LIFE HAPPENS

As someone who loves nostalgia, my favorite memories come from music

I’m a nostalgia nut. That’s right. I’m one of those people who can hear a song on the radio and go into a trance thinking about the first time I heard it, and who I was with.

I am one of those people that can get a whiff of perfume or cologne and get lost in the memory of the smell.

I can see something and allow it to take me back in time reliving the moment in this brain that actually scares me at times.

I love recalling the past and enjoying over and over the scenes that make a memory come to life.

The amusing thing is, I bet most of you are the same way.

Growing up, actually my teenage years to be exact, were years that I really got into music. 

This is nothing new to those who follow my stories. Music was a big part of my life.

The old songs that actually had words and a meaning you could understand were paramount in the way I lived as a teenager.

I read the news today and see where musicians from my particular era are leaving us, and it saddens me because my time is slowly slipping away.

As a teenager I frequented skating rinks and skated to the music of the day.

The girls wore their skates with a foray of large pompoms adorning the toe of the sleek white roller shoes.

Young vibrant teenage boys skating in and out of the girls, showing off and greedily trying to get the attention of the lovely ladies as they held hands and skated as couples.

The music blaring from the speakers that were strategically positioned in the corners of the rink afforded the best sound for skaters as they made their way around and around the floor, speeding past everyone as they laughed and enjoyed the moment.

I remember one song very vividly as we glided around the wooden floors doing our best to impress the young beauties as they pretended to ignore us.

Jimmy Soul sang: 

“If you want to be happy for the rest of your life,

“Never make a pretty woman your wife.

“So for my personal point of view,

“Get an ugly girl to marry you.”

I think I was around the age of 11, and to make the scene with my older brothers and meet the girls was a treat that I cannot begin to explain.

Macon, in Middle Georgia, had two rinks, Durr’s Lake and Bibb Skate Arena. Both would stop the skating around 10 p.m. and either have a local band play for a sock hop, or have in an entertainer who was hungry for exposure.

One such entertainer was the late, great, James Brown. 

Yes, “The King of Soul” showed up one night at Durr’s and I stood about the distance of three feet from him as he twisted and turned, singing “I Feel Good” to an audience that flipped out over the sight of a man of his stature.

Ronnie Hammond, Atlanta Rhythm Section lead singer, played in a local group called the Celtics, and performed at sock hops around the Middle Georgia area.

I remember when Otis Redding died. What a shock to the music world, and at such a young age.

On the morning of his funeral, my mother woke me and said, “Son, today you can stay home from school to attend the funeral of Otis Redding. This will be something you will remember the rest of your life.” 

It was, and to this day I can still see in my mind the crowds, the music entertainers and the procession that I was privileged to be a part of, passing by the still and lifeless body of a man who was adored by millions.

Recently, one of music’s greats, someone who also called Middle Georgia his home, passed away — Gregg Allman. 

More than once I sat in bars with Gregg drinking beers, and though he was not a personal acquaintance or a dear friend, his death hurt deeply because he was a part of the culture and time that I lived and cherished.

They all seem to be progressing to another world. 

The Righteous Brothers, “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling,” wrote a song about Rock ’N Roll Heaven, and named several artists who have left us way too early.

What a concert that will be when we get to the place we are all striving to travel to, when those guitars and pianos start tuning up and we hear the “test, test” of the microphones, knowing that at any minute the music will break out and the memories of the past will once again come to life.

We will see ourselves holding that special person closely and dancing to the slow, melodic beat of BJ Thomas singing, “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” or moving and grooving to Wilson Pickett’s, “Mustang Sally.”

I love the sounds of Spanky and Our Gang singing, “Yes, I would like to get to know you, if I could.”

As the old Calgon commercial would say, “Calgon, take me away.” Well, music take me away, back to a time when I can relive the days that meant so much to me ... to a time of sock hops, and holding that special someone close, as we danced the night away.