Feelin’ Groovy, Suspