Put the slide into dad's stereopticon - and suddenly
Deep emotion springs from this life/Wells up insideKentucky? Minnesota? The gas station on the brow of the hill - rev the engine, there's a coffee waiting for me up there.
This soul that moves upon the face of our planet has been here before but it was not here before - it was a long, long way away.
It is only a skip of the needle on the arm of the record player from Bryan Ferry's Another Time, Another Place to You Are My Sunshine - and that same song takes me back to O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack and the bluegrass banjos and fiddles, the acoustic blues guitar and the worksongs of the chaingang is there - America, an America that's changed and gone forever like a child grown up to become a middle-aged man.
Time slide, place to hide, nudge reality
Foresight, minds wide, magic imagery oh yeah*
This is deepest memory; where does it reside? In the bones? In the optic nerve? There are memories that can be recovered by thinking back to an event; there are memories that can be triggered by a smell or (as in this case) a sight; there are memories that spring into your consciousness unbidden.
Those moments when that 'time slide' happens fill me momentarily with a yearning to return and to relive them - a brief feeling that evaporates all too quickly, leaving a residue of hope - an expression of experiencing a continuity of consciousness that spans from one brief human lifetime into another, a stone skipping over the surface of eternity, bouncing forward until it sinks into Unity
This time three years ago:
Warsaw's craft ale revolution kicks off
This time five years ago:
Poland's president inaugurates Moni's academic year
This time seven years ago:
Autumn evening, central Warsaw
This time eight years ago:
Short-term future of suburban development
This time nine years ago:
"You'll look funny when you're fifty"
* Big Audio Dynamite, E=MC2, 1986.
Fascinating post, Mike. This reminds me a situation, while me and my parents were on the ours route on the US 287 down to Dallas/Fort Worth and ahead to Ruston, LA, some of 27 yrs. ago. So, while passing Childress, TX, gasoline in tank of the ours Chrysler Plymouth Gran Fury, like this one http://bestcarmag.com/sites/default/files/2824771980-newport-1.jpg (my Dad purchased that from the second hand from the police sale off) began ending. So, we approached gas station The "Lucky Stars" (just this one, right here http://www.redriverhistorian.com/gasstations.html), that I found on a map. And that station was just in no-use then. And while approaching in sunny early afternoon, was perceived some of wild dogs "band" loafing there, some skeins of dry weeds rolled by a wind and whirling clouds of dust and a solitary spot there. Just truly the Wild West, like there seems to be portrayed by some of the movies. So, we turned back a drove up to the next city, i.e. Quanah. And almost the same landscape appeared there, but with no wild dogs "bands". But just right there a gasoline has finished. So, my Dad took a cain and walked forward to the nearest gas station, that was in Vernon - some of 31 (approx. 52 km) miles ahead. Fortunately, someone came up then and gave my Dad a ride, there. And me and my Mom waited for him couple hours, while he was back. Memories.
ReplyDeleteDr Marcin
ReplyDeletePriceless memories, so well recalled, with such perfect detail.