Leftover Memories of Sunday
It was a Sunday – that much I know – because we would only go to the 7-Mile Fair on Sundays. My parents took us there a couple times a year when the weather was nice. The fair isn’t really a fair at all; it’s a giant garage sale that spans 40 acres, packed tightly with aisle after aisle of rusty socket wrenches, irregular pencils, matted stuffed animals and rolls of masking tape that have been sitting in the hot sun so long that the stickiness has dried up.
Occasionally, though, we would uncover a real treasure there, like when I found the one and only doll I ever truly loved. I took her home and named her Red Baby. She was red, and she was my baby, and that was all that mattered.
But I’m not here to tell the story of Red Baby, because today I am a woman possessed. I’m possessed by the singular goal of recreating an album I bought at the 7-Mile Fair when I was about 7 or 8 years old.
It all started a few months ago when I couldn’t get the song, “Candyman” out of my head.
Who can take a sunrise? Sprinkle it with dew?
I would be sitting at work, typing away, when I would catch myself humming.
Cover it in chocolate and a miracle or two…
One day it finally hit me: I used to own that song. It was on that album from the 7-Mile Fair that must have been some Greatest Hits of the 70’s compilation. Since that day, I have been trying to rebuild the album, song by song, through iTunes. So far, I can only remember three:
• Candyman by Sammy Davis, Jr.
• One Bad Apple by The Osmonds
• Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again by The Fortunes
The weird thing is that it’s not as though I want to listen to these songs again – most of them were truly awful. It’s more like I need to listen to them again, for closure. I feel like this is some sort of deep, repressed memory that I’ve tucked away for decades and if I don’t confront it, I’m going to continue to be haunted by the ghost of Sammy Davis, Jr. for the rest of my life.
If only I could remember the name of the album, I could go on eBay or Craigslist or a Sammy Davis, Jr. chat room and try to find it. I feel like there was a rainbow on the cover, or an apple… but maybe I just made that up. I can’t be sure. I keep hoping that some of the other songs will come to me in a dream or in a peyote haze on my next vision quest.
To put an end to my torture and help close this chapter of my life, I am offering a lifetime* supply of Sea-Monkeys® to anyone who can find the album that had those three songs on it. And maybe had a rainbow or an apple on the cover. Or maybe it didn’t. God speed!
*By lifetime, I mean the Sea-Monkeys®’ lifetime, not yours.
***UPDATE***UPDATE***UPDATE***
The search is over! I didn’t think it was possible for me to love Canadians any more than I already do, but minutes ago, Mike of Speak Into the Mike sent me this link and I actually screamed out loud when I started to read the songs. This is totally the album. How do I know? Because this song is on it:
As is this one:
And the memories come flooding back.
You probably won’t hear from me for the next week or so because I’m going on a trip down memory lane. Ear-worm filled memory lane.
You’re my hero, Mike! As is Tony, who also sent me the link in his comment! You guys rule the school!
Filed under: General on March 13th, 2008
March 13th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
I had looked for years and years for a kids Christmas album that I had when I was a kid. About a year ago I found a CD on the internet and a couple of months after that I found the actual album at our town-wide garage sales. Paid a quarter for it. So now I have it. Did I listen to it at Christmas time? Nooooooo. But I have it.
March 13th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
I remember that album! Wow, what a rush of memories – rollerskating to One Bad Apple while wearing my Marie Osmond outfit.
March 14th, 2008 at 2:01 am
A lifetime* supply of Sea-Monkeys®? Why didn’t I wait to take this sleeping pill until after I read your blog. Crap! ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
March 14th, 2008 at 7:33 am
God bless K-tel. That’s all I can say.
March 14th, 2008 at 8:40 am
robin: a quarter? that makes it all even sweeter.
dingo: are you serious? OMG – you did not even have a Marie Osmond outfit did you? the internet needs photos!
pants: time to get that monkey off your back, girl.
mike: i am forever in your debt, mon ami.
March 14th, 2008 at 8:47 am
Maybe this is the album you seek…
22 Explosive Hits
Tony
March 14th, 2008 at 8:51 am
tony: that’s exactly it!! moments after your comment came in, i posted the update that mike also found it – you guys absolutely rock! but since mike told me it’s illegal to ship Sea-Monkeys across international borders, that makes you the winner. if you’d like to claim your prize, email me your address. and thanks again!
March 14th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Awesome! My brother used to DJ when he was in college, and he made up his own “greatest hits” albums of the 70s and 80s. He transferred them to CD and gave the collection to me as a birthday or Christmas gift one year. “Popcorn” is totally one of my kids’ favorites, so this whole this is cracking me up.
And BTW, what does Canada have against Sea Monkeys?! That makes me like Canada a little bit less, y’know. Poor, sea monkey-less Canadians.
March 17th, 2008 at 6:19 am
Oh Jen… you slay me. My nomination for “song from my childhood that I must hear to recapture my lost youth” is this treat that we played incessantly on the the jukebox at a summer resort we visited, Forestview (the Beautiful,) on the shores of Leech Lake in Walker, Minnesota.
It’s been nominated as worst. song. ever. It’s called “Once You Understand” by Think, and it is truly breathtaking in its ambition and execution.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FpYDyetZhU
March 17th, 2008 at 8:30 am
I love this part the most:
Who can take tomorrow
Dip it in a dream
Separate the sorrow
And collect up all the cream?
You make me wanna look for my old cassette from the movie: Annie. Did you watch it back then? I knew that song from the movie.
March 17th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
What an adorable song, I love it!
March 18th, 2008 at 8:25 am
shari: OMG – do not let your children listen to Popcorn! Do you want them to turn out like me?
hap: I’m pretty sure I agree with the worst. song. ever. nomination. It’s soooo bad! I keep waiting for it to get better, but it just doesn’t.
MwMTfM: I didn’t even remember those lyrics – they’re kind of tripped out.
pants: Which one? Not popcorn… right?