I had driven to City Thrift, but when I got there, I had second thoughts. I wasn't really in the mood for the clutter and smell of a thrift store. But as I started leaving the parking lot, something drew me back. I'm not kidding. Something nudged me and said, "You should go inside. There is something there for you." So I parked and went inside.
I browsed casually, however, and wasn't really expecting anything to jump out at me. I found a decent Old Navy tank for 99 cents. Not bad! I was gonna pop a tag.
Tired of pawing through tired, old clothes, I started wandering around the household items. We needed a newer, less crappy toaster. I looked over the toasters but they were all older and more crappy than the one I had bought for $2 at a garage sale.
I browsed casually, however, and wasn't really expecting anything to jump out at me. I found a decent Old Navy tank for 99 cents. Not bad! I was gonna pop a tag.
Tired of pawing through tired, old clothes, I started wandering around the household items. We needed a newer, less crappy toaster. I looked over the toasters but they were all older and more crappy than the one I had bought for $2 at a garage sale.
So I continued wandering until I came across some vinyl LPs. I saw one of those old albums you can hardly believe is for real. It was an old Phil Harris album from the late 50's titled, "The South will rise again," and it showed him on the cover wearing Confederate gray and bitterly stitching up a Confederate flag. That got me to crouch down and start flipping through the rest, to see what other gems lay in store, when all of a sudden, I saw this:
I gasped. I nearly fell over. It was the Engelbert album of my youth. The very one I had owned as a seven year old. As a first-grader, I was IN LOVE with Engelbert Humperdink.
And there it was, just waiting for me to discover it. It was the reason I was gently guided back into the thrift store.
Last night I removed the dust cover from our turntable and feasted my ears on these old tunes.
I've included two clips here of Engelbert's magnificence for you to enjoy.
The first song is one I already had on my iPod, "Les bicyclettes de belsize." It makes me say, "You are beautiful, Engelbert."
The second one is "Love can fly", a song I had long forgotten about when the album somehow disappeared from our basement. Oh what joy to be reunited with it again! As a child it made me feel like I was soaring --soaring through the sky straight to Engelbert's waiting arms. Sigh.
Listen so that you too may soar with a love that flies.
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