February 10 – “Flashback”

I thought we entered a time warp for a while yesterday.  I was working at my desk as usual when I heard sounds of strange music wafting from the television in the other room.  I knew it was on to give Mom some stimulation and try to keep her awake so she wouldn’t roam around as much at night.  But the music was … old.  And vaguely, frighteningly familiar.  I did my best to continue working, but it kept going on and on.  What was that sound and why did it seem so eerily familiar to me?  Finally I could bear the struggle no more.  I rose form my seat and cautiously inched my way into the den.  Not out of fear, but simply trying to give my weary brain time to figure out the mystery on its own.  But alas, it was to no avail.  I turned the corner, fully expecting to see some garbled, black and white view of … of … and there it was.  Not in black and white, mind you, but in full color.  And what color.  Bright blue suits and saxophones, trombones and brightly colored flowers.  An array of old people, smiling ear to ear, in what could only possibly be a studio audience of some kind.  And ever the music.  Not the kind you hear every day on KSBJ.  Not country.  Not rock and roll.  Very little drum beat.  Very little bass sound of any kind.  It was just so … happy.  Was this an episode of the Twilight Zone?  Perhaps.  Outer Limits?  Maybe.  Some nasty-mouthed youngster whisked back it time to be assaulted by the sounds of his grandparents to teach him a much-needed lesson in respect for his elders?  Nah.  That would never sell.  I was perplexed, to be sure.  I glanced over at Mom.  She was awake, and she seemed to be enjoying the noise.  And at that moment I had a flashback.  Not to some previous experimentation with drugs (I was always too chicken to even attempt something like that).  And not to a previous battlefield experience (I never served in the military.  The Vietnam War ended just as I graduated from high school).  No, this flashback was to a time in my own house, well, the one I grew up in just across the street.  Maybe even farther back than that, to our original house on 36^th and Avenue L.  To a time when all television pictures were in black and white.  To a time when Davy Crockett was the most exciting action hero on television.  To a time when my grandmother and my mother relaxed on the couch to watch their own favorite show that came on just before old Davy Crockett and Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color (Which, by the way, always confused me, since we had a black and white television).  Wait.  Their favorite show … that’s it.  I remembered.  Just as the guy in the shiny suit turned to face the camera.  Just as the off camera voice announced a move to commercial.  Just as I heard, “We’ll return in just a moment to … The Lawrence Welk Show.” 

Psalms 65:9 says, “You care for the land and water it; you enrich it abundantly.  The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain, for so you have ordained it.”

Father, to quote another of those old guys, thanks for the memories.  Amen.