machines and in order to play them you’d have to truck down to Thrifty’s with a friend and the couple of quarters you earned raking your elderly neighbor’s yard. Payphones were everywhere and candy bars were just a quarter. Microwaves were for the wealthy along with VCR’s (those were machines that attached to your TV so you could play movies).

It was a simpler time, (no I didn’t walk barefoot to school, uphill in the snow-both ways) we didn’t know what a computer was, the internet was 20 years away from being invented by Al Gore and you actually had to dial a phone. Cell phone—what was that?

God—now that I think about it, I am surprised I survived my childhood.

Times have changed I tell you. Oh man—I am starting to sound like the generation before us who thought we were all going to hell in a hand basket. Consequently, we didn’t end up in hell; but we did end up with the Internet!

I think back to the music I listened to and how it brings back the different experiences in my life, and I truly feel lucky to have the innocence of a time when I thought Bad Girls was a song about a sad girl hailing a cab ride for 10 cents. 

HEY MISTA, YOU GOT A DIME? …HEY MISTA DO YOU WANNA SPEND SOME TIME? …I GOT WHAT YOU WANT IF YOU GOT WHAT I NEED….I’LL BE YOUR BABY CUZ YOU SPEND IT ON ME. TOOT, TOOT, HEY, BEEP, BEEP.

Goes to show you what I know… I’ll write you tomorrow~ I promise!


4 comments:

  1. Oh, Donna Summer! Oh, "Bad Girls"! And oh, those days before these days.

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  2. 'Bad Girls' was a great rhythm for my 80s aerobics classes.Beep beep.

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  3. This is really fun and wonderful. I loved to hear about your naive view of that cab ride! I giggled--think of how many things were just alluded to in songs (really all entertainment) back then that now are just Out There. Sigh. It's the end of subtlety.

    Great job, Gretchen!

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  4. Great piece, I too grew up in the age of glass bottled sodas and rotary telephones, VCR's were still a ways away for me but I was still young enough to think they were the best thing since sliced bread when they came out. Thanks for sharing this.

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