Friday, April 12, 2013

The Jukebox in My Mind



For reasons unknown a jukebox has been playing in my mind lately along with a few memories. My first jukebox was in a cafe about an hour from home where I sat with my parents and played, relentlessly, the Lennon Sister's "Sugartime." Shortly after that my parents bought a small cafe where the jukebox was perpetually fed with coins painted with a splotch of red which told us it was our money and not a true customer. It was a pretty simple accounting system. The records were changed regularly by a man who came around just for that purpose. But, the song I remember is Lefty Frizzell's "Saginaw Michigan." I have never gotten tired of that song. I still love it after all these years.

In seventh grade, when I thought having a boyfriend might be a good idea, I sat across from Allen at a cafe after our church youth group had taken us down to the YMCA for swimming and general mayhem. Allen is the young man with whom I exchanged a fair amount of kissing back in the days of that youth group; necking was far preferred to bible toting, so that's what I did. On the wall of this cafe was a jukebox that was being fed by the two of us and others sitting in the booth. What I remember was the brief discussion which ensued after the playing of Johnny River's, "Secret Agent Man." Yes, a few fools were certain it was Secret Asian Man, but since I was still considering a future as a secret agent I knew better.

Soon, it turned into the summer of '68 and I'm in an even smaller town where my then current boyfriend was living at the time. He was working at a resort in that same small town so my sister and I went down to a local club another friend's parents owned to hang out while we waited for him. When I walked through the door, my friend, Stan, whom I've talked about more than once on these pages, walked the length of the club with a big smile on his face. Man, he had a nice smile. We stood next to the jukebox on the wall and threw in a coin. What I remember is Bob Lind's, "Elusive Butterfly." We just stood there and listened. He was such a good friend. It's good to have friends like that.







34 comments:

  1. Summer of '68...
    When making friends was easier than anything I'd ever do again. (lil thanks there to KK)

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    1. Rubye Jack, I can't tell you how happy I am to see you ... Thanks for the nod to Kris's great song.

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  2. So many songs stick in our memories, don't they. They have become a part of us, in some ways even changed us.

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    1. Yes, they are ingrained in my life and call up so many great times... I like the idea that music can change us ... very true.

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  3. I laughed thinking of a place I went to that had individual boxes at each booth. When I first started feeding them it was a nickel. I bought one and enjoyed dancing with friends,seeing a trend what each person enjoyed.When I sold that home, it was a request of the buyer to leave it and I did.

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    1. It would be fun to have a jukebox filled with all my favorite songs. I imagine they command a pretty hefty price and finding the 45's would be problematic now. I gave so many away. Thanks, Steve.

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  4. I graduated from high school in 68. Ha. I too remember mini jute boxes on diner tables and big ones too. I've always wanted a jute box, maybe some day. We had a coke machine once that held bottles of cokes, Gary traded it for a dirt bike. Wish we had the coke machine now, probably worth a small fortune.

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    1. We had a pop machine in the cafe my parents owned. You pushed the top back to either side to pull up the bottles. It must have been fun to have one.

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  5. Those days, those songs, those friends...

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  6. Those jukeboxes indeed can shape our lives and memories in so many ways. I have a perpetual "jukebox" in my head that often gets stuck on repeat as snippets of songs and memories flicker in and out of my thought processes and remind me of the victories and defeats of my life. Isn't it funny how most songs can trigger a remembrance not only of feelings, but often even the smells and atmosphere? I dare say man would not have evolved as far as he has without the concept of rhythm and melody

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    1. So true. The whole moment returns with all the smells and the entire atmosphere alive. I often remember what I was wearing, too. :) I love your thought about evolving with the aid of rhythm and melody. Music is intrinsic to life. It's good to hear from you.

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  7. Our first day in Tucson, I heard "Rainy Days and Mondays" on the outdoor speaker. Those songs are the oldies now. The sound took me right back, made me feel just like I did then. Sounds and feelings all wound up in the music.

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    1. I love that sense of the past coming back so strongly through music. Time travel at its best...

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  8. Once in a while I run across a jukebox in a restaurant. They are so nostalgic and entertaining. I can't help but remember working in a steak house back in 1959 and hearing endless plays of "Mack the Knife". I have no affection for that song!

