Nostalgia
Sometimes when I’m making dinner, I’ll look for old songs on YouTube. It’s good to hear the old ones, the one-hit wonders especially. Good to remember the way things used to be.
There are paddling spots that bring out a similar sense of sweet nostalgia. The Nisqually Delta, where Jon the all-pro whitewater kayaker flipped over on his first sea kayak outing; Strawberry Island in the San Juans, closed to camping now but I remember some epic nights around the fire, playing songs and telling lies as the porpoises jumped in the rips right off shore; My first trip to Cape Flattery, watching the whales and listening to the pounding waves from the warmth of my sleeping bag. There are others. When I go to these spots now, I find that I am just as often paddling through the past.
One of the songs I listened to while I was working in the kitchen yesterday displayed some comments from other listeners. One of the comments was such a great piece of writing, so amazingly evocative and haunting, that I feel like saving it for later contemplation. I don’t know the person who wrote it and it was likely just a throw-away comment, but the way that he wrote make me feel like I was there with him way back then. I may have been.
“Sitting still in the silence of the night, and this song would come on, everyone was still with us, mom, dad, and all my best friends. Joe buddy getting ready for that big party with our best girls. We would dance deep into the night with this song. Remember the smell of their hair? I wish that night never ended. This song makes my heart beat even when it wants to stop.”
I’m going to paddle the Foss this morning before the sun comes up. I haven’t done that for a while.
About Ken Campbell
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A story of sea kayaking and science on the rugged coast of Alaska. Coming – Spring 2014.
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