Turq, your memories about the recently released wandering the record store aisles is a really fine piece, very evocative writing. A genuine and quirky slice-o-life.
Marek *** --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb <no_reply@...> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "curtisdeltablues" <curtisdeltablues@> > wrote: > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Buck" <dhamiltony2k5@> wrote: > > > > > Turqb, what a fabulous opportunity in life that you had, > > > to have been there at that very pivotal moment of world > > > consciousness in the 20th Century. That Merv Griffen show. > > > Would be like having witnessed the moments of Eckhart Tolle > > > on Oprah, a moment of broad change in world consciousness. > > > > > > You, should just shake off this faint-heartedness of yours > > > and be with us here in Fairfield again. It would do the > > > world some good also. Bring CurtisDB along too. I pray for you. > > > > > > Jai Adi Shankara, -Buck > > > > So if this is the non-schtick level of your belief system, > > why not use your name Doug? Why maintain the level of > > insincerity conveyed by this alias? Are you afraid to > > stand behind your convictions? I think it may be you > > who is faint of heart. > > > > And since I am a meditator like you, what you are really > > focusing on is my lack of shared beliefs, a level of life > > that Maharishi himself poo-pooed as superficial. > > Curtis, I think that what "Buck" is focusing on is > not the lack of a shared "level of life" but the lack > of a shared *lifestyle*. One that he himself cannot > even live, because he was kicked out of the domes > long ago, and can't get back in. Some part of him > really, really *misses* that shared TMO TB life- > style; he *longs* for it, and glorifies it and the > "meaning" he assigns to it in his mind. And on some > level -- as you suggest more fundamental and real > than the level of his schtick -- he thinks we long > for it, too. > > What this mindset is reminding me of, strangely, > are experiences I had back in the early 70s, while > living in Toronto. Just out of college, with an > English degree that prepared me for nothing :-), > I wound up working at Sam The Record Man on Yonge > Street, at the time one of the largest record > stores in the world. Its owner, Sam Sniderman, > soon recognized that I was a little brighter than > the clerks he normally hired, and so he made me > a manager. As such, sometimes I had to open the > store at 8:00 AM. > > This was usually a thankless task, because no one > was actually shopping for records at that time, > and I was pretty much alone in the store. Except > sometimes, when I'd get a glimpse of a mindset > that Buck's reminds me of. > > The store was around the corner from the nearby > Territorial Prison. When it was time for a prisoner > to be released, for some reason they let them go > at 8:00 in the morning. There they'd be, on the > street again, with fifty dollars in their pockets > and nowhere to go, because nothing else was open. > So they'd come into Sam's and wander around, look- > ing at all the records in the stacks as if they > were things of wonder. And I guess they were, > compared to where they'd been. > > The thing is, you could always tell these guys. > They stood out, because they were always dressed > in the same clothes that they went to prison in, > five years or ten years or fifteen years earlier. > Shiny shirts, pegged trousers, and ankle-high > Beatle boots with pointy toes...stuff like that. > These were the only clothes they had, so that's > what they were wearing. And they'd wander around > the stacks, browsing the albums, but always the > old ones, the ones they remembered from before > they went to prison. They'd heard no new music > in the years since, so those were the only > musicians they knew. It was a very poignant > experience, watching them try to reintegrate > themselves into a world that had passed them > by. They were literally anachronisms, people > wandering around in our time, but themselves > stuck in a previous era. > > That's what Buck's "Come back here and join us > in Fairfield" raps remind me of. Part of him > really believes that everyone who was once a > part of the TMO and all its cult craziness > "really" wants to be part of it again, the > way he does. > > Some of us don't. I would go so far as to say > that most of us on this forum don't. >
