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SJ Arieh Selig
Seeking a better way.

Maltesers, Burt and Scout Songs

Maltesers in the glove compartment, a Burt Bacharach 8 track Cassette playing, and when we were not listening to Burt, we sang scout songs, or made up phrases based on the letters of passing car number plates.

When we weren’t playing number plates our Dad was teaching us Scout Songs.

The rest of the time we looked out the window at the passing Northern Irish countryside, the silence broken by my asking for the umpteenth time, “are we there yet, how many more miles to go?”

I was in the middle, my brothers either side of me next to the window.
I was never not in the middle and if there was a rumbling of complaints in the back seat, it only took one dirty look from our Mother to stop it!

All the other cartridges/ cassettes were Classical music, only Burt Bacharach was the popular music genre.

With his passing I remember thinking, I’ve known these songs SO long, that I forgot that someone actually had to write them.

They are musical standards now, and we forget that they actually had to be written by someone, often him and Hal David.
Well it’s not surprising that I felt this way because Burt’s music was played in our Parent’s white Peugeot 504.
I was barely 10 years old.

I think we often forget that what we use, wear and look at, had to be designed by someone.
Tablecloths, wallpaper, sweaters, packaging, giftwrap, ceramic tiles, fashion, home furnishing fabrics, ALL had to be designed by someone, even the steering wheel in a car was designed by someone.
Doors are designed, windows, door knobs!!

EVERYTHING is designed by an Artist /Designer.

Imagine a world where everything is looking the same, clothes, doors, floors, curtains, packaging, imagine the effect it would have on our mental well being.

Imagine if only 3 primary colours were used with no mixing to create different tones and hues.

Someone said to me recently, you can’t say that being artistically creative, is more important than reading writing and arithmetic.

He’s right it isn’t .

.. but it’s certainly just as important.

How often did you hear someone say, go and study your arithmetic you’ll feel much better afterwards?

What do we do when stressed?
We write, we paint, we read, we play music, we exercise, we call a friend, we CREATE.

Back to Burt, yes “Raindrops keep falling on my head” has not existed since the beginning of time.

It just feels like it.

About the Author
Northern Ireland born & bred. Made Aliya in 1990 just before the Gulf War. WUJS in Arad (World Union of Jewish Students) graduate. Worked and lived in Baka Jerusalem since 1992 I'm a Centrist by default, the distance between Left and Right is too great. Whether I write about the state of the world, politics, or a couple having a cuppa, my real aim is to close the gaps between us.