RIP Gil Scott-heron

Memories

Everytime I hear this song I think about my Grandma's Lounge...

It was somewhere on the Southside and my Uncle Lloyd(Auntie Lloyd) was the bartender from what I remember. It may have been a decent watering hole for all I care, I was just 4 years old when my GrandMa sold it. Yet, somehow music has the ability to trigger a memory in our psyches that alters our moods. Sometimes(like this one) its for the better. others, well, its a downer.

The small, brief moment of this memory that I get whenever I hear this song is that of spending time with my father and his folks on a Saturday. No mother or sister, just me and my Pops. In a smoke fille room with a the smell of liquor in the air. at the time, I didn't know that Auntie Lloyd was gay, he was just my Uncle that worked the bar making drinks and sharing a pack of Kools with my father.

Part of me wishes that I had more times like this throughout my childhood and teenage years. Unfortunately, it wasn't so because me and my Pops would grow apart and are pretty much on different paths in life.