Leather and Lace

I love it when a song pops into your head seemingly from nowhere, you know a song that means something to you. One that immediately takes you back to a place and time. I used to sing often, if I found myself alone I would sing and sing but that's not the case so much these days. I would often sing my favourite songs as lullabies to the boys but even that is fading now and they are reserved for restless nights and times of illness and high temperatures when little raspy voices ask for sentimental journey and guilty and goodnight sweetheart and thank you, thank you Jesus. 

This morning as I stepped into the shower, right out of the blue I began humming a song that I had forgotten I even knew. It's not a song that I ever would have picked out as a favourite but it is significant because it reminds me of being sixteen. One day on a visit to the library I noticed on a board a wanted ad for a vocalist, some guy named Anthony was looking for someone to busk with him and maybe form a band. So I called him up and said I was interested and a few days later I invited him round to my place, explaining that my mother did not want me meeting a strange man on my own and so we would have to rehearse at my house where my mother and sister could be present. On that sunday afternoon for the first time I sang in front of someone I didn't know. The first song we sang was stand by me, a song that I already knew. I remember the butterflies in my stomach at feeling nervous and out of my depth and at the same time incredibly excited at being spontaneous and trying something new and more importantly doing something that none of my siblings had done before me. At age sixteen this was pretty high on the agenda for me the baby of the family, the youngest of four siblings.

I can't remember the other songs that I sang on that sunday afternoon apart from the one that I began singing in the shower this morning - leather and lace. I was kind of amused to realise that after all these years I still know all of the lyrics word for word. This, as my hubby will testify to, is impressive as I have been known to forget the lyrics to songs that I myself have penned. I stayed in the shower a lot longer than I needed to today, a lot longer than I normally do and I sang, really sang. You know, the kind of deep belly singing where you feel a little tired afterwards like you've been on a journey, that sort. It felt so good.