Just for the Record

I sit before my screen, a hot, tired, and cranky blogging-type.  No prizes for guessing why I'm hot; it's summer and I'm in rural New South Wales.  I'm cranky because I'm hot.  I'm tired because I've been out at my father's house sorting out, packing up, throwing out and all the other activities that you just have to roll up your sleeves and do when you've lost a parent.

Lately I've had more than my fair share of crap on my mind, but today it was concentrated on working in my childhood home.  I was to meet my brother and sister-in-law, and as chance would have it arrived first.  I let myself in, and it hit me like a sock in the jaw: he's gone. I get lots of these moments, and walking into Dad's living room was a doozy, and I thought: I miss you so much, Dad.

Today's finds included the second volume a K-Tel conglomeration from the mid-60s: '26 Groovy Greats'.  When I was growing up in the Seventies, these conglomerations had more risqué names like 'Teaser' and 'Ripper', but this one I looked at was '26 Groovy Greats'. Some of these 'groovy greats' are 'Rescue Me' by Fontella Bass, and 'Locomotion' by Little Eva.  The 'Locomotion' I was introduced to as a child was the one by Grand Funk in the mid-70s, and I might see if I can find some footage on YouTube soon, if only to have a perve on the pervalicious Mark Farner sans shirt.  Looking at the playlist on '26 Groovy Greats' dredged up a memory of my sister and cousin wearing sunglasses and shower caps, lip-synching to 'Shimmy Shimmy Koko Bop' (Little Anthony & The Imperials, Track 4 on Side 1).  There were some 45s, too; hawked out of the jukebox when my grandmother sold the pub in 1974:  'Sasha' (a beautiful instrumental by Hank B Marvin), and 'Day by Day' (Colleen Hewitt).  'Get in On' by T-Rex was there, along with 'Come And Get It' by the tragically fated Badfinger.  Looking at those records conjured up a blend of different emotions, all twisting and changing a little like a kaleidoscope.  And then I found that hybrid of shock, dagginess, and kitsch - 'Shock Treatment' from the movie that purported to be some kind of a carry-on from 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show'.  From what I can tell, that movie died in the arse and is buried, never to be mentioned at Rocky Horror family gatherings as it is accorded the same disdain as that cousin nobody mentions.  You know, the one who got caught fucking a horse.  And yes, I've brought those finds home with me. 

Before leaving, I looked across the paddock to a neighbouring house where a relative lived when I was a child.  Sometimes as a youngster, I would wander over and play with the children there (third cousins to me).  We would play football.  What made this game notable was an excitable sheep that was wont to join in the game.  We would be running along with the ball, and it would chase us.  It would knock us flat, and run over us as we lay winded and sprawled.  In hindsight, it really was funny.

Oh well, I'd best have a quick shower and cool down.