I’m joining fellow bloggers Jeri and Mommy in a meme about a song that instantly transports you to a very specific time or place. Here’s my contribution:
I was seven and just a tiny, little thing. Honestly, if I say I weighted 50 lbs that may be stretching it. It’s summer, August, I think. A typical hot, humid, sunny New England summer day. I was barefoot and wearing my green bikini, the one with the tiny pink flowers. My hair was in pigtails I was learning to do myself.
I was in the backyard playing with my stepbrother, Michael. We were ‘bowling’. Actually, more like rolling a wiffle ball at a pyramid of empty soda cans. The other kids were around, but we were the only ones playing this game. When the ball rolled passed the cans and under a bush at the edge of the woods, Michael, being the elder, sent me. He was really tall, anyway.
I knelt to retrieve the ball that was just beyond my reach and partly hidden by the previous winter’s dried and crunchy oak leaves. I stretched a little farther and grabbed hold of it. Michael was across from me, the bush between us. Suddenly there was commotion, loud buzzing and Michael – screaming and running away from me and deeper into the woods.
I yelled, “Wait! Michael?!” Then I saw the first one. A very angry yellow jacket buzzing at my left shoulder. I froze. That’s what we’re all taught to do, right? “Leave them alone and they will leave you alone.” Sound familiar? Anyway – back to the bee buzzing at my left shoulder and Michael shrieking and running around. I froze and the bee stung me anyway. When I looked up and in front of me I was aware, for the first time, of the swarm – furiously seeking the cause of their displacement. (that be me … oh boy!)
Out of fear of being left alone, I ran. I passed through the angry, buzzing hive once – trying to reach Michael who was still (I’m not kidding) running, flailing, screaming. I passed back through the hive – this time, afraid of being lost in the woods. I felt strongly about returning to the yard.
At this point my dad heard the ruckus and wanted to know, “What is going on over there?” I can still see him standing there in his white tee-shirt, cut-off jeans and the red bandana (forever) tied around his forehead to slow the sweat before it inevitably leaked into his eyes.
I was, by this time, standing on a pile of yard rubble at the edge of the woods. I remember seeing a shard of green glass dangerously near my shoeless right foot. To my dad I reply, “I dunno …” complete with double shoulder shrug, just as Michael ran screaming toward him, “Bees! Bees! They’re all over me!” Quite literally, they had stuck to him. Wherever they stung, they stuck. He had quite a few, too. (Overall I was stung 9 times, not sure what Mike’s total was)
Flash forward.
I’m on the ladder of the pool, in the shallow end. Dad and Marilyn (his wife & Michael’s mom) think I should wash the stingers off in the pool. Thankfully, the bees did not attach themselves to me and just left their little stingers behind. Typically, I was a fish in the water, but this time was different. I couldn’t let go of the ladder. The water was freezing, Arctic cold. They didn’t make me let go.
Flash forward.
We’re all in the kitchen now. I’m standing, holding the door handle to the fridge. Dad was standing near me and Marilyn was sitting at the table. “How do you feel?”, they ask. “Fine,” I reply, just as the fridge melted and swirled and swallowed me up.
Flash forward.
Daddy’s driving the car, Marilyn is cradling me in her lap. And Michael? (What do you think?) Screaming in the backseat! I was semi-conscious and THAT is when I heard the song: “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” by War. At that moment I remember thinking it was an ironic message that me and the bees should get along. I have rarely heard that song since, but when I have, it instantly recreates that day for me.
To wrap up my tale, I ended up convulsing there in the car, which apparently freaked everyone out, so they immediately turned around and brought me home to call an ambulance. (911 in 1975? I don’t think so …) I woke up on a seemingly huge, red beach towel in the driveway. I made it to the hospital and was released after 3 days. I carry an epipen to this day.
This is my song story and the first time I’ve ever written it!
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