Yesterday-Yesterday morning, which happened to be Sunday for me, I spent some luxurious leisure time wandering in the world of Hive. My fingers tapped the keys, my eyes looked at the screen and my mind took a stroll.
On this sojourn into the virtual world, I happened on a post by @coquicoin that had been re-blogged by a silver scot whose story I was looking for.
I stopped to take a look as the title intrigued me, as did the community it had been written for. The post was From a Dancing Queen to a Motomami and the community was Silver Bloggers.
The post took me on a musical trip down a new memory lane. One that felt familiar but different; a parallel life back in time to decades I had travelled, where the music sometimes merged and sometimes deviated from a shared experience within time.
At the bottom of the post was an invitation:
If you want to join you have until next Thursday, August, 18 at midnight UTC. You can check instructions and prizes at Blog of the Month - New theme for Thursday 18 August.
I decided to accept the invitation.
My musical memories go back to a time, long, long ago. A time when "one small step" was taken by a man, and "one giant leap" was made for mankind.
Ironically, on the day of my birth, the Number 1 hit in the UK Charts was Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival. I don't have an actual memory of this but I did find it interesting.
If you fancy looking up your own birth day's number 1 hit you can do so here
The 70s
My first ten years. Music filled in many memories during those years. It crossed over the generation gap with my parents' taste easily mixing with that of my older siblings. The radio was on from morning up in our family kitchen and accompanied the comings and goings of a love-fueled home.
This was a time before 24/7 tv and the internet. This was a time of hustle and bustle in a community sense. There was always movement; always music. This was my time to fall in love with the performance of life. I was little, so, literally, I looked up to everyone. Apart from Tabby, our cat, she, I would hunker down for and lock eyes with.
My family, friends of the family, my mates, the neighbours there was always people and they filled the air with music of one kind or another. This was a time where you heard people sing. Just at the drop of a hat. There was laughter. And accents. Oh my! Didn't I just love living in a house that was volume turned up! My brother would swoosh that dial and grab my mum for an impromptu dance, and I'd beam up at them. All. Of. Them.
This was the decade where I grew. I ventured out alone. I took myself to school after my mum had shown me how. I sometimes skipped. Sometimes ran. Sometimes avoided the cracks in the pavement. And I always arrived safe & sound on time. Daughter of a punctual train driver, I was Julia (but please call me Julie) Parker.
In 1978, at around 9 years old, feeling pretty-darn-well-grown, thistween, understandably, loved the music blast of that year. It was on the radio, record player, and in all my friends houses too. And most exciting of all, it was on at the pictures. I dare YOU not to have a memory attached to it.
That's why, when I heard the news from last week, I felt something. RIP Olivia.
I know this is meant to be a walk down memory lane, so should be followed with the rest of the decades I have traversed. But, if you don't mind, I'd much prefer to make a pause here.
Olivia Newton-John, for me, was the first actress to surpass Doris Day. By this, I mean, I wanted to be her when I grew up.
She had that girl-next-door feel about her. She was Sandra Dee to some, Sandy to others. She was the girl who had to join a new group and become liked. And she did. She was willing to change while still holding onto her truths.
That was, for most of us, the first introduction we had to Olivia. And John Travolta. We watched their burgeoning relationship on the screen.
As a kid, I watched with fascination. This was something quite outside my understanding. A bringing together of two worlds. This film showed me the possibility of travel. It showed me how to court. It showed me friendship. It showed me a different kind of family. I sucked it up like strawberry milkshake through a straw. Totally transfixed.
The 80s
This was a decade of BIG changes and I got to be a teen in it.
Music was still on the radio in the kitchen with my family. But now, it was also in my bedroom waking me up with the Capital Radio Breakfast show.
It was on the tv on Thursdays with Top of the Pops, in my friend's house on a Friday listening to the charts as we got ready to do go firstly to the Odeon and then later to pubs and clubs.
This was the decade that Madonna hit. Another female icon. She broke my sense of perception of what a woman "should" be. I loved her! Even her name. One word. A biblical explosion.
The 90s
In my 20s, I lived to dance. I loved to dance. There would be a whole soundtrack attached to this decade within multiple genres for me to do justice to my musical memories.
But, if you don't mind, I'm going to take a track from an earlier musical era that me and my best friend, Debbie, just loved to pieces. It would play while we got ready. We'd hold up our hairbrushes to sing and twirl around the room. And when it hit the decks in any of the clubs we frequented, we'd dance full out to our anthem. Like nobody was watching. Lol!
The 00s
My first child was born in 1999. Alongside a career in teaching, I tried to be the best mum I could be. Being a working mum held guilt. And in this decade, I burned myself out trying to have it all.
My second child came along 8 years later and she was the catalyst for me to try to do things differently. It happened slowly and the music volume turned down a tad. Animated movie soundtracks were more the flavour of things in these years. Their subliminal messages taking root via the music soundtrack of films like Shrek.
The 10s
The decade of the mid-life crisis. I left teaching. I trained to become a life coach. I practised NLP, EFT and many other abbreviated learnings as I rushed forward looking for the meaning of life. Apparently, it's 42! I wasn't going to get there in this decade. But it didn't stop me from trying.
This next song hit deep. I listened and felt. A flame was ignited.
In 2014 I left teaching for good. My family and I also left our home in the UK and moved to Ireland. In a way, it was a home from home. My husband's family lived there.
We've been here eight years now and sometimes, just sometimes, I think of returning to the streets of London.
Now, into the 2020s and my music tastes are not so current. I couldn't tell you what's happening in the charts anymore. We don't have a radio but instead will explore music through YouTube or Spotify. You're more likely to see me listening to an audible story than listening to music.
So, I'm glad for this walk down my musical memory lane as it has brought back its vibrancy and wonder. It is time for me to dance again.
I'm very grateful that I could take the above music videos from YouTube and share them here. They aren't mine, but, at the same time, they are, if you get my drift. 💛
The cover image is my own photograph and edited using Canva.