A Vestige of My Youth

A Vestige of My Youth

 

 

It was winter

the year my unemployment checks

were running out.

I was barely getting by paying rent

existing on cold pizza and ramen noodles,

with a diamond deck of solitaire

to kill the monotony of time.

 

It was the eighties,

the era of hair metal bands and MTV.

I worked in a record store

when LP’s were just beginning to phase out. 

A place that my friends referred to as

“the dream job.”

 

 I was single then

dating men with the frequency

of Monday night football,

writing free verse crossed legged on a hardwood floor

with a smith corona, a halogen lamp

and Jessie.

 

Fast forward twenty years

and here I am

wishing I could go back

to the rush of those nine to five days,

flipping through numerous categories of LP’s

in chronological  order,

cramming the copious names of artists

and classifications of music

into the cerebral of my brain.

 

A vestige of my youth

so well spent. 

 

Reviews

[Relic]

This brings back lots of memories. I remember the female hair styles and weird UK bands styles. :)

I miss the record stores. I could pass up on some of those hair bands- haha. I did like winger though (Headed for a heartbreak):)
I do miss a lot from those days though. Good poem.

[Kelly Scheppers]

With the resurgence of vinyl, who knows, maybe we'll see record stores make a come back. It feels good knowing I was a piece of history! Thanks, Tim!

[Dianne S Penfold]

It paints a very clear picture this poem. Its a little window into your past. Well written, with vivid imagery. Sometimes we curse the experiences that we've lived through, only to miss them once they are over. Quite a thought provoking poem.

[Kelly Scheppers]

Lol, funny you should mention cursing the experience. I remember every holiday season, all the employees had to wear these dark blue aprons, so that shoppers could easily identify us among the crowd. Yet, we still had people coming up to us and asking if we worked there! So nice to meet you, Dianne, and thank you for your visit today!

[red93]

I love this K and definitely you cannot beat those old Vinyl Records for fond memories. In particular the 'Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme' LP by Simon and Garfunkel, placed carefully under my pillow in my Rooms at Oxford by a certain female I was in love with at the time, Xmas 1977. Set your Time Machine and take us back ✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️

[Kelly Scheppers]

Simon & Garfunkel were two of the best songwriter's back in their day. Great LP you mentioned. Their song, "The Sound of Silence" has got to be a classic. Oh, how I wish I had a time machine. Just to feel the thrill of it all, again. Thank you, Tony!

[John the Baptist]

Strange how a period of time that is hated while occurring can morph into "the good old days" two decades hence. Something about the law of supply and demand in effect here. By the way, who was Jessie?

[Kelly Scheppers]

Jessie was my cat, who lived nineteen years! Thank you for asking, John. Much appreciate your visit!

[Betty Hermelee]

I think we all loved this time in our lives....a job, freedom, dating,and just plain doing what made us happy, even though we were pretty poor; it was sometime to remember....ah yes those halogen lamps, recall them well....well done Kelly!
Best, B

[Kelly Scheppers]

And we never thought we'd be looking back on those days, wishing we could go back! Glad you could join me on this one, Betty. Thank you so much!

[Betty Hermelee]

You're very welcome Kelly
Warmly, B

[Coyote Poetry]

I did the same dear Kelly.
"writing free verse crossed legged on a hardwood floor
with a smith corona, a halogen lamp"
I wrote a 200 page book on the corona on floppy disk. I am re-reading the 200 page story written in 1992. Time does fly by dear friend. Thank you for sharing the amazing poetry and your thoughts.
Coyote

[Kelly Scheppers]

Thank you, John! Always good to hear from you!

[Coyote Poetry]

Was my pleasure dear Kelly and you are welcome.

[Throwing Romeo]

Enjoyed the cadence of this .
Time just slides right on by .
more for me than you because
it was like 40 years ago to me.
Now
I don't have the time to blink.

[Kelly Scheppers]

I appreciate the kindness given. Thank you!

[FGFRANKLIN]

Great read. 1980 was forty-three years ago. I wish it was twenty. Even 1989 was nearly 35 years ago. Doesn't time go by in a blur? Lps have made a comeback as a specialty item today. The album art, lyrics and sound are still found appealing by many. I never had a typewriter, per se. I had a word processor with onscreen read out though. It was supposed to be the zenith of high tech back then...it took ink cartridges instead of a ribbon. It was a gift from a professor friend of mine who encouraged me to write. My first child was born in 1984 so the whole decade was pretty much parenting for me. I was in my mid-twenties then and just working like crazy to make ends meet. If I could go back in time I might want to revisit the seventies more, my teen years were a lot of fun.

[Kelly Scheppers]

I'm finding a lot of reviews, referring to wanting to go back in time. As decades go, it truly was the best for me. Now, I've got it immortalized in cyberspace for eternity! Thank you, Fabian!

[FGFRANKLIN]

An old man has his memories. That has to be time travel enough I suppose. But the children seem to think we were never young.

[Ken e Bujold]

Monday night football metaphor is worth it's weight in gold Kelly. Fabulous poem taking us back to a sense of place and time. We are I suspect of the same age, and while my memories of 80s never got so bleak as being down to last nickels, I can identify with the bleakness of the times, and how passage of years fills us with sense of what was good about those days, though only time can allow us see now.

[Kelly Scheppers]

I loved the football metaphor! I must say, I patted myself on the back for that one. Lol, thank you, Ken!

[Pete]

i too remember going to the record store (rainbow records) in the mall they built in my town when i was a kid. i too would flip through the vinyl lp's, eight-track and cassette tapes. they were organized by group and genre ( i can still picture it). they would always be playing the latest releases with colored lights above. i could spend forever there and never leave.

they say that we always return to our roots. in a strange way, some of the most difficult times of my life also stand out as the best. the older i get the more i realize that less is more. we never lose hold if that which makes us who we are. the road less traveled that we tried to avoid can turn out to be more fulfilling than we could ever have imagined - because we made it through being and doing what makes us who we were meant to be ...

[Kelly Scheppers]

I echo your sentiment deeply, Pete...especially the closing. Thank you so much, my friend!