Growing up in Louisa – Young Love!
Weekly feature . . . by Mike Coburn
How many of us can hear a popular refrain from the past and not have the stirrings of emotional memories suddenly wash over our souls? For me, long-forgotten memories flood my mind as if piercing my person in an unforeseen ambush. Just a couple of notes and I instantly remember things from many years ago. Such occasions leave me blanketed with faces of who I was with and what I was feeling at the time. Like a fairy tale dream from another lifetime, I recall an embrace, or a first romantic kiss on that porch swing so long ago. I think others may have those kinds of memories. For me, a lot of this is tied to that wonderful, romantic ballads of that time. All that these internal screen-plays require to be suddenly loosed is the right kind of stimuli. Besides music, it can be a place, a smell, someone’s name, or one of those mysterious ‘Deja Vous’ events that open before us when we come upon a scene we imagine we have seen before. In this article I’m writing about the refrains of ‘our song,’ or music from the past and its effects on memory.
Very few of people of my age could have gone through their school years and ‘teen-age’ courtships, or crushes, without hearing Sonny James singing his hit, ‘Young Love.’ Hearing that original recording today will still stop many of us in our tracks and maybe raise a far-away look, or perhaps a tear in the corner of an eye. Undoubtedly, some old love-birds will look at each other and develop a lump in their throats as they are bathed in these memories. Nostalgia may overcome us and cause us to withdraw into a silent trance. The present vanishes as a moment we’d pushed aside, reappears.
You might remember times when a certain song blasted out from the juke boxes at Rip’s, LuLu’s, the Flattop Inn, or another gathering place. I remember many times when friends were eating, laughing, and dancing together and the music blared forever tying that day to my life. I can’t count the number of times I heard Marty Robins sing ‘A White Sports coat and a Pink Carnation,’ during my high school years, but it was there. This emotional music filled our lives with dreams and thoughts that were hard to handle considering we were so young, still learning how to deal with love. For many there was a rush of hormones that brought up new feelings and those feelings were somehow married to the sounds of the day. Those hits described what we felt and washed over us building up layers of memories.
At that age, outside pressures and worries caused each of us to fret about every element of our appearances. We so wanted to make the best impression to others and be considered ‘kool.’ (We spelled it that way back then). For guys and gals, hairdos simply had to stay in place. On that special ‘formal’ night the carnations absolutely must stay affixed. Little did we know that we need not have worried so much. Any nervousness we had would be screened by the blind eyes of love. Time has proven that lovebirds only see the person they want to see. They are quick to ignore an occasional faux pa. Two left feet and clumsy hands were tolerated. Life was good.
A newly discovered euphoria erupted as young men wrestled within themselves for self-control. Even if they felt biological urges, but they knew very well that they were responsible for playing the role of a gentleman. I know my friends and I remembered the manners we were taught, such as making haste to open doors for the lady. We all would pull out our date’s chair to demonstrate he honored her. She felt his admiration and respect by these actions and rested in knowing her ‘knight’ would see her safely home. Swooning, the young lady blushed and allowed herself to be swept up in the arms that at that moment seemed ready and willing to hold them safely together, forever.
On a cool evening in a summer long ago, a couple sat together on a porch swing. It was dark except for a dim light reflecting through a living room window. Both young people were wishing for that romantic moment when that first kiss would top off a perfect evening visit. Neither wanted to send the wrong message, so caution was in order. No one wanted to overstep, nor come off as too shy, or uncaring, either. It was the boy’s responsibility to make the first move, but he worried that rejection was possible. A second big worry was that her parents, resting just inside, might walk out at precisely the wrong moment. Timing was everything. If things went well, then experience would bring them closer, perhaps even so far as to ‘go steady.’ In the background the sound of ‘Young Love’ waifs again from a radio. After the kiss, two heads would rest against each other in a moment of starry-eyed bliss, both awash with romantic feelings to be cherished forever.
Later that night each laid in their separate beds at home, and each let out a sigh at the memory of a perfect night. They would have to wait until the next day to hear Elvis proclaim “I’m all Shook up,” but it would fit the situation. Indeed, in the days to come the ‘butterflies’ would still be active and wobbly knees would continue to knock, but the couple would grow more used to each other. Over time that night’s anxiety would be reserved for yet larger struggles to come. ‘Que Sera, Sera,’ by Doris Day would remind us to relax and take one day at a time. I still use the phrase to remind people to put off worry about tomorrow.
Speaking of Doris Day, I saw one of her old movies the other night (Glass Bottom Boat).) I remember her song, ‘Everybody, Loves a Lover,’ that was another hit in those days. There were so many great entertainers in those days. Some were hold-overs from our parent’s, like Judy Garland, but some were a little younger like Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. For my era it was the Everly Brothers, ‘All I have to do is dream…’ or Don Gibson, ‘I can’t stop loving you,’ and Pat Boone’s “Love Letters in the Sand.”
Some of the expressed feelings were a bit sad and maybe a bit vindictive, such as in ‘Who’s Sorry Now?’ by Connie Francis, or ‘It’s Only Make-Believe,’ Conway Twitty. I remember ‘Kisses Sweeter than Wine,’ by Jimmy Rogers, and the Platters singing ‘The Great Pretender,’ and ‘Smoke Gets in your eyes.’ Any one of these bring back memories to me, nearly all good, about that happy time, when growing up.
There were funny songs, too. Who can forget a “one eyed, one horned, flying purple people eater” and then a ‘Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow, Pokka-Dot bikini,” or “Alley Oop,” or “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight?” A major hit in the mid-fifties was understood well by our area coal miners. Sung by Tennessee Ernie Ford, “16 Ton” explained the abusive environment suffered by those working so hard for so little, in the coal fields.
While none of us lived the same lives, many people of our age all across this nation lived in much the same environment and heard the same music. We all listened to that music and that music did what it could to shape our lives. Hearing it again will likely restore those feelings and emotions long forgotten. I hope this little reminder might bring back some of those pleasant memories for you.
Oh, and by the way. Valentine’s Day is coming up fast! Now where did I put that colored paper, scissors, and glue? mcoburncppo@aol.com