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Published on 7/9/2009

By Robbin Bruce

I don't know about ya'll, but lately I'm beginning to feel a little old.

Don't get me wrong I've still got what hair I've had for a while, my kids are still growing, but not that much to notice, and my hearing, while it's not as good as it use to be -- well, it's keeps me out of trouble better than it use to.

Let's face it, when somebody tells me to do something, I can honestly say, leastways now, "I'm sorry I didn't hear you when you told me that."

But I guess what's gotten me to thinking about it is, well, the loss of a lot of people that have been close to me throughout the years of my life. And here lately there seems to have been a lot of them.

I've told you of the loss of my Momma, but she's not the only one, for you see, just in the last couple years, if I remember right, just in my church alone we lost close to twelve or thirteen head, and that's a lot for a church our size.

The thing of it is, though, we all suffer loss, so even when it comes, no matter how unexpected, we live through it. But I guess what made me think about it, like a lot of us who were around the house today, I watched the memorial that they gave for Michael Jackson in Los Angeles.

And as I watched it, I got to thinking how, while I never knew the man, in one sense, I guess, I kind of felt like I grew up with him.

We were about the same age, and just about the time I started paying music any attention, there he was making it. And let's face it, all of us who grew up during that time, well, we all wondered what it would have been like to be famous like that.

As I sat there for a few minutes and watched, I got to thinking, you know, that's a part of my youth, a lot of good times, they're fixing to lay in a grave. We all listened to him and his brothers' music. And as I got to thinking about that, it made me think, "You know a lot of the people we used to listen to -- songs we'll never forget, songs, that while we enjoyed Michael's, meant a lot more to us -- I wonder where they are now?"

That's like a guy named Levi Stubbles, I bet you haven't a clue do you. But if I said, "Sugar Pie, Honey Bun, you know that I love you," the first thing out of your mouth would be, "I know that song."

That's right, he was the lead singer for the Four Tops. Sadly, he left us last year. Or if I were to say, in the last fifteen years or so we lost Melvin Franklin, Eddie Kendrick, or David Ruffin, you'd say that's kind of bad, but I'm sorry I don't know who they are.

But if I were to ask you who sang, "Ain't to proud to beg," I bet before I could get it out of my mouth, you'd come back with, "That's the Temptations" and you'd be right.

But then the realization would sink in, that another part of our musical legacy was gone.

Do you have a clue where you were at on Aug. 16, 1977? Probably not, but if I asked you where you where when you heard Elvis had died, if you're fifty or above, it's a pretty good bet, you remember.

Me, I was in the barracks at Fort Stewart, when "Cousin Bobby" walked in and told us what he had just heard on the radio.

Most of us, whether we want to admit it or not, during our youth, had a Forrest Gump moment, in front of a mirror, jerking this way or that to "Hound Dog." That day felt to a lot of us like that line in the song from the seventies, "The day the music died."

There have been a lot of days like that for my generation.

Even though the Beatles had "officially" been broken up for years, when we heard there music on the radio, we thought to our selves, "Well, they're not really broken up."

Then John Lennon was murdered, and years later, George Harrison died, and we finally had to come to the truth, the Beatles were no more.

Last month a guy named Bob Bogle died.

Like most of you, I never heard of him, or at least I thought that, but for probably eight or nine years, when I was young, I wanted to be him, and I didn't even know it.

For, you see, he was one of the Ventures. Still confused, well, have you ever heard of the theme song to the show, "Hawaii 5-0"?

He was one of the lead guitar players, and how many of us when we heard that show coming on, wished and I mean wished, we could play a guitar like that.

And we lost Farrah, no she wasn't part of the music scene, but, let's face it guys, it was like losing your first love, we wanted to date her, and let's face it ladies, ya'll wanted to look like her --oh, yes, you did. I remember all those Farrah do's back then.

Like I said earlier, I knew I had lost a lot of friends in the past couple years, but the only thing was, until I got to really looking, I didn't realize, how many I had truly lost.

Looks like time isn't the only thing slipping away.

Robbin Bruce is an Andrews resident. He may be reached via e-mail at robbinbruce@yahoo.com, or by letter in care of this newspaper, P.O. Box 2778, Georgetown, S.C, 29442.