Feeling My Age

In 1964 at age 43 Mum developed a sudden inexplicable taste for pop music and bought “It’s Over” by Roy Orbison. This was odd because she’d never shown the slightest interest in anything else we’d seen on Top Of The Pops, yet she played it constantly on the family gramaphone. “A lot of young people do sometimes feel like that” was all she would say. After lunch every day she would retire to her bedroom for an afternoon nap and lock the door. “Mummy’s crying in there” my eight year old sister said one day with wide eyed wonder. We shook our heads together in sorrowful incomprehension. Orbison’s next hit was the considerably raunchier “Oh Pretty Woman” which I bought, imagining that Mum - as a newly converted fan of the Big O - would be pleased. But after the first few lines she refused to listen to another word, for some reason or other. Women, eh ?