Skip to main content

Song of the Week: "Nightswimming"

I'm guessing if you ask people to name a great summer song, most of them will come up with something loud, upbeat or sunny.  Cheryl Crow, "All I Wanna Do" or "Soak Up the Sun".  B-52s, "Love Shack".  Dixie Chicks, "Goodbye Earl".  Lynyrd Skynrd, "Sweet Home Alabama".

For my money, though, the perfect summer song is R.E.M.'s "Nightswimming".  It might be none of the above, but it captures for me the freedom of driving with windows down on dark, warm summer nights.  The joyful exhaustion at the end of days spent in the lake, at the river or playing volleyball on the beach.

Nightswimming deserves a quiet night
The photograph on the dashboard, taken years ago,
Turned around backwards so the windshield shows
Every streetlight reveals the picture in reverse

I remember that sense of liberty knowing there was no school, no place I had to be for hours a day. I would sleep late into the morning until the sun was already well into its ascent.  My afternoons were a mad rush from place to place or friend to friend.  In the evening I would stick my head in the sink and wet my hair before heading off to the grocery store to work.  It was my token attempt at hygiene (until Sunday morning, of course).  I was otherwise content to remain coated in a layer of lotion, sweat and sand.

Nightswimming deserves a quiet night
I'm not sure all these people understand
It's not like years ago,
The fear of getting caught,
Of recklessness and water

Nowadays, summer nearly feels like a non season.  If I sleep in late its because I've been up all night working with people in India or London.  I go from my air conditioned car or bus or train to an air conditioned office.  I scarcely feel the heat.  I've only been swimming at the river one time this summer.  Instead of living in the moment, my thoughts are occupied with adult things, work things, mundane things.

Nightswimming, remembering that night
September's coming soon
I'm pining for the moon

These things, they go away,
Replaced by everyday

Every once in a while, though, there is a chance to reach back and drag the past into the present.  It happened on Tuesday night.  We were at McCullom Park celebrating the end of the season with Braeden's and Emma's swim team.  It was dark and rainy.  The underwater lights illuminated the swimming pool in which Braeden, Emma and Mark were playing.  I was tucked under an awning with Thelma keeping clear of the rain.  I ventured out just long enough to make sure Mark was keeping up with the throng of older kids trying to create a whirlpool.

It all came back to me as I was standing there in the pouring rain.  The joy of swimming at night.  The wonderful effect of light streaming out of the water.  The dancing blue on the waves and white on the walls.  I kicked off my sandals, put on my suit and jumped back into summer bliss if only for a moment. 

The photograph reflects,
Every streetlight a reminder
Nightswimming deserves a quiet night

Comments

Wow, I couldn't agree with you more. This song has been and always will be a classic summer song.

Popular posts from this blog

Helped or Had

I feel uneasy tonight. I'm not sure if I helped or was had. In what has become something of a Thursday-evening-post-basketball tradition, I drove to Walmart for some late night shopping. Two weeks ago it was new shorts and an exercise shirt. Last week it was another exercise shirt (because I liked the first one so much). This week it was new insoles and laces for my basketball shoes. (Thelma, who has thoroughly documented her distaste for shopping at Walmart has driven me to these shopping trips under the cover of night.) Approachable is not how I would have described myself as I trudged across the Walmart parking lot in my wife-beater sleeveless shirt, shorts and coordinating fleece vest. Sweaty, yes. Beleagured, perhaps. Approachable, no. But a woman did approach. Something told me to stop and wait for her. She was caught somewhere between out-of-breath and verge-of-tears. I could see she was nervous talking to me. She tripped quickly over some desperate story that I co...

Block Facebook Ads with CSS

(This is my experience evaluating Facebook for my daughter.  It turned into a technical exercise in CSS.  If you want the full narrative, read on.  If you just want the steps for using CSS to block ads on Facebook, jump ahead .) Emma asked permission to create a Facebook account so she can keep in touch with some of her cousins and friends.  Emma has been very responsible using our family computer and does a good job keeping our rules about what to do and how to behave online.  So, Thelma and I decided that it was probably OK once I had a chance to check out and become familiar with the privacy settings and parental controls. Even though I work for an online business and Facebook is a frequent topic of conversation when it comes to reaching out to and retaining online customers, I have to admit that I have rarely used the service.  I created an account for business purposes to become a "fan" of a client so I could keep tabs on some social marketing campaigns.  That's it. ...

Driving East

I will wake up tomorrow morning, on Father’s Day, alone in Cheyenne without my family. I say this matter-of-factly. Designated days have only a light hold on me. An unexpected business trip that means being gone on Father’s Day? No problem. I'm not much for ceremony. More than once we have marked Father’s Day by splurging for a hotdog at Costco while filling up the minivan on a road trip. (Surely, Cheyenne has a Costco.) If I wake up emotional tomorrow morning, it's not because I'm alone on Father’s Day. It will be because of the cocktail of emotions I drank today. —— Driving across Wyoming was beautiful. Everything below the horizon looked groomed and green. The grass, the hills. the forests. A sea of green dusted with flecks of distant snowfields and antelope. (So many antelope.) Above the horizon, wild white and stormy black scratched across brilliant blue. The kind of sea and sky that softens your heart and tricks your mind.  I pulled off the highway at Little America f...