Spent an afternoon of nostalgia listening to songs of the 60s on YouTube - a wonderful resource for calling back the past. So many memories of days long gone, when the sun always shone and we had not a care in the world except whether the boy we fancied would fancy us. Some of them are still around and I often wonder if they ever shared the same thoughts! Songs that I haven't thought of for decades popped up and in no time I had a long playlist ready for future longings for yesterday.
One such song was These Eyes by The Guess Who. Wasn't it a relief when pop groups dropped The from their names? I was instantly transported back to 1969, to one of the most memorable and soul-searing holidays dear Dad took us on. We drove up to South West Africa (now Namibia) with two other families for a three week tour of the country including the Etosha Game Reserve. The roads were still gravel, although excellent, and we met up with a family from Windhoek who showed us everything their beloved country had to offer. The fact that the eldest son was a student at Stellenbosch and all us teenagers immediately transferred from our parents' cars to his Kombi for the entire trip greatly enhanced our enjoyment, I can tell you! It was a road trip of note. But I'm getting sidetracked.
Back in the late 60s we had just entered the era of cassettes and portable cassette players that plugged into the cigarette lighter in a car. Dad made a place in between the front seats of our spacious and very comfortable Morris Oxford for the cassette player and made his very own playlist. I remember one was the Beatles, but the two songs that have remained burned in my memory in association with that trip are These Eyes and More Today Than Yesterday by Spiral Staircase.
Compiling my playlist yesterday, I was struck by the thought that, no matter what generation you belong to, somehow we all manage to carry our music with us, in whatever mode that technology allows.
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