Sounds from beyond the Shed 229 “Muscle Memory”

As we head into the Easter hols, I was thinking that it’s been nearly three years since I took off the gown and mortar and stopped trying to educate the minds of future generations. And yet everything still seems to revolve around the concept of term time or holidays. It seems to have seeped into the very fabric of our lives. It’s not necessarily such a bad thing; it does structure the year in manageable chunks, I suppose, but it is still odd that so much is tied to a system I’m no longer part of.

If we see friends who were also colleagues, it has to be at weekends, unless it’s the ‘holidays’, in which case “anytime will do, in fact let’s start drinking at lunchtime!” Similarly, I never hear from them in term time as they are buried in marking, admin, or just staving off a nervous breakdown. My occasional employment these days is driving a school bus, which, of course, means that I’m only required during term time. We now plan our holidays for term time because it’s cheaper, but we can’t take them very often because we have to look after grandchildren during that very time, because their parents are trying to hold down several jobs to make the mortgage payments.

I must say that driving a school bus has become a positive pleasure. It’s an old double-decker which I negotiate through some pretty appalling, narrow country lanes. Unlike 40 years ago, the kids are not setting fire to each other or hanging out the rooflights, but meekly sitting with their faces buried in their screens, which leaves me free to turn up the Bluetooth boom box and enjoy avoiding the potholes. Each trip is a couple of albums worth, and there’s nothing better than Cinnamon Girl at full blast as you thunder down a rural highway. I would recommend it to anyone, but with the caveat that you are not going to get rich!

So the listening this week has been driving songs, the aforementioned Neil Young track often comes up, as does the wonderful Steppenwolf song from the Easy Rider soundtrack, which just happens to be the first track I ever play in any new car I get, don’t know why, maybe that’s a muscle memory too. The radio show features new ones from Brown Horse, Satellite Inn, Josh Klemons, Joe Pernice, Dead Goat, Deer Tick and more. As ever…