Is it just me or do others find they’re taken by surprise every so often when something you remember happening just-a-while-ago turns out to be nearly official history and happened about 30 years in the dimming-and-distancing past?!
I’ve finally got round to sorting out some of the things you just leave in a box to deal with later when you move house. I’ve been going through my LP’s. Yes LP’s – real vinyl proper records – yes, I know, I really don’t look old enough! And with the sorting came the rediscovery of ‘My Life in the Bush of Ghosts’ – a Brian Eno and David Byrne brilliant collaboration. And it all comes flooding back with the record. I can still remember where I first heard it – a shop in Carnaby Street (London) sometime in the Eighties – when Carnaby Street was still a wonderful haven for the bizarre and outrageous and the place I did my clothes shopping – perfect for finding Goth gear, many-buckled boots and all that.
And playing the record again I see it says ‘1981′* and though I reckon I bought it probably nearer 1986 that’s 27 years ago!! Nearly thirty years – but it’s only five minutes since I was young isn’t it? Time is a very strange thing. I look at family photos from when my brother and I were growing up and realise that I’m older now than my mum and dad were then – there’s something wrong with that in the space time continuum! And though I’m still the same inside, on the outside I’m the mum – the one with the nearly 17 year old son.
I suppose God must feel like this quite a lot, I mean, he’s been around rather a long time and seen a few kids grow up.
Perhaps sometimes it’s a better idea to let unpacked boxes lie!
*Ah, 1981 – I was 11 – the year I got my first radio/cassette player for Christmas complete with ‘Chart Hits ‘81′ (or something like that) and I’ve still got that tape too!
