I’ve got a disc of MP3s in my car that has a whole pile of random favourite songs on it. One of which is American Pie – the Don McLean version not the nasty arse Madonna one. Angel who I think has maybe heard the song about three or four times has decided it’s one of his favourite songs too and strangely enough seems to be able to sing along to most of it…. which is rather impressive for a little guy 🙂
I have a few old memories that pop up whenever I hear it. One… my first boyfriend’s Mum (who’s name was Dixie) told me it was on the radio when she gave birth to A1 (said boyfriend) back in 1972 so I often think of him when I hear it.
The other memory that usually comes to mind was from my first trip to Europe back in 1995. We were in Rome and had been sight seeing for the day… taking in the Vatican, St Peter’s, the Colosseum, the Spanish Steps and the lion sculpture (you know the one Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck put their hands into in Roman Holiday). At the end of our sightseeing we were being picked up by our fantastic double decker bus ‘Freckle’ and the bus was late and we were waiting under a ledge of a building near our pick up point in the pouring rain.
Half the people on our bus were standing around grumbling about the rain and bitching and moaning about the driver keeping us waiting… but there was a group of us who had had a great day out, checked out all the fabulous art, saw the ceiling of the Sistene Chapel, visited the ossuary of the Capuchini monks, watched the Pope out in the forecourt of the Vatican give a blessing to a bunch of foreign priests, got into St Peter’s when it was dead empty of people which was unreal, walked across the Ponte St Angelo, climbed St Peter’s cuppola and admired the view…. all that AND ate more gelato than we should!!!
What does all this have to do with American Pie you might ask? Well those of us who fell in the latter category of packs waiting for the bus were standing in the pouring rain singing American Pie at the top of our voices and laughing like idiots as we kept trying to remember the lyrics and largely failing miserably 🙂
Good times…. good times. Luckily most of the locals would have taken us for Sepos!! 🙂
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