Remembering summer music, the Black Top Hats, Veterans Memorial Pool
A COLUMN By Kathryn Ross, pictured is the “Devil’s Paintbrush”
Wow, it is unbelievable all the events that are taking place throughout the rest of the summer. It is almost like there is no time to just sit and enjoy the warm weather, blue skies, birds singing, summer breezes, etcetera.
I wonder, do people have to be entertained all the time? Don’t people just want time to putter in the garden, read in a lawn chair in the backyard or take a nap in the sun like the old dog, or the cat curled in a corner. Are we such a frenzied creature that we can’t bear an empty hour or two when we don’t have anything to do?
One of the problems with getting volunteers for projects or events is that everyone has no time. They’re busy rushing off to games or chauffeuring kids hither and yon. Maybe we need to stop, look and listen to the world around us instead of letting it go by in a blur. What did they used to say – “stop and smell the roses” and water them while you are at it.
I remember lolling around in the yard watching the parade of clouds rolling overhead and picking butter cups and holding them under our chins to see if we like butter and picking Devil’s Paintbrushes and making bouquets.
We used to listen to the radio too, kind of a lost art with all the mp3s, blue tooth and our phones. I’m currently listening to a radio station out of Provincetown MA. WOMR FM via something called Radio Garden on my computer, not even a transistor radio. I can tune in stations from around the world – England and Ireland, France, Denmark, Italy and find out what’s happening in those towns. It’s a great thing. It reminds me of how small our world is or how large our world is, depending on how I feel and whether I know the music.
Remember the summer songs that used to come out…. every summer. California Girls in 1965 by the Beachboys or Alice Cooper’s School’s Out for Summer in 1972 and the instrumentals like Telstar by the Tornadoes in 1962 and Scarlett O’Hara in 1963 by Jerry Lowden. We would sing or hum them all the time. Didn’t the lyrics –
“Hot town, summer in the city
Back of my neck gettin’ dirt’ and gritty
Been down, isn’t it a pity?
Doesn’t seem to be a shadow in the city
All around, people looking half-dead
Walkin’ on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head.”
come to mind last week when it was so hot. The Lovin’ Spoonful brought that out in 1966.
Isn’t it amazing? Those songs were popular decades ago, but we remember them like we were listening to WLSV or WKBW an hour ago. Meanwhile you can’t remember what you ate for breakfast or who that guy is, Help Me Rhonda.
Maybe it’s because those songs were drummed into our ears for months, even if it was 50 or 60 years ago.
Do you remember the Black Top Hops? Gail and I used to get all dressed up in our huaraches and jams or our miniskirts and sandals and start down the street to go to the dance in the Super Duper parking lot or where Dollar General is now. We’d just get started when the little urchins we babysat for on weekends would notice us and chase us to the end of the street. The brats.
The Black Top Hops were a great chance to see the classmates we hadn’t seen since school let out and I think they were probably free.
Of course the highlight of the summer was going to the open-air Veterans Memorial Pool. I remember spreading my beach towel on the concrete walkway, laying my head on the curb and breathing in the warm smell of chlorinated concrete while watching the athletes diving off the high board. They were thrilling, I wonder if it had anything to do with breathing in the chlorine?
I never went off the high board. I was never quite coordinated enough to figure out how to use the diving board. I’d vibrate until it stopped bouncing and then jump off. I did love going in the deep end and swimming underwater and listening to the silence.
The best thing anybody could do for Wellsville is bring back the old outdoor pool. But, the generations who remember it are old now, they’ve moved to Florida or Arizona, besides people are too busy.
Kathryn Ross is a Wellsville native, lifelong resident, and lifelong member of the “fourth estate.” She can be reached anytime, kathr_2002@yahoo.com
