Cards, The Carpenters and the Creation of My Cool.

It was the summer of 1971, I was poolside, cross-legged on a blue and white quilt on the grass. We were getting ready for the daily after-swim-team-practice round of Hearts.

My radio was next to me, as always, blaring music interspersed with loud car commercials and the weather (81 and sunny).
I was shuffling the deck and wondering how I was so fortunate to be sitting and playing cards with the OLDER GIRLS. I was wondering if my jean shirt cover-up was faded enough to be cool and if my hoop earrings were the right size. Did the older girls like me, or was I just being tolerated because I could swim the IM ? Does this ponytail make me look immature? Immature, big Junior High word.

Should I squeeze a lemon or Sun-In on my hair to lighten it like the OLDER GIRLS were doing?  My sandals are definitely not cool, I need to ask my mom to go shopping later for some cool sandals.

Should I shoot the moon on this hand , I'm holding Aces and a ton of hearts or will the OLDER GIRLS think I'm a brat?

OLDER GIRL #1 is talking about make up and how Bonne Bell is the best and how she wants to break up with her boyfriend.
OLDER GIRL#2 concurs flashing her braces, he's a jerk because he stole one of her notes to OLDER GIRL #3 and told someone about, something about someone  who thinks someone is stuck up in her Villager clothes ...and I'm desperately trying to keep up with who is who and am I smiling too much, should I put my hair in braids, and I wish I had OLDER GIRL #2's blue eyes and braces and I'm a little annoyed that they won't use names and only use the word SOMEONE in front of me, I must not be cool, yet ... and then, there's a slight stillness...

dead air...

and like a Voice from Heaven....

straight out of my

little

black

radio...

I hear...


"Long ago, and oh, so far away...."



OLDER GIRL#1 butts in , "Hey, your turn, play a card..."

The Voice from Heaven "I fell in love with you, before the second show"

OLDER GIRL #3 , "Hell-loooo, your turn, water in your ears?"

The Voice from Heaven "Your guitar... sounded so sweet and clear, but you're not really here..."

I am transfixed on the radio, I have never heard a voice like that before, so smooth and warm and silky, everything about the whole song was lush and blue as the sky above me. The lyrics standing out against all the juvenile jargon. It's like the world stopped spinning for a moment and all I can hear or WANT to hear is this song. I wish these OLDER GIRLS would cut the chatter, I can't hear the song...maybe if I stare at the radio harder...

In a most voluntary direct action, I interrupt,(defying all OLDER GIRL, YOUNGER GIRL protocol) ...

still holding my unplayed cards, asking pointedly, "Who, who is that singing?"

OLDER GIRL#1,  " Someone Carpenter, something, I dunno, (looking me up and down) is that your shirt or your sister's shirt ?".

I can't get up fast enough,

everything
has
changed

"Mine and who cares? I gotta go see SOMEONE about something, bye...".

I lay my Aces and trump filled hand down on the quilt and start gathering my towel and bags and jump on my bike.

I'm gone.

Outta Dodge.

The road from the pool is long and winding and a slow downhill grade with newly installed things called speed bumps ...I take my time and roll the song over and over in my head. Each bump starts a new "Long ago , and oh so far away".. I can't wait to get home to ask my mom to go shopping, not for sandals, but for a new record by this band called Someone Carpenters something...

I want to play this on my stereo and learn in on guitar and sing it over and over again. This is where I am at home with myself. I have no worries about looking, acting or dressing cool ,or who dates who or anything...I am free. This is my day, I have figured it out.

This song, Superstar, would become one of my all time favorites, and really my favorite Carpenters song. It also opened me up the world of Leon Russell, who penned this perfect song of love and longing. This song made me want to write songs.

Years later we would all joke about the Carpenters and how many times we had to hear "We've Only Just Begun " at weddings, and "Close to You " became a running gag in movies when introducing stalker characters...This group with it's brilliant arrangements by Richard Carpenter and the unsurpassed  voice of his sister, unfairly became a symbol of uncool. The 70's turned raw and irreverent and The Carpenters with all their love songs of sweetness, innocence and flat out happiness became persona -non -cool-a.  Karen Carpenter's untimely death from a then new disorder called anorexia, just skimmed the news.

Now sitting here, as I type away, so many many years beyond that sunny August day, that Voice from Heaven and that Song still transfix me. It was a gift that has filled my heart and all it's empty spaces for years.

I can only say "Thank you", and I'm sure that 's not enough.