making beds to lie in...

Life has a way of circling back memories we'd thought forgotten. So it was with me this past week as I made the bed in the smallest room of my home. It used to be my room. Long since painted a different shade of lavender, it still feels like my space! Perfect for viewing the sunset, I travel there so I can travel elsewhere... in my mind... remembering a certain thirteen year old doing the very same thing.
Of course there's a 'jambox' for listening to music. What sane teenage girl would be without her favorite tunes? Set to radio I flipped the switch and suddenly was transported to 1968. A song from the past filled the air; I had more memories than my heart could contain. The overflow spilled onto my cheeks. Okay now... it's okay now.
June - 1968 - Mom and I are making my bed in the small room. The gentle guitar moves, finger fretting, came over the air and we knew the song. "Ode to Billie Joe" and we knew the words, mostly. Mom got to the verse that says:
"There was a virus going 'round; Papa caught it and he died last spring." But then she made a goof and continued... "and now Papa doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything."
Pure hysterical laughter as we realized her mistake. I guess Papa wouldn't want to do much of anything.(smile)
June- 2013 - So there I was making that bed, thinking about all my troubles of late. Reached over and flipped the switch on that old 'jambox' and yep... got to the part of Mom's goof and hooted and hollered. I laughed until I cried but I was laughing.
Lots of speculation about that song. Bobbie Gentry, author and artist, moved on to study Philosophy in California. She once told the BBC, 1968, the song was a "study in unconscious cruelty," which I didn't understand until I saw the 1976 movie. So finding this video really is eye-opening because you see firsthand the "family table talk" and dancing around the "why".  A young man is dead because the times were as they were... being gay was "unpardonable" by people. Forty-five years have passed... are we there yet?