Strangers in the night / Two lonely people, we were strangers in the night / Up to the moment when we said our first hello little did we know / Love was just a glance away, a warm embracing dance away….TED SPINK.
It was popular in 1966, when I was 8 — Frank Sinatra’s Strangers in the Night. Of course, it’s been popular ever since. It’s a great song, kinda swanky, kinda sexy, real Frank. When I was about 9, and my sister about 7, we made up our own lyrics that (looking at them now) really reflected a lot about our family. I used to remember all the lyrics, but all I remember now is this:
What will Johnny think
When he finds out that I am going with Ted Spink.
He will think that I am just a big rat fink
Oh I need a drink
Darling you can’t do this to me, I am feeling so-o gloomy….
It makes me laugh now….oh I need a drink, yeah, heard that one a LOT. Infidelity, oh yeah, heard that a lot too. But still, it’s awfully funny. Ted Spink. Really.
We sang that song everywhere we went, in high voice. The things kids will tell about their families, and so innocently. When Katie was a baby, there were these two little girls who lived a few houses down, who loved to come over and hold baby Katie. I guess they were 4 and 6, something like that. One day they were telling me these very long stories about how their daddy likes to take baths with their mommy. They couldn’t be distracted by popsicles or by my subject-changing efforts, they really just wanted to talk about their own family, which seemed perfectly normal to them.
I don’t even know what unlocked the Ted Spink lyric the other day, but I’ve been smiling ever since.
