My father was putting a new roof on a house he was fixing back up, for his farmhome house contracts. I was just a little kid up there helping him move around with shingles and staples.
His radio was playing at the edge of the house where I wasn't allowed to walk over by, I had to stay in the center by all the supplies. He worked away asking for my help here and there, he said that my mother didn't think I was old enough to help him but he thought that I was, so I felt special. I felt proud of myself paying attention to everything carefully for him.
Then from the radio this song came on against the ending summer afternoon as the evening sun set was turning soft orange in the sky. It was such a long song as I listened to it not sure of everything being said then my father began to break it all down, he liked this song and knew so much about it as he put the new roof on I sat carefully close by listening to him explain what it was all about. I realized suddenly that there were people alive before I was born. It was a whole new thought in me that my father was telling me about the day the music died and how sad it had been.
I sat there watching the sun setting way up high thinking about God and Satan, death and life. In the battle of good verse evil I listened to my father tell me in-depth all about this song.
I knew I would always remember this moment in time, I was growing up in realizing before I was born was a whole story I knew nothing about....
Can music take you back in time?
Can I ever know as much as my father knows?
Can I even imagine what was the world like before I was born? Why do I only know about right now?
I took note of my surroundings, I felt special having my own time with my father working on the roof. The song played on as Dad interrupted here and there with his memories and his understanding of this song.
I am sure I was little 6 or 7 maybe 8 because I wondered suddenly to myself "What age will I be when I die? How come I don't know? I should know so that I can plan and be ready for it!?!?"
I am sure that evening was a random moment at work for my father as he taught how to hold onto the ladder and never look back down. I wasn't the thrill seeking kind of child like my sister, so he had to encourage me for awhile to get me back down after we were done. That song stayed with me all of my life as I can still see my father in his work jeans and tool belt around his white t-shirt as he would push his eye glasses up his nose while looking back up at me saying "I need another one." I would walk slowly slanted carrying a heavy shingle as this song began to fill the air all around us.
I had no idea I was living in the time that would one day become "A long long time ago."
So I wonder what will my next 40 years look like?
This song will always take me back to that roof top sitting with my young hard working father, as he talked with me like an equal and taught me how time wasn't here just for my life.
Bye Bye Miss American Pie.....
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