As I write this post, it is a rainy day. I am waxing philosophical and remembering the past. Or mis-remembering as the case may be though I think my memories are solid here.
I grew up in a blended family with lots of kiddos. Having money for the extras was never a problem as far as I could tell. But illusions exist and I am sure my parents spared us from any money struggles. How they managed to pay the tuition for 13 years of Catholic school education is beyond me when you multiply x 7. We took vacations every year. B and I couldn’t even afford annual vacations with only two kids.
Back then I was a bratty brat who wanted to stay in a motel not a trailer and eat in restaurants instead of food cooked over a campfire. I remember saying when I grow up, I am gonna!!! Anyhoo I am rambling but soon I will get to the point and pick a damn song.
One way to vacay on the cheap is to agree to listen to a sales pitch … like those selling time shares and the like. My parents did that often. One Spring, my family and I went on one such sales pitch to Lago Vista TX on the banks of Lake Travis.
While my parents went with the other adults to see the land for sale, us kids stayed behind at the Bar-K clubhouse. We ate hamburgers and watched a movie. We played bumper pool and shuffle board. In the game room, there was a jukebox that took slugs so that we could pick songs to play for free!! We ended the day in the swimming pool right outside the game room.
I will never forget floating in the pool when my parents came back to get us. “Time to go home” daddy said. As we were drying off they asked us how we liked it. All of us clamoring about how fantastic it was. Free hamburgers and sodas. A movie!! Bumper pool!!!! Swimming!!!!!! Then daddy asks if we’d like to come back next weekend and announced they were buying land! Squeal!!!! YES!!!!!! The plot they purchased was not fit for building on, it was just a strip of rocks with a culvert straight through the middle but it was a way for us to get privileges. That was the beginning of our Bar-K days.
Now the song. Memba that jukebox I mentioned. The tunes were from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. One of the first things we’d do entering the Bar K was to set up a game of bumper pool and play Pink Floyd’s “Money”. To this day, when I hear those coins dropping I feel a sense of wonder. And while “Comfortably Numb”, “Us and Them”, or “Brain Damage, Eclipse” are my favorite Pink Floyd tunes, “Money” wins for the nostalgia of it all. I hope you enjoy!
As always, more to come.
