That Old Song

August 15, 2008

“A good song and a love affair go hand in hand together…”

Why do past memories come to mind so suddenly, and so vividly?

This afternoon I was quietly working along at my accounting job, calculating some numbers or preparing some report. In the back of my mind was the “jingle” contest our company is having. Individuals or groups can make up a jingle that would advertise our company and all we stand for. I was thinking of the theme song of the 1984 movie “Ghostbusters,” as in “Who ya gonna call?” and then replace the word “ghostbusters” with our company name.

“Ghostbusters” was performed by Ray Parker Jr. My thoughts flew to an earlier tune he recorded in 1981 with his band, Raydio, called “That Old Song.” I remembered the tune and the chorus….and suddenly I was 14 again, in that summer of 1981, when life was happy, pleasant and all was well with the world.

“When you think you’ve gotten over one, the other holds onto you forever.”

Most of my friends and social life in the teen years revolved around my church and our youth group. The days were thick with heat and humidity, so characteristic of those Georgia summers. I was sorry that my best friend Pam wasn’t going on our youth group’s annual trip to Six Flags Over Georgia, down in Atlanta. I was the shy, quiet one; she was the friendly, outgoing one. Who would I hang out with? I certainly didn’t want to spend the day at that big park with all those cool rides by myself. What fun is that?

“I’ve tried hard to forget ever loving you. Just when I’ve convinced myself it’s over with, then I hear….”

Someone must have heard my plight, and introduced me to Teresa and Wayne. They were a new brother and sister at church, around my age. They moved down from Tennessee after their mom married a divorced single dad in our congregation, who already had two sons of his own. Their mom had met their stepdad less than a year earlier, at our annual church convention Johnson City, TN. Our church observed the annual Feast of Tabernacles each fall, pursuant to Leviticus 23:33-43. About 4,000 churchmembers from Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, and other surrounding states, gathered in Johnson City for the Feast that year.

I know; I was there. As my thoughts travelled further back in time, I was 14 and in ninth grade, my first year of high school. It was my first Feast, the fall of 1980. Johnson City, TN was a 5-hour drive from our home in north Georgia. Although my mom did the best she could, she had saved only $200 for herself and 4 daughters on the 8-day trip [equivalent to just over $500 today]. We camped (which is cheaper than staying in a hotel), along with Pam and her family and a couple other families from church, at Warrior’s Path State Park.

“That song that they used to play on the radio just about every day.”

The comforts of home were absent, of course – we slept on sleeping bags on the ground, walked uphill to the bathhouse each morning, and ate our breakfast outside in the cold autumn-morning air. But lots of other kids my age were camping also, which Pam (being the outgoing one) would meet and introduce me to. Pam’s brother Andy, who was just a year older than me, hung out with us, as did his friend Jeremy. We all got to be good friends. So in spite of the lack of amenities I still remember that camping trip being loads of fun. A happy, peaceful time.

“Whenever I hear it, all I can do….”

We attended church services each day of the 8-day festival. I was coming of age; I was just beginning to want boys to notice me. Now, I’d liked boys for years, but at now that I was 14, I became acutely aware that all the other girls had boys liking them. But me? I was invisible! I felt so left out. Pam and her sister Debra thought they’d do a good deed, and set me up with 15-year old Philip of Kentucky. I resented being set up. It was demeaning, akin to admitting that I wasn’t popular or attractive enough to meet a boy on my own. Ok, so I was just 14! But when you see it happening with all the other girls, you can’t help but compare yourself.

“…is reminisce about loving you. That old song that they still play keeps me longing for the good old days.”

Where was I? Oh yeah, Six Flags. Summer of '81. Teresa and I rode rides together, lunched on burgers and fries together, and sipped lemon freezes together. Both of us being fair-skinned, we even got sunburns together! Teresa and I got to be good friends as we took in every experience the Atlanta amusement park had to offer. Occasionally we would cross paths with Wayne and their stepbrother Rob. Rob I knew already but this was the first time I really spent much time around him.

“The lyric and the melody remindin’ me how in love we used to be.”

Rob, Wayne, and Teresa began meeting Pam, Andy, Jeremy, and I, each week at church services. A friendship grew between the seven of us.

Especially between myself and Andy.

(to be continued...)