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    1. Oh, what a shame, as I'm a Huge Bobby Darin fan. I feel similar about certain songs... repetition did not make my heart grow fonder. :)

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  9. Old friends are better than gold. -- barbara

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    1. Yes, they are. Stan has passed, yet he remains a very good friend, indeed.

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  10. "Pop". You used the word "pop". That was the word I grew up with for Coke, root beers, orange Fanta. Oh, and the grape and cherry. Then I moved to Texas and learned to say, "Soda". Now "coke" seems to have become the generic word, but I still like the old ones. The best word of all combines them both: "sody pop".

    When I was in junior high, we got to go across the street to the Y for lunch if we wanted. We could get hamburgers and such, and there was a marvelous wooden floor and a juke box. Ten cents a play, three for a quarter. We'd eat and dance for a half hour and then run like mad to get back before the bell rang.

    We could stay on campus, but we didn't have to. We could bring our lunch from home, or eat the "hot lunch", or go to the Y. If we were going to be late getting back, classmates would yell at us. One teacher sat in the lunchroom to remind kids to "TAKE YOUR TRAY TO THE WINDOW AND PLEASE THROW AWAY YOUR NAPKIN FIRST!"

    And that was it. We had choice, we had freedom, we had music, and we had each other. It wasn't heaven, but it was a darn sight better than what kids have today. Or so I think.

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    1. Thank you so much for sharing your own memories here. Life was quite different wasn't it? Yes, kids today are missing some very important elements to their lives. imo.

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  11. I really, really like these stories of your younger years. They bring back some memories, especially of me "trying" to be cool and the trickiest part was that I thought I wasn't but oh so wanted to be.

    I never belonged to a church youth group, it kind of goes hand in hand with me being the only one in my home town to get ejected from kindergarten but that's another story.

    In '68 I was a Jr. in High School. Probably the most formative year of my life. I was heavily, and I mean heavily, impacted by the assasination of RFK, a moment that swung me completely to left where I remain today.

    My favorite Jukebox song in '68? No doubt "All Along the Watchtower" by Jimi Hendrix. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jELugp9ScA0

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    1. Well, I have to hear the story of you being ejected from kindergarten ... I'll bet that's quite the story... :)

      Oh, yes, Love that Hendrix song ... it calls up some other fine memories for me...
      Thanks, Bill. Love your comments.

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  12. I remember the late summer of 1968 as being my first date with the girl who became Trophy Wife. No jukeboxes. But the two of us still remember well locking ourselves alone in a yacht showroom where we watched the moon landing and did other things.....

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    1. What a wonderful memory for the two of you to have!

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  13. I remember jukeboxes! Sometimes a diner would have a mini jukebox right on the table. What fun!

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  14. Jukeboxes!! Large and small table models--ahhh!

    I had forgotten about this glorious song! I clung to my nets of wonder for years. ;)

    Funny how songs evoke such memories. Your story made me remember when I was having a difficult time in my life years after my first love and I broke up (senior year 1968)--he and I were just walking outside and he started singing Bridge Over Troubled Water to me. He's still my friend and we make each other laugh.

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    1. How wonderful that you're still friends. So good to hear from you.

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  15. Not my favourite version of this song. Perhaps they played a different one this side of the ocean?
    But jukeboxes, yes, I remember them well. Favourite songs played over and over. And boys, glorious boys and young love. I just wrote about something similar myself.

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    1. Perhaps so, but I haven't heard it. I imagine there were covers of it. I look forward to reading your new post. Thanks for commenting, Friko.

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  16. Oh,lordy but this this brings memories on. I graduated hight school in 1968. A time of dreams and disappointments, all that was good and all that was bad about life. This song was always being played somewhere I was. Great post, Teresa.

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    1. It was an interesting time of life, wasn't it? Thanks, Penny.

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  17. That is a really great story Teresa. I loved it. Our parish hall/gym had this huge storage room. Usually it was locked. Once in a while the custodian would forget to lock it. One of the items in it was a beautiful jukebox. We would roll it out, plug it in, and crack up the volume knob. It was set so you didn't have to put coins into it to make it play. Sweet! Free music! The song I remember most was, "One Fine Day" by The Chiffons.

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    1. I Love your stories. I'm so glad you share them ... they are similar to my own.

      Sweet, indeed. Great song... It's now running through my head... :)

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