The Pact: Sailing Right Behind

Happy
Belated Saint Patrick's Day
& Early Vernal Equinox,
& Thanks to my friend Mumbi
for this beautiful Friendship Rock!

I've been listening to a lot of golden oldies on the
car radio this week, including these two favorites:

Bridge Over Troubled Water
When you're weary
Feeling small
When tears are in your eyes,
I'll dry them all
I'm on your side
Oh, when times get rough
And friends just can't be found

Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down

When you're down and out
When you're on the street
When evening falls so hard
I will comfort you
I'll take your part
Oh, when darkness comes
And pain is all around

Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down

Sail on silver girl
Sail on by
Your time has come to shine
All your dreams are on their way
See how they shine

Oh, if you need a friend
I'm sailing right behind

Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind

By Paul Simon
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'll Be There
You and I must make the pact
We must bring salvation back
Where there is love, I'll be there

I'll reach out my hand to you
I'll have faith in all you do
Just call my name and I'll be there

I'll be there to comfort you
Build my world of dreams around you
I'm so glad that I found you

I'll be there with a love that's strong
I'll be your strength
I'll keep holdin' on

Let me fill your heart with joy and laughter
Togetherness, girl, is all I'm after
Whenever you need me, I'll be there

I'll be there to protect you
With an unselfish love that respects you
Just call my name, I'll be there

I'll be there to comfort you
Build my world of dreams around you
I'm so glad that I found you

I'll be there with a love that's strong
I'll be your strength
I'll keep holdin' on

If you should ever find someone new
I know he better be good to you
'Cause if he doesn't
I'll be there

Don't you know baby
I'll be there, I'll be there
Just call my name, I'll be there
Just look over your shoulders honey, ooh!
I'll be there, I'll be there

Whenever you need me,
I'll be there, I'll be there
Don't you know baby
I'll be there, I'll be there
Just call my name, I'll be there

By Hal Davis, Berry Gordy,
Willie Hutch, Bob West
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Esther ~ Kitti ~ Mumbi ~

One Day You'll Find This Picture

Our Yearbook Pictures
Junior Year at Francis Howell High School Fall 1973

"Time it was, and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence, a time of confidences
Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph
Preserve your memories, they're all that's left you"

lyrics from
"Bookends" by Simon & Garfunkel
Back in the summer of 1995, at our twentieth high school reunion, the most ironic thing happened; or maybe it was just plain uncanny. One friend had remembered to bring along a Senior yearbook, and as we thumbed through the pages, a loose photograph fluttered to the floor, landing face down. Shaking our heads sadly, we read the poignant and strangely true inscription, in Marilyn's familiar curly cursive:

“We may see each other again or we may not,
but one day, you’ll find this picture in your attic
and remember your old friend ~ Marilyn"
How painful it was to kneel down and pick that picture up, to turn it over and see Marilyn's eternally young smile, to imagine her writing that haunting sentiment. Sad enough for those of us who knew, but even more shocking for the few classmates in the crowd who, until that moment, had been unaware of her untimely death from ovarian cancer a year and a half earlier. Gone too soon.

Yet she was there with us that day, telling us a story! I shouldn't have been surprised. Marilyn was always recommending something good for me to read or telling me about a poet I should have known about but didn't, always raising my consciousness! A true friend! How appropriate that the forgotten photo came to light twenty years later, not in an attic, but in the midst of a gathering of friends. Indeed, as she had predicted, we all stood transfixed for a moment remembering our old friend ~ Marilyn.

A week ago, I included one of my favorite memories of Marilyn in my current Fortnightly post "A Heart That Watches and Receives." Do you remember that lush and hazy song from the 70s -- "The Air That I Breathe." Marilyn used to say, "What? No books to read? That can't be right!"

Whenever we happened to hear it on the radio, Marilyn would always express her dismay. She was torn; she wanted to like it; but why No books to read? What kind of paradise would that be?" No sleep -- okay. Nothing to eat -- okay. But no books? Not okay!"

Although it is still a favorite, I never hear it without the memory of Marilyn's wise words!

The Air That I Breathe
[click to listen]
If I could make a wish, I think I'd pass
Can't think of anything I need
No cigarettes, no sleep, no light, no sound
Nothing to eat, no books to read . . .

Sometimes
All I need is the air
That I breathe
And to love you . . .

sung by The Hollies
written by Albert Louis Hammond / Mike Hazlewood
Lyrics © EMI Music Publishing
Copyright: Imagem Songs Ltd.

