April 16, 2021

 

Rooftop Singers

 Lately I have been listening to “oldies”.  The songs I have been finding reach back over my life, from just a few years ago all the way back to my early childhood. One of the first songs that I can remember is “Walk Right In”, sung by the Rooftop Singers, and popular on the radio in 1962. Another is “Sugar Shack”, sung by Jimmy Gilmore and the Fireballs which was popular in 1963. Both these songs bring back some of my earliest memories.

One of those memories is playing “Tarzan” with my brothers and older sister. My memory is that, only wearing our tightey- whitey underwear, we were climbing around on our bunk beds making jungle noises. My sister was Jane, my older brother Tarzan, my younger brother “Cheeta”, and I was “Boy”.  This was while we were living in Oakridge, Oregon, and a time of my earliest memories – an oak tree in the back yard, Sammy our cocker spaniel, a woman who netted and tagged birds, train tracks behind the house, seeing elk, taking walks with my mom, and the sight of Mt. Bachelor in the hazy distance.

It’s amazing how a song can bring out these snapshots and memory movies that otherwise may have stayed tucked away somewhere in the subconscious. Research has found that music stimulates neural networks in our brains, including memory, emotion and creativity, which triggers autobiographical memories. Scientists have also found that in most cases, music tends to brings out the happier memories, whereas, photos, places or objects can bring out both good and “bad” memories. Listening to music, or a song, can help us see the brighter times in our lives.

Because oldies tend to bring back good memories, they can also cause us temporary feelings of melancholy because we know we can’t go back and have that time again. Sometimes I think to myself, wouldn’t it be great to play Tarzan again? To be with my sister and brothers in that very simple, innocent time before life spun us in different directions and into our very different lives? The good that we feel produces a feeling of longing, and different temperatures of emotions which overlap between the now and the then. It’s not such a bad thing. That bit of longing can bring us into a deeper, more meaningful state, as we revisit different parts of our lives.

It seems that with the pandemic, I have had more time to slow down. With this, I have given myself the time to let myself remember. It’s good to look back. It’s good for all of us. And so is listening to all the songs that bring out those good memories.