Nostaligic Saturday - The Countdown Years

Some of my best times with John revolved around music. Now we had quite different styles but there were two things we really had in common: Countdown and Meatloaf.

Meatloaf we didn't really celebrate big time until John's final months when we spent long afternoons singing away at the top of our voices (and I am sure to the distress of the neighbors) but prior to that it was always something we defaulted to when we couldn't decide what cd to play.

The Countdown years we dwelled on a lot longer - coming up regularly during the ten years we knew year other - especially on sunny Saturday afternoons.

We hit on our common love of Countdown not long after we first met when we were still sitting up all night talking - especially on the weekends. This was at a time when 'rage' (on the ABC) was replaying Countdown between midnight and 6 am. We taped the lot and they were replayed regularly - again with lots of loud and happy singing and conversations beginning with "Do you remember when ..."

Countdown covered my life from the age of 9 - 17. John was about the same but as he was a few years older, he saw the show almost from the beginning. In any case, there was enough of an overlap for us never to run out of things to say.

So much of our lives were caught up in the music of our respective youths - what we wore, who we were dating, what we were doing, our hopes and our dreams and other little memories all got triggered off with snippets of various songs

I know most of Australia around my age grew up with Countdown but I have never met anyone who had such an overlap in the response to the show - even with people of my own age. I have tried to have similar trips down memory lane with others but it's not the same and it appears that that was a unique John and me thing.

I don't listen to music anymore, well rarely anyway, but when I hear one of the songs from the Countdown I can't help but smile - both from the original memories of my childhood but also with the new ones with John.

Yes I have just watched a little documentary on Countdown and I am feeling a bit nostalgic on this Saturday.