Thursday, April 24, 2008

The Actual Red Bulb


We dropped in on the Aged Ps when we were down in Devon. They're OK. They're Aged. Mum's had a stair lift installed and the girls had a right fine time travelling up and down on it. Father's thrown out still more stuff, stripping the house down to its bare bones 'so we won't have to' when they're 'gone'. I went upstairs to the junk room to see if the little wooden desk my Uncle David made I used to do my homework on was still there, and it reassuringly was. I had a look in the drawers to see Dad had chucked all my 6th Form satirical-and-music-review notebooks, my pre-blogdays blogs. But a little red lightbulb rattled around on the wood on its own.

I knew it so well - it was the actual one I told you about here.

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Something I would've been playing in dark Westcountry night circa 1980; bin headphones on, red lightbulb burning...

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - 'Statues' (1980)

[Bulb pictured not actual bulb; 'bulb signifying On Air' - courtesy BBC]

11 comments:

  1. Oh, my. Like (aging) minds, perhaps?

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  2. I had a red light bulb for for about 6 weeks when I was 10 or 11 -gave me nothing but nightmares for some reason . But went for multi coloured spots in the bedroom summer of 82, which fitted in perfectly with Human Leage 'Love and Dancing' and the Soft Cell remix album

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  3. Love it. And I do still see you as a multi-coloured spots kinda of a guy, funnily enough.

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  4. It's the other way round with my Ps. Dad has just had a stairlift installed and Mum seems to be on a mission to throw everyhing out (I have gradually moved all my stuff out in recent years - I think - better go and check again soon!). Looked for my NMEs a year or two back but they've gone, now not sure whether that was the Ps or me who threw them out.

    (Hey, the word verification approached "uvavu" remember that?)

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  5. Says (in Famous 5 hurriedly excited state), "Did it still work Davy, did it still work?"

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  6. Dick, I regarded it as a sacred relic - did not touch it, and certainly did not attempt to illuminate it. I regret this now.

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  7. Davy

    If you'll permit me to ignore the bulb for a moment.

    That's a lovely and moving few sentences you've just put together.

    Made me feel guilty about how long sice I've seen the folks - and they only live a few miles down the road.

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  8. Thank you JC. No, it really wasn't about the bulb. As you know.

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  9. Bulbs. I put a blue light bulb in my son's room once. He's still having therapy.

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