For those of you who faithfully follow this blog, over the past 9 years since I became a contributor, I’ve written a number of posts that were basically nostalgia trips. I’ve shared my love of old movies and books and television, especially the series I’ve loved, such as Barney Miller; Quantum Leap; The Twilight Zone; and The Outer Limits. Just by the titles of the last three, you can tell that I live in a world of imagination and fantasy.

Just a few of the many 45 singles in my vast collection.

Old-School Junkie

And just by the fact that my love of movies and television cling to the past, I’m certainly what many consider to be an old-school junkie. But in the realm of old-school, one of my main loves is that of music. I’m truly addicted to the oldie goldies, that music found on them antiquated 45 rpm vinyl records, of which I have hundreds of, which truly does make me a junkie!

Oldie Goldies

Just recently I’ve found another way to indulge myself and get a fix of my old-school music drug. I’ve told of how I mow the yard with my portable CD player or Walkman attached to my side, using those new-age technical wonders as my own private time travel machine, listening to all the oldies that take me back to the time and era I first heard them.

And on our return from our recent trip to the Philippines, I found myself facing a daunting task. Having been gone almost three weeks, my yard had turned into a jungle. It was as if I’d returned from the tropics to find that they had followed me and arrived before I even got back. The grass was almost 4-feet high in places! So, I had to gas up the riding mower and get to work, pronto!

Stacks of Wax

But I also donned my time-travel gear, this time the Walkman. And before cranking the mower up, I scrolled through the tuning and found a new radio station in my area, 97.3, WOXL.. And lo and behold, it was strictly dedicated to music from the 50s and 60s, playing what they call stacks of wax.  A real cute thing this station does is play original commercials from the time. So strange to hear these products pushed; some of ’em are still around, but the ads we hear now are nothing like the original.

Petula Clark

It was way too cool to hear all this music again. Though they played many records that I have in my own collection, they found many more that I didn’t have and hadn’t heard in years. What really pleased me was hearing them play the very first record that I ever went out and bought, Petula Clark’s “Downtown.” I first saw her and heard this song on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, and I immediately fell in love with not only the song, but Petula as well, a pre-teen fantasy. Over the course of the two days and hours it took me to complete all my mowing, they also played many more of Petula’s hits from the 60s; “I Know a Place”; “My Love”: “Don’t Sleep in the Subway”; “Colour My World”; “A Sign of the Times”; and “I Couldn’t Live Without Your Love”, just to name a few. Petula became known as the “First Lady of the British Invasion” seeing that she was the first female star to hit the American charts after the Beatles and other British groups took over the radio airwaves.

I found myself once again being that 11-year-old little pre-teen boy who’d fell in love with the first pop star that had ever caught his attention, all because of a song. As for all the other songs I heard those couple of days, I’ll not even begin to try and list them all. But it was truly a trip to the past.

50’s Hits

I’ll have to admit, that all of the 50s hits they played weren’t my favorites. So many of them were so sappy, clinging to that pop music aura of the era, the kind of music that our parents loved. But when those rockers started, it created great alarm in the minds of our parents, but little did they know that a truly new era had been born. Some of the great 50s songs that I heard were from Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly & the Crickets, Ray Charles, and many others.

60’s Music

It’s the 60s music, though, that really made my mowing job bearable. I will have to say though that if I hear “Heartbreak Hotel” or “Jailhouse Rock” again, it will be too soon. Sorry ladies, but Elvis music just never turned me on. And the same can be said for that prima donna Diana Ross. Sure, the Supremes were a great group, but later on they were renamed Diana Ross and the Supremes, which eventually caused problems, not only with the Supremes themselves but other groups in the Motown stable.

Nonetheless, though I am old-school in many ways, I still find great enjoyment in my current life. Nostalgia is fun, but one must realize that you can’t constantly live in the past. But every now and then, it’s fun to remember, and what better time to fill your mind with pleasant thoughts of the past than when you’re having to do boring work.