Raffi Lite
It’s hard for me to remember if this was in middle school or elementary school. Regardless, I sat in a cafeteria with the rest of the school for a ‘concert’. We had several concerts and programs a year at Martins Ferry. They were nothing spectacular – but this one stands out for only one reason.
Much like Raffi in the ’80s – this concert was one person sitting on a stool with an acoustic guitar. I’m sure he sang silly songs like “Baby Beluga” and had little bits. The only thing I can remember is the last song he played – “The Boxer”. Even when performed by a lunch-time elementary school gymnasium artist, this song was awesome. He had the entire crowd singing the ‘Lie la lie’ portions and this is my first memory of Simon and Garfunkel.
Falling Over for their Collective Works
Skip forward to 2002/03 – I invited my girlfriend over to my house. The arrangement of my house was a bit odd. When my father passed away, we downsized. The upstairs had two bedrooms, but you had to pass through the one to get to the other. This was not a good situation for my mother and me (17 years old). Instead, I made the first room in the house my bedroom. Everyone that wanted me came to the front door. Everyone else went to the side door.
It was probably a Saturday night and we were just hanging out. For some reason, she got dizzy and went to the bathroom. Minutes later and what was never confirmed but probably was probably vertigo, she was on the floor and couldn’t get up.
We were only dating a few months and I didn’t know what to do. She had me call her mom and she traveled the half hour from Rayland to Martins Ferry to help me out. She didn’t come alone, she brought my girlfriends older brother.
Although this wasn’t my first time meeting her brother (we actually wrestled in the same backyard events a few times), this was my first time actually talking to him. As my girlfriend was attended to in the bathroom, her brother noticed the CD-shelf. He saw the Box Set for Simon and Garfunkel and we started discussing the group. What might have seemed like odd placement and in poor taste, we continued to discuss the group and our musical tastes.
Watching the Classics from the Library
I was no stranger to the library. Instead of attending pre-school, my mom actually enrolled me in some library program to get acquainted with other humans. I was part of every summer reading program until middle school. We would also frequently get our media (VHS tapes) from the library.
As I grew older, I frequented the library less and less. I stopped going for years and had no need to borrow books or movies.
Until 2007 (about the same time where I was ranking music).
I’m not sure what spurred up my interest (it might have been the time I was learning to write screenplays), but I kept seeing the names of classic movies that I have never seen. I watched a lot of movies as a kid, but they were mostly Disney Channel films. Movies like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and A Clockwork Orange intrigued me. I figured it would be in my best interest to finally check out some of these classics.
This was a period of time where the Internet was a thing but it was prior to Netflix and most streaming services. To get a movie, you had to go to a rental store (like Blockbuster or Sun Video – Martins Ferry classic). I really didn’t’ want to spend several dollars to rent these films. My best option: the library.
I went ahead and ordered a library card. Since the Internet was a thing, I could go online and put in requests for movies all over the state of Ohio. I built up a queue for every classic you could find. Of course, The Graduate was on that list.
Of course, the soundtrack was dominated by Simon and Garfunkel tunes. After watching the movie, you can’t help but see images of the film when listening to several songs. It’s not a bad movie to be linked to – better yet, it’s not a bad group for the movie to be linked to.
