From
1994, this is Kottke’s take on the Bert Kaempfert hit from 1961.
This
song always takes me back to one specific memory. In 1961, my Aunt Joyce and
Uncle George lived in an older home in Elgin. Unlike our 1950’s tract home in
Algonquin, it had 9 or 10 foot ceilings. That’s about all I remember of the
house, because their Christmas tree was so tall.
Back
then, when we visited them, I was 6 in 1961, we would be put to bed in Aunt
Joyce and Uncle George’s bed until my parents were ready to go home. Then we
would be woken up and/or carried to the car, where we (my sister and I) laid in
the backseat of our Pontiac (no seatbelts, of course) to drive home to be woken
or carried to our bed at home.
This
song was my soundtrack to that experience, being played on my aunt and uncle’s
Hi-Fi and it may have only occurred once or twice, but I remember the song and
also a book of cartoons on the nightstand that had one with a guy making a
phone call in what appeared to be hell (or at least my 6 year old’s view of it,
a fiery cave with a guy with horns). I was just learning to read then, and the
cartoon haunted me so much that I still remember it, though the details are
hazy.
My
folks also played this song on our RCA Hi-Fi, I still have the 45 rpm (what’s
rpm, Old man?) single at home. I don’t think I can even play it, since the
turntable I use to digitize my albums (though I haven’t digitized one in about
2 years) has no adapter for the big hole in the middle.
”First
world problems,” I guess.
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