Most of you that know me to any extent know that 1. I love to sing - even though it is not always on-pitch or on-key. :) and 2. I love dogs!
Last night Dave was working on his monthly PPV report, which is quite time-consuming.... think "Office Space" and TPS Report. It was getting late, but I wanted to wait up - so I was looking through our DVR (Digital Video Recorder - this is the latest version of a VCR that comes with your cable box and is amazing.)
Anyway - back to the story - I had a new show on there called "The Singing Office." Intriguing to me because if I still worked in an Office this would be so fun to be on! It is a singing/dancing competition between 2 real-life offices. It is on TLC - couldn't quite make prime-time, but good try Joey Fatone. (Host & Former member of boy-band N'Sync)
One of the chosen songs for last night was The Four Tops, "I Can't Help Myself" or better known as "Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch." (....you know that I love you, I can't help myself - I love you and nobody else....") It was a 1965 Billboard hit on their Motown Label.
Whenever I hear this song - I immediately think of the 1988-1991 TV Show "China Beach." What???? Does anyone know why? I do know why. We would sometimes watch this show at my house - it was about an evacuation hospital during the Vietnam War - and was at a beach in Vietnam called - China Beach. Anyway -in one particular episode of this show, the nurses that were the main plot of the show were going to perform for the troops - and they were going to sing "Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch." One of the nurses simply couldn't do it because prior to this she was purchasing a puppy at a street-stand and she was going to call him Sugar Pie.....well, if you know anything about that area of the world - they eat dogs. And you guessed it, they didn't hand her a puppy but began to fry up the meat! Aughhhhhh. She, of course, could not perform that song - if I remember right, she ran off the stage and vomited.
I thought of that last night while watching The Singing Office --- and decided that I have such a love for dogs that whenever I hear that song, I remember the poor nurse that had her dog fried up.
Is it the power of word associations - or just the power of music/songs. I think the latter. We can memorize song after song after song... but, try to recall some basic facts - and you really can't do it unless you have put those facts into a song, or some sort of memory trick. Of course, this isn't true for everyone - especially the male species. Dave can quote line after line from movies..... my friend H., her husband can remember baseball facts in seconds.... and there is a guy in Dave's hometown that can tell you the lineage & relations of everyone in town.
When I was a young gradeschooler doing my multiplication tables, for whatever reason I could NEVER remember 9x7!! My mom told me: "Up a ladder, down a tree, nine times seven is sixty-three." I never forgot that one again! What tricks, songs, and associations do you remember?
P.S. Coming soon to a blog near you....4th of July pictures!
6 comments:
In my statistics class in college I would memorize formulas by making up a tune in my head to it. I remember taking an exam and bobbing my head up and down. I looked up and my professor was giving me one strange look. I got a B though, so it must have helped. Your post reminded me of driving in the car with Randy and him quizzing us on the oldies. :)
This is hilarious (the China Beach/fried dog/Sugar Pie part, anyway). I always remember "to lay is to place, to lie is to recline," (courtesy of Ms. Smith, of course), and one about vertical vs. horizontal that's not fit to print here (taught to me by some older gals on the dance team, of course!).
the ole man taught me..."up the ladder and across the floor, 9 times 7 is 64"....i was lucky to graduate highschool......;P
Jamey
So true - almost every song makes me think back on some memory. I have lots of songs that gives me a memory of us!! Dixie Chicks makes me automatically think of us - Karaoke!
Courtesy of Clint Black (State of mind..great song)
"ain't it funny how a melody can bring back a memory
Take you to another place in time
Completely change your state of mind
Walkin' down a lonely highway not feelin' alone
Thinkin' back when things went my way and not the road I'm on
Well, I've been down a time or two, but it never lasted long
I can always make it through on a wing and a prayer and a song"
I LOVED China Beach. My Mom and I used to watch it religiously. And to whomever "sang" Clint Black... you are my new BFF. That's one of the best songs and could not be more true.
Post a Comment