When I was about eleven and my sister five, our family went on a vacation to Vermont. It was summertime. My dad was the kind of driver that wouldn’t stop for fear that all the cars he had passed would be passing him. Winding roads, a car with tight steering, contributed to most of my childhood feeling green with carsickness. Jostled in the back seat, trapped with a then smoking parent who couldn’t understand why I was complaining, made for some horrible memories. His idea of a vacation was more about driving through places rather than exploring them. Somehow we finally found a motel somewhere in The Valley of Stowe Vermont, complete with an indoor and outdoor swimming pool! Us kids were thrilled to have such amenities at our doorstep. I’m sure mom was happy to be out of the car too!
We enjoyed our days outside by or in the pool, between more drives that is. Mom would join us girls from time to time. The pool area played the music of the day on a loop. One song in particular played repeatedly to the point that we never wanted to hear Cat Stevens again. “Oh baby baby it’s a wild world” is how we referred to that summer trip.
Since that time the song has resurfaced on 70’s playlists around the USA and SXM. It brings back that childhood experience like it was yesterday.
The year my sister started visiting St. Martin we heard the song at the former Marty’s, next to Topper’s. We started singing along to each other. I added “the creepy hand” and soon it morphed to not only reaching in front of each other’s face but our drinks too. We bantered back and forth laughing as were reminded of that summer we shared so long ago. It makes us think of each other no matter how far apart we are. I even had Bill video me trying to sing karaoke to it at the yellow sub in Orient Village, (One and done).
Recently at the Coda bar, “Alfredo” performed his version of the song. Bill caught me singing along and made a short video for my sister.
The song from it’s annoying beginnings, became a theme for us on St. Martin. It now represents something very special for us in particular and spilled onto our family as well.
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