Lost Time
Friday night dressed to kill: I drove to Carlisle with a car full of guitars and amps - I was roadying for the band that the Renaissance Man & Renaissance Woman play in. After we'd unloaded the gear at the venue (a student bar) I parked in front of the college, stepped out of the vehicle, and something extraordinary happened.
I was standing in front of the former hospital where, as a child, I had undergone an operation. Quite unexpectedly, I was overwhelmed by the memory of an intensely lived experience. The window of the surgical ward, the hospital lawns, the houses outside the gates - all were exactly as I remembered them. The smells, sights and sounds flooded back unbidden after 40 years.
Unfortunately, there's no quality control with involuntary memory, and I couldn't get out of my mind the dialogue from the episode of 'Bonanza' that I had watched with the other patients the night before going under the knife in 1965.
"Say after me - Hoss is gonna be a giant among men. Hoss is gonna be a giant among men."
Wim Wenders was right - the Yankees really have colonised our sub-conscious.
The gig was a great success - 200 Irish trainee teachers got their ya-yas out and their rocks off for St Patrick. The band stormed.
I was standing in front of the former hospital where, as a child, I had undergone an operation. Quite unexpectedly, I was overwhelmed by the memory of an intensely lived experience. The window of the surgical ward, the hospital lawns, the houses outside the gates - all were exactly as I remembered them. The smells, sights and sounds flooded back unbidden after 40 years.
Unfortunately, there's no quality control with involuntary memory, and I couldn't get out of my mind the dialogue from the episode of 'Bonanza' that I had watched with the other patients the night before going under the knife in 1965.
"Say after me - Hoss is gonna be a giant among men. Hoss is gonna be a giant among men."
Wim Wenders was right - the Yankees really have colonised our sub-conscious.
The gig was a great success - 200 Irish trainee teachers got their ya-yas out and their rocks off for St Patrick. The band stormed.
posted by Nick at 6:39 pm
3 Comments:
Let's not forget that according to Franklin, Hoss had a doctorate in ENGLISH literature...
Well, I'm curious what the title of Hoss's doctoral dissertation might have been . . .
You'd better be careful . . . we have some American readers & they're an ornery lot . . .
Post a Comment
<< Home