Songs From The Ceiling

by whiteray

The power was off when we got up this morning. It was still off as 11 o’clock approached, and the updates from Xcel Energy said that it would likely be restored around 1 p.m. So the Texas Gal and I discussed what we could do for lunch, and we thought about Jimmy’s Pour House, a bar and grill across the river in the little burg of Sauk Rapids. 

Just to make sure, I called Jimmy’s. I explained that we were without power, and I wanted to make sure the power was on in Sauk Rapids before we headed out. She chuckled and said, “Yeah, we’ve got power.” So we headed out. 

As it happened, the power came back on just as we were heading to the garage, but we went to Sauk Rapids anyway. And a little while later, as we sat in the booth waiting for our food, we listened to the music coming from the overhead speakers: “Sailing” by Christopher Cross, “Right Here Waiting” by Richard Marx, “Africa” by Toto and a few others all firmly set in the era of 1980-89. 

Most of what we heard was a soft style that’s not her favorite, and it was from a time that’s not my favorite. We both like “Africa” a fair amount, and I love the piano interlude in “Sailing,” but other than that . . . 

And then came the unmistakable sound of Hi Records from the early Seventies: Strings, syncopated horns and soft percussion announcing “Let’s Stay Together” by Al Green. 

“That’s an era switch,” I said. She nodded and said, “That’s good.” 

And for just an instant, I was fifty years in the past and in the lounge of a dorm at St. Cloud State, lazing away part of a Sunday afternoon with a young lady and a radio, one moment in a relationship that was brief and – in the long sweep of years – not at all important. 

I marveled for a moment – as I often do – at the power of music, how it entwines vividly with even minor memories from a half a century ago. Then another song came from the ceiling, our meals came, and we ate. 

Here’s “Let’s Stay Together.”