Sunday, November 28, 2010

Webcor Dreams

an old Webcor, not the same as my folks'
Electronic Memories
Where have all the gray cells gone?

Tonight after band practice and dinner, I stumbled across the John Sebastian Folk Rewind special, and got sucked in.  Lots of old black and white recordings of ancient TV shows.  Earnest young men and women singing old songs.  Perhaps the most telling moment for me was when The New Christy Minstrels sang Today.  It's a totally sappy song, but still, the wistful emotions of passing time hit me hard.  I thought back to the days when I used to listen with my family to reel-to-reel tapes of old folk songs.  Songs like "Tom Dooley," "500 Miles," and "The Streets of Laredo."

These tapes are long gone, and even if they weren't, it would be hard to find many people interested in listening to them.  My dad has been gone for 15 years, and my mom's not doing very well, and it's memories like this that remind me of a time when they were younger, younger than I am now.

So, I'll continue to play "Get Together" every chance I get, "Blowin' In The Wind" every now and then, and maybe even "If I Had a Hammer."  Someone else can get nostalgic over Lady Gaga someday.

PS, for those of you in Bay Area, here's the link for repeats of the Sebastian Show.

1 comment:

Ric said...

I have a few reel-to-reel tapes left, and I'll keep them. No recorder though. Lots of 45s, and too many LPs. And lots of those old memories too.

Songs have been strong events in my life too, and some have as much influence as Sputnik, and coming of age in the early '60's, and ...

Let's sing some of those old songs sometime.