Here comes the rain again

My sister left me a voice mail the other day, a rambling one at that, to tell me that she’d just heard “Here Comes the Rain Again, ” by the Eurythmics. Her message said something about how she remembered us listening to that song, and how it brought back a memory of us growing up, when it was released in 1984. I was a freshman in college, and my sister was still in high school, so we wouldn’t have been seeing a lot of each other at that point, but certainly, there were letters, and I would have been doing quite a bit of nothing on my winter vacation, which is around the time the song was released.

My sister’s message unexpectedly unearthed memories of listening to the Eurythmics, while dancing of course, that year and for the duration of my college experience. A few highlights are in order.

Dancing with DB in the basement of Main Hall (I think the pub was there, but can’t recall exactly) at some bash, probably sponsored Grinnell Pride, while DB and I attempted to sing the lyrics to “I need a man,” from Revenge. Ah, the irony.

Dancing, again, to “Sisters are doing it for themselves,” from Be Yourself Tonight, which Annie Lennox sang with Aretha Franklin. This time, the memory is from the teeny-tiny kitchen of the teeny-tiny flat I lived in with three flatmates in London (Shepard’s Bush, to be exact). I slept on a sofa for four months, but it didn’t matter, because I listened to great music, prowled the streets of London, oh and went to classes, too.

My recollection of London and my time there fits perfectly with “Here Comes the Rain Again” — rain was a constant companion while I lived there. Not an unwelcome companion, but rather one through which the rays of my memory peek.