Lost in the Sixties Tonight

Today was a gray, rainy, and windy day; and I had some extra time to sit in my car and ponder my surroundings a bit. The grayness and the windshield wipers took me back to an evening long ago that had that same look. I was a high school junior driving away from a laundromat.

In those days, my family consisted of only my mother and me. Also, we had what I (at age 16) thought was an elderly neighbor named Paul who lived alone next door to us in our extremely small town (of about 90 people). As I think back, Paul was probably in his early or mid-fifties, but to me then, everyone past their early twenties was “elderly.” Paul was a wonderful neighbor and a great friend to both my mom and me. In my earlier years (before I could drive or date), he took us to “town” for our weekly shopping every Friday evening.

In town, he went his way; and my mom and I went to “Tresslars” (a dime store) or Penney’s and then to a nearby grocery store for what we needed that week. Paul then bought us each an ice cream cone on the way home. I don’t remember ever missing a week of those cones.

I said all that to say that we did Paul’s laundry, either in return or for a small fee (I never knew). We did not have a washer/dryer like today, but rather a washing machine with a wringer on the top and a clothes line out in the yard.

When I turned 16, Mom and I made a deal—rather than ride the school bus, I could drive the car to high school 10 miles away on laundry day, and I would go to the laundromat and do all the laundry that evening. I loved it! Often, we would pick a day when I had an evening school activity like band at a football or basketball game (several birds with one stone). I did homework during the washing and drying, folded the clothes, grabbed a burger, and got back to school for the game. In those days, teens did not go somewhere every night—only to school or church functions. Needless to say, games and dances (and youth groups) were well attended.

This evening, those windshield wipers sent me back to that other rainy evening many years ago. For a few moments, in my head, it was as though no time had passed. I was still that girl—fun-loving, insecure, happy, scared, liking people, and wondering if I really fit in.

The memory of the righteous will be a blessing…” Proverbs 10:7

♫ “In the still of the night
Ho-old me darlin', hold me tight
Oh-oh-oh-oh...
Shoo-doop, shoo-be do, shoo-doop, doo
So real, so-o-o right
Lost in the fifties (or sixties) tonight.”
Ronnie Milsap