All it takes is one song to bring back 1000 memories……how
true is this?
Bonnie Tyler came on TV the other night on Neil Harris
Patrick’s Best Time Ever show singing ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ for a
karaoke game. I hadn't heard this song in years. Suddenly, I was overcome by
flashbacks of people and places linked to that song and the singer. It
transported me back to that time of my life and vivid pictures started playing
on my mind.
Bonnie Tyler is older, I’m older – we’ve certainly seen much
of life since those young, carefree days. But her voice, oh my, that trademark
husky voice – does she still rock or what!
Total Eclipse was released in 1983 and went on to become an
international chart topper. I was in college then and Bonnie Tyler’s numbers
were big on our play-list, her raspy rendition of ‘It’s a Heartache’ being
another favourite. They were played over and over again on our beloved cassette
tape recorders.
Yes, remember the cassette tapes? A godsend after the vinyl
records and players which we couldn’t carry around, a bulky cassette player
would accompany us on every picnic and outing. It was great to have the music,
but batteries don’t last…….forwarding or rewinding for that favourite song
consumed the most. So, to make the batteries last as long as possible, one or
the other of us would be continually busy manually turning the tape with a ball
point pen or something else that fitted into the reel holes of the tape. A pen
always worked best for me. We would vigorously twirl our wrists rotating the
tape by pushing the spokes in the holes. Turn, check, turn again, check again –
a long and tedious process, but finally we get the song we’re looking for.
Thinking back to my college days also brought back memories
of this guy I had a huge crush on. Actually, our whole gang of friends in
hostel had a crush on him. At that time he was to us the perfect M&B hero
type – tall, dark and handsome :-). We would go on and on about him, making up stories
dreamily and fighting one another over him and so on. Suddenly, we find out
that he was going out with one of the senior girls in our hostel. She was
smart, pretty and was always beautifully dressed – but we all agreed that we
didn’t like her too much……..simply because she had snagged this guy whom we had
all secretly hoped would come and sweep us off our feet. LOL!
The good old college days………..I think college days are the
last few years of truly care free times before real life starts intruding. Oh,
the phase had its own issues and complications and there were many times when
we felt that it was the absolute end of the world. But I’d bet most of us would
give anything for those ‘end of the world’ problems in exchange for the ones we
currently have.
The show on TV ended with Bonnie singing ‘Holding out for a
Hero’. Remember the movie ‘Footloose’? What a blast from the past! Thank you,
Bonnie Tyler.