My Favorite Summer Song

(Originally written 5/27/7)

OK, I wasn’t going to write today. Since losing the job, I’ve really worked on not being such a slave to the laptop and email. Hell, in the old days, I would check email like every 15 minutes. Now, the PC is strictly for pleasure and knowledge, and of course trying to find a job. Anyway, so there I am, laying in the hammock like I do just about every damn day now. I had my iPod on, playing the file I named SummerSongs. Long time readers, or those who just need lives will remember my fascination with summer music. There’s a post about it on the .com message board archives if you would like to refresh your memory. Yes, it truly is summer now. The signs are all there. It’s Memorial Day weekend. I took out my board shorts from the crawl space today. It’s the Indy 500 and Coca Cola 600. A big budget sequel opened up this weekend. And people just seem a bit nicer right now.
I admit to watching the early news on Memorial Day Friday. All the reporters are at the shore. But the big story is traffic. O, how I love to watch the traffic. At 4, there’s backups on every major route to the shore. The eye in the sky shows the miles and miles of cars creeping along. I get a perverse joy in seeing that. But I also get jealous. Damn, those people are going to the shore.
It’s funny how evocative music can be. Now that it’s not my life, I appreciate it much more. Music’s always been there for all your life events. I bet most of you can remember the first cd you played in your first car. Or the song that was on when you first got laid. Everyone has those songs that remind them of some forgotten person, event, mood, feeling or situation. The gist of my Missile post was all the songs that reminded me about summer. So as I’m lying in the hammock, I hear the (extended version of) Flock of Seagulls “Wishing” (I Had a Photograph of You). And I think that is my all time favorite summer song. Sure, FOS “I Ran’ was a great summer song as well. And I have literally hundreds of songs now that remind me of summers gone by. In fact, in a few days, I’ll switch up the music on the front page to a bunch of tunes that are just summer to me. So why Wishing?
Because it instantly takes me back. Takes me back to Wildwood, NJ. Takes me back to that arcade on the north end of the Boardwalk. So I guess it was Summer ’83? I’m that kid in the arcade, getting more quarters to play the original Mario Bros (with the turtles and crabs and flies, etc) This song was playing overhead, as I looked out to the Boardwalk. Just over to the right was one of the amusement piers that jetted out to the ocean. Pac Man paraphenelia hanging from the ceiling, blowing in the early evening breeze. I can see this scene so vividly, yet it also seems to have taken on a postcard kind of tint. Every summer, there was a big fad, or trend that took over the boardwalk. For a while it was Pac Man. It was whatever the big movie was that year. It was painter hats and water snakes. Def Leppard and ZZ Top. How I loved those days.
I didn’t get to the shore often. In fact, it was only one weekend a year. My older sisters and their friends rented a converted garage in Wildwood. All year I would save my paper route money, so I could go play arcade games. The Boardwalk also has those carny-like games of chance. Wheels spinning. Water pistol games where you had to move a monkey up a tree by constantly hitting its target. Horse races where you had to roll a ball down an alley and aim for the hole that moved you up the most spots. There was a big bucket in one of the bedrooms where everyone put the tickets they won at the arcade in. At the end of the year, someone would go and pick out a Miller Lite glass and keychain that ultimately cost everyone $300 to win.
That one weekend was a focal point for me. I would plan for months. (I was like, 12, WTF was I planning for?) I would go down with all my paper route money. And I was such a loser, that I would actually save quarters throughout the year. Then I would take down like 10 pounds in quarters. There was only one arcade that had Mario Bros. I guess that whole exchanging-paper-for-coins thing escaped me at the time. It was my weekend to live large. Blow wads of money on some bogus skill game just to win a Def Lep poster. That was really one of my earliest experiences of seeing a bunch of people just getting along and laughing. Sure, the house was small, sometimes people would have to sleep in the tiny screened in porch. And there was no AC, and stray cats would fight right behind the house (You look at me once, you look at me twice, you look at me again, and there’s gonna be a fight)
Yup, so one song can trigger all this recall. It’s funny how often I pause while writing this as another long forgotten Wildwood memory surfaces. The pizza place right down the street. The Suitcase Motel at the corner. The garage didn’t have a phone, so whenever my sisters got in, they would have to go to the phone booth down the street, call my parents and hang up after 2 rings. That was the signal that they got down safe.
As far as Wishing, it’s funny that I somehow manage to still hear it on radio occasionally, only during summer. I’m sure a lot of people my age don’t really recall Wishing (again, check back, and I will have it in the player). It really just might be a case of the song being played in the right place at the right time for it to so connect with me. When I put the new player up, I’ll have all kinds of songs that remind me of summer. But that’s a post for another day.
Right now, I only get to the beach twice a year. Once for a long weekend in Virginia Beach, and for a week with another couple in Ocean City, MD (or OCMD as the locals call it) VAVB kind of doesn’t count. We go down for a Sand Soccer tournament. We’re up to 3 teams now; 2 girls and 1 guys. The girls teams are pretty good, and the guys? “Well, naht so much.” This Sand Soccer thing is another post (why am I making more work for myself here). VA doesn’t count because with 3 teams, you’re on the beach to watch 4 games and play in 2 on Sat, watch 2 more and play 1 on Sun. Well, the guys play 1 on Sun because we never make it to the playoffs. I’m not saying we’re bad, but the team that was all on crutches shut us out last year. The girls are actually pretty good, and can make it to the playoffs. But with all these games, it’s hard to have just good beach time.
Everything ends on Sunday, and a lot of us stay down Sunday night. That’s the night to live. Upwards of 20 of us pile into a room and play Three Man. This is a night where reputations are made and lost. Laws are broken. Legends are born. I can’t tell you last year’s MVP, but I can tell you my proudest moment. During 3 man, I was antagonizing everyone. I was on everyone’s case, nothing was off limits. Every 3 Man swore they would make me the next 3 Man when they rolled out of it. You know what? They never did. I deftly avoided 3 Man the entire night. It was a proud moment. I was Teflon. Those nights closely resemble what I saw going on in that Wildwood garage so many years ago.
And you know what? At this very moment, there are a bunch of kids somewhere. They’ve known each other for years, went to school together, etc. Probably early 20’s. Don’t have a real job yet, so they can go “down the shore” every weekend. They’re sleeping in a house that comfortably sleeps 5 less. They’re drinking cheap beer and even cheaper vodka. They go to the beach all day, the boards and bars all night. And I guarantee you, one, if not all, of them will have that Wishing moment. Where, even if it’s only to them, they get a song etched into their head that will forever take them back to the Summer of ’07.
And you know what? I’m jealous of them.