sudbury saturday night

I suppose that right now, it's not technically night and I know that this isn't Sudbury. I also have not been listening to Stompin'Tom but this afternoon I've been reminded of a time long, long ago. I was a little kid, Stompin' Tom was frequently heard on the radios in our neighbourhood. I say radios because everyone would stick their transistor radios into their windows, tuned to the same country music station. This was the early 70's so you'd hear a lot of George & Tammy, Conway & Loretta, Freddy Fender and yes, Stompin' Tom. My dad jokes that all of the kids in our little complex learned to spell while singing along to "D-I-V-O-R-C-E." He's probably right.

This afternoon, Mark and I were sitting out on our deck (gosh I love saying that!) and we could hear the rumblings of a party happening. It sounded like it was coming from over the fence and two doors down. We couldn't see anything for the trees but you could hear voices clearly and it seemed like there were a lot of folks coming and going. It didn't bother us at all, even though it was kind of loud. It was a nice sound, a summer party. It wasn't rowdy or obnoxious and you could tell that it wasn't going to get wild. You know how sometimes, you just know?

We came into the house at around 5 or so. We just couldn't take the heat anymore. Just now, Mark went back out to light the barbecue and he called me outside. The party was now in full swing and you could hear the music just blaring. Again, it wasn't super duper loud (because these folks have an unbelievably shitty stereo, whenever someone tries to turn it up too loud, you can hear the tears in the speakers) and it amused us greatly. From what we heard, these folks only buy live or "greatest hits" collections of their favourite bands. So far, we've heard Blue Rodeo, Paul McCartney and some Bob Seger. I won't be surprised if later on, we hear some Guess Who, Elton John and/or Van Morrison. I don't think that these folks are into new music, if you know what I mean.

Still, it's a neat sound and it's taken me back to Murray Place, where we lived from around the time I was 4 (I think) until I was 8. The really cool thing about it was that as soon as we go back into the house, we can't hear the music so I know that Joe's not being bothered by it. If he were out in the back yard, it would drive him crazy (because that's who he is) but for now, it's kind of a nice soundtrack to this particularly steamy Saturday, even if it's not Sudbury and the girls aren't at the bingo.