Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Memories for a quarter ...


Sitting ... simply sitting ... enjoying the moment with a cup of coffee at one hand, and the lap top opened on the table before you ... in the background music if playing on the juke box.

Some music is soft, romantic ... other selections are harder, louder and rocking ... the sun is shining through the front windows ... it's a beautiful day ...

Kriss strolls over to the juke box and drops in a couple of quarters ... First Boney M warbles over the speaker singing about Rasputin and his exploits with the Russian Queen. Next a Beatles tune carries across the room ...

"Hmmm," Kriss wonders to herself, "maybe I should punch in The Twist by Chubby Checker, maybe Bonnie would show us how to do The Twist properly again ..." She smiles as she leans over the machine.

What to choose ... so many selections to chose from ... Elvis, The Beatles, Billy Idol, the selections range from classic rock through to those bands who released thier tunes on the last of the once ubiquitous vinyl 45's ...

Now the stack of 45s sits waiting in a machine, tucked in a corner of a coffee shop nestled in slow paced town lying in a valley in the middle of the vast Canadian prairie ... the stack of vinyl waits to be played ... it waits to echo forth from the juke box, filling the space of the shop with a joyous cacophany of sound and music that helps to call forth glorious memories ...

Memories of moments in time ... a summer of our mis-spent youth ... a school dance ... a movie ... a date ... sitting enjoying a soda in a cafe ... The memories that are sealed with music ... Memories made sweeter by the sound track of our lives ... and all those memories may can be unlocked with the thunk of a quarter in a coin slot ...

It can be shiny and new ... or it can be old and covered with dirt and scratches ... it makes not a whit bit of difference to the machine ... 25 cents is 25 cents ... for a mere quarter a memory can be recalled through music:

... a first date ... a first dance ... a first kiss ... a first boy or girl friend ... with the drop of a quarter in the coin slot you can be transported back to those firsts ... those moments when life was fresh and new and being experienced anew for the first time ...

For a quarter you can call up the sound track of our lives ... a few notes and we can remember and find ourselves transported back in time and space ...

For a quarter we can play the music of our lives ... relieve and remember the moments ... we can laugh ... or cry ... or just smile as we remember ...

At Chipperfields' over coffee, you can recall alot of memories for a quarter ... it is still a bargain at twice the price ...

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