Five of us sat at the bar in OTA country and watched England play Croatia in the World Cup semifinal. There was no sound. It was a great match but we were falling asleep on a weekday afternoon. I sipped a local ale but the others hit it harder with booze.<\/p>\n
An OTA woman got up from the bar and headed toward the jukebox. She passed a couple of tweakers tweaking the video slots.<\/p>\n
I watched her pump some dough into the music machine.<\/p>\n
No! No! No!<\/i><\/p>\n
Seconds later The Four Seasons’ \u201cDecember 63′ (Oh What a Night),\u201d blasted through the speakers and nearly knocked me off my stool. I looked over to the woman and she was dancing in front of the jukebox, really getting down, singing, too.<\/p>\n
Fifteen seconds later, she was back at the bar and started singing along to the song, loudly, in superb voice that sold the tune for all it was worth, a tune about a one-night stand with a nameless woman.<\/p>\n
I felt a rush like a rollin’ ball of thunder<\/span> A couple of OTAs joined in and so did the bartender. Everyone knew the words. They all hit the right key, nailed the melody, and were killing it!<\/p>\n I didn’t join in. I just listened and watched Croatia pull ahead.<\/p>\n The song ended. Modern English’s \u201cI Melt With You,\u201d came on and the OTA backup singers took it to another level. Their harmonies soared upward and clashed with the dollar bills, coasters and bras stapled to the ceiling. When there is no longer a bra stapled to a ceiling in OTA country, you will know the country has vanished.<\/p>\n I’d heard \u201cI Melt With You\u201d a million times but never scrutinized the lyrics before. They were now so deafening I had no choice.<\/p>\n Making love to you was never second best<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I saw the world crashing all around your face<\/span> Mesh and lace?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Trapped in the state of imaginary grace<\/span><\/span><\/span> Imaginary grace?<\/p>\n What a track. It convinced me to make that pilgrimage daily\u2014and find the mesh and lace in someone’s face.<\/p>\n \u201cI Melt With You\u201d ended and we clapped. Then silence. She’d only played two songs. She got up and scurried over to the jukebox.<\/p>\n What was coming next? I prayed for KC and the Sunshine Band.<\/p>\n Croatia won.<\/p>\n (If you found this post enjoyable, thought provoking or enlightening, please consider supporting a writer at work by making a financial contribution to this blog or by purchasing an NSP book.) <\/i><\/p>\n\n Five of us sat at the bar in OTA country and watched England play Croatia in the World Cup semifinal. There was no sound. It was a great match but we were falling asleep on a weekday afternoon. I sipped a local ale but the others hit it harder with booze. An OTA woman got […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4170,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,15],"tags":[101,848,13,21,105,27,23],"class_list":["post-4169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","category-oregon-tavern-age","tag-dive-bars","tag-jukebox","tag-oregon-coast","tag-oregon-tavern-age","tag-oregon-travel","tag-ota","tag-taverns","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4169"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4172,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4169\/revisions\/4172"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSpinnin’ my head around n’ takin’ my body under<\/span> <\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\nNever really knowing it was always mesh and lace<\/span> <\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/span>I made a pilgrimage to save this humans race<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/span>Never comprehending the race has long gone bye<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/i><\/p>\n