Word Association . . . of a sort



Melodies amongst the orange groves!

I started reading a new book last night.   It's called The Haunted.   (You know me and my ghosts - - gotta love 'em).   So far it's a pretty good book, although I'm only a few pages into it.   The "Haunted" place is a big plantation home in Virginia called "Melody House."   But, I'm not going to talk about the book.   However, this morning I was thinking about The Haunted and Melody House, and the word "melody" stuck in my brain for a moment.  And then the word association thing started happening.  And a memory was triggered.    Melodyland Theater in Anaheim, CA. (Melody House - Melodyland - - get it??!).  I grew up in Anaheim, and the Melodyland Theater was a theater in the round, and it's where I saw my first concert.   This will date me just a little (like the Melodyland Theater hasn't already dated me - duh!) - - it was the Association.  Ha!  Word "association" brings me to the Association!  Sorry, couldn't resist.   The Association - you know - - Along Comes Mary, Windy . . . .   What fun that was.  I think I wore a dress.  Those were the times!  (I also saw the Mamas & the Papas and Simon and Garfunkel at the Melodyland Theater - Dave Clark Five were there too but I didn't see them - - dang!!!) 

I decided to google Melodyland this morning, and found that it had been turned into a church, the Melodyland Christian Center (I don't know why but I thought of Footloose when I read that - my mind works in mysterious ways).   And then some years later the building was torn down and is now part of the Anaheim Gardenwalk.   (On a side note, some years back my husband and I took our children to Disneyland and I wanted to show them the house I grew up in - - it had been torn down to widen the 5 freeway! - - just another testament that nothing really stays the same.)

The Melodyland Theater was located across the street from Disneyland.   And as I thought of that, another memory was triggered.   Another group from way back whom I absolutely idolized - Hermans Hermits.   Peter Blair Dennis Bernard Noone.  I loved him.   That schoolgirl crush thing that I knew was the real thing.    I was his biggest fan and I was going to marry him.  And we would be so happy.   And then one night I was at Disneyland with my friends and I saw PBDBN and the rest of his Hermits!   Honest!   Oh man, it was so exciting!!  My friends and I followed them all over the park.   We giggled, and we hid so we wouldn't be seen, and we dared each other to ask for an autograph.   Of course, it wasn't really them, but we had the best time convincing ourselves it was!   And, of course, I didn't marry PBDBN.   I married someone better.   Far better.  But those were some of the good ol days. 

And this trip down memory lane all started with the Haunted and Melody House.