Gene Weed – KFWB – October 1962 – Rob Frankel Collection –
Maybe everybody goes through it – maybe only a few have, but it just seems like everybody. Being Sixteen and at that age where everything exists in the realm of the absolutes. It is the Absolute Best. It is the Absolute Worst and there is nothing in-between – never was, never will be – never-ever.
And, maybe it happened to you – love worked that way. You saw your future with the other person and there was no middle-ground – you met – you went steady – you got engaged – you got married – your life went on happily-ever-after and there was nothing else. That’s the way it was in the movies – that’s the way you saw it on TV – that was real life as far as you were concerned and you were happy with that.
And getting engaged meant certain things – among them, bragging rights. It also meant getting a ring or going into hock buying a ring.
And you didn’t take any of this lightly – it was serious business. You were in love and it was forever. And forever meant forever in your book. You met him – you met her – and that was it. Case closed – game over.
All your friends know. There’s jealousy. There’s envy. There’s the sideways glance.
The only ones who don’t know are your parents. They wouldn’t understand. This is love. This is serious. And if they don’t understand, you’ll elope. It’s been done before.
You’ve got it all planned. This is your future – this is the way its going to be.
And then it happens. Along about week #2 of potential bliss and heavy petting, the new person appears. Transferred from another district – just moved to Los Angeles from somewhere east. First day of school. Eyes meet. Jaws drop and minds are scrambled.
You have instantly fallen in love and you have made a horrible mistake. You can’t get married. You have to call it off.
And then comes the breakup. One of you is devastated and you both feel rotten. Rotten until you meet the object of the breakup by accident. Devastation now turns into World War Three.
All in the space of a month.
And while the drama plays out – there’s the background music – Gene Weed at KFWB from October 1962.
Love comes and goes, but rock n’ roll is forever.
