Sunday Sundries, 14

1. I wrote the other day about my adventure: falling in the coffee shop, visiting a dentist and an oral surgeon. Well, at the office of the dentist, Dr. Hoover, I sat in an examination room waiting for him to have a minute to check me out, and right outside the window was a bird feeder, which, during the time I was there, had attracted about 650,000 sparrows. I don't think I've ever seen so many sparrows in one place, but they were there, en masse, and were having a delightful time flinging and eating seeds. Occasionally a blue jay arrived for a look, a squirrel that apparently couldn't read (bird feeder). But the sparrows pretty much ignored the interlopers. Oddly, though, every time I would change my position, they would fly off to the other side of the driveway--all of them, all at once. Something about me alarmed them. Surely they couldn't have seen my face all that well?

2. Yesterday was one of those song-in-my-head days. I don't know how it got there, but there it was: "Magic Moments" by Perry Como. I didn't remember a lot of the lyrics, but, hey, what's Google for? I looked up some stuff about the song--and here's Como performing it on YouTube. He released it late in 1957, and it was #7 for all of 1958. The year I was in eighth grade, the year I was falling in love for the first time (well, the 8th grade version of love!), the year I found "Magic Moments," the soundtrack for my nascent emotions. By the way, sitting below "Magic Moments" on the 1958 top hits? "At the Hop" (Danny and the Juniors, #20), "Yakety Yak" (The Coasters, #21), "Tom Dooley" (The Kingston Trio, #28), "Great Balls of Fire" (Jerry Lee Lewis, #36), "Peggy Sue" (Buddy Holly, #50), "Johnny B Goode" (Chuck Berry, #73). And on and on. Here's a link to the entire list.

Como's lyrics are innocent beyond belief, aren't they? It's just absolutely unthinkable that a song like that could be a hit today. Check them out below ...

Magic moments
When two hearts are carin'
Magic moments
Memories we've been sharin'

I'll never forget the moment we kissed
The night of the hayride
The way that we hugged to try to keep warm
While takin' a sleigh ride

Magic moments
Memories we've been sharin'
Magic moments
When two hearts are carin'

Time can't erase the memory
Of these magic moments
Filled with love

The telephone call that tied up the line
For hours and hours
The Saturday dance, I got up the nerve
To send you some flowers

Magic moments
Memories we've been sharin'
Magic moments
When two hearts are carin'

Time can't erase the memory
Of these magic moments
Filled with love

The way that we cheered whenever our team
Was scoring a touchdown
The time that the floor fell out of my car
When I put the clutch down

The penny arcade, the games that we played
The fun and the prizes
The Halloween hop when everyone came
In funny disguises

Magic, moments
Filled with love

Snooky Lanson

My dad didn't like popular singers for the most part--he abhorred, for example, Snooky Lanson, who was a regular on Your Hit Parade. And Dad was the first one I ever heard call The King "Elvis the Pelvis." And when he saw rocker P. J. Proby on TV, he said this, First time I ever saw teeth on a horse's ass. But Dad would watch The Perry Como Show (1948-1963); I think he liked Como's genial, unpretentious manner.

Anyway, the song is out of my head today--though it brought back memories of lonely times in my room, listening to the radio, of sock hops and dances at Hiram School, of that piercing adolescent yearning I just did not know how to diminish.