Here is a picture of Mrs. RWP and me from around 1980 or 1981 that I don’t think I have shown to you before. And, in a sense, I’m not going to show it to you now either. Unfortunately the hand-held-cellphone photo of the old snapshot that I made before I got my smartphone is so out of focus that it is, dare I say it, less than perfect.
In a way, though, that sort of view -- out of focus, less than perfect -- is a pretty accurate representation of the way we often remember events from our past. We remember the big picture, of course, but the details are not quite so clear. We see them through a glass, fuzzily.
I was about 40 when this photo was taken. Mrs. RWP still had dark hair then.
I thought I cut quite the dapper figure, but the day I came home with the Afro perm my wife just laughed and laughed and laughed.
Some people who were probably high on speed told me I looked like Engelbert Humperdinck. Here he is singing “Please Release Me” (3:27).
Some people who were probably high on Jack Daniels or Jim Beam told me I looked like Harold Reid, the bass singer in the Statler Brothers quartet. I won't subject you to their singing but here they are accepting an award as Vocal Group of the Year in 1982 (2:17).
I hope you watched both videos. Then you will know more fully what I meant at the top of the post about a glimpse into another time, another place.
For those of you who never click on links to videos, here is a photograph of the Statler Brothers (I presume you do not need a photo of Engelbert Humperdinck):
(photo from gettyimages.com)
What were we talking about?
Oh, yes. My Afro.
Some people were very kind and didn’t say anything at all.
Eventually Afros went out of style and I let my hair return to its normal, straight self. Today, what is left of my hair continues to fall out at a rapid pace.
Today, alas, where once there were waves, all that remains is beach.