Click to read these
once & future reminiscences:
Since Yesterday
Celebrity Look Alike
Birthday Present
What You Might Call Beautiful
Happy 448th to William Shakespeare
Nativity
Rainbow Trail

Losing Strength, Not Style

and see photo album:
My Friend Marilyn, 1957 ~ 1993

Victoria Day

"Time it was, and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence, a time of confidences
Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph
Preserve your memories, they're all that's left you"

lyrics from
"Bookends" by Simon & Garfunkel

Kitti, Vickie, Diane ~ Kirksville, Summer 1980

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY AMAZING FRIEND
Dr. Victoria Amador

I was lucky enough to see Vickie just last week . . .

and we discussed the meaning of life:

"It's like a universal radio.
Sometimes I get the message,
but usually it's just snow."

Additional words of wisdom from Victoria:
"Avoid the nettles!"

Preserve Your Memories!
Valentine Collage ~ Old Favorites from Vickie & Diane

The Days Were Long

The Trees That Watched Us Grow
Just Over the Brooklyn Bridge
A world of its own,
The streets where we played,
The friends on every corner were the best we ever made.
The backyards, and the school yards
And the trees that watched us grow,
The days of love when dinner time was all you had to know.
Whenever I think of yesterday,
I close my eyes and see,
That place Just Over The Brooklyn Bridge
That will always be home to me.
It'll always be home to me.

--performed by Art Garfunkel
--music by Marvin Hamlisch
--lyrics by Marilyn & Alan Bergman

Sometimes, I'm not so sure that there really is a hometown for everybody, but I guess when I close my eyes and think of yesterday, I see Neosho, Missouri (photo above). That's where I lived between the ages of 5 and 10, attending Kindergarten thru 4th grade at Eugene Field Elementary.

As a matter of fact, my parents helped us kids plant a tiny little evergreen in the yard there, back in 1965; and when I drove past the house 25 years later, I missed it, crying out in dismay, "Where is the little tree?"

Towering high above the house, that's where it was! But I hadn't even thought to glance up; I was searching at eye-level. I suppose if we had continued on in that house, that would have been the tree "that watched us grow."

Here's the funny thing about Art Garfunkel's song, which was the theme tune for the sweet little Emmy Award winning television series Brooklyn Bridge (1991 - 93): the funny thing is that until just a couple of days ago when I checked the lyrics on google before posting them on my Fortnightly Blog, I always thought that Art was singing, "the days were long when dinner time was all we had to know." Doesn't that make more sense? Kids don't thing about "days of love." They think about days being long -- not long and tiring, but long in a good way, the fun going on and on, not having to stop, not having to come in yet or come up from the basement where the video games are played.

Days of love? No. My way is much better. Usually we come to find out that really there is a rational meaning for the senseless phrases and nonsense syllables we have been singing right out loud or murmuring under our breath, as in

"We kings from Orientar" = Orient are. *

"Oh say can you see by the dawns or-le-li" (long a mystery to me!)
= dawn's early light.

"Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily life is butter beans"
= life is but a dream.*

Every now and then, I've noticed that the mistaken version improves upon the original. And "Just Over the Brooklyn Bridge" is one of those times. My way is far superior (sorry Bergmans). "Days were long" beats "days of love" . . . any day.

I feel the same way about Hall & Oates song, "Kiss On My List." Remember:

(Because your kiss) your kiss is on my list
(Because your kiss) your kiss is on my list
Because your kiss is on my list of the best things in life.

Well, shut me up, but I spent years singing:

"Your kiss is on my lips when I turn out the light."

Isn't that about a million times better? Please! Kisses don't belong on lists, do they? What, like a "To Do" List? No, of course not! Kisses belong on your lips . . . when you turn out the light. Way more romantic!

What are some of your best mix - ups? Post them below, and I promise to change over and start singing the songs YOUR WAY!

* For more on "Orientar," see previous posts on this blog:
January 6, 2010: Feast of the Three Kings
January 18, 2010: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

*P.S.
~ 3 April 2014 ~ The "butter beans" mix - up is courtesy of dear Charlotte Stewart (b 25 November 1938 - d 29 March 2014), with whom I worked for a brief time at the James Joyce Quarterly. I've never forgotten her telling me that when she was little, she thought that the last line of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" was "life is butter beans" (rather than "life is but a dream"). Sometime after that, she drew me a little card with those words & a smiling butter bean. A happy memory.
On the back, it says "From Charlotte ~ October 11, 1982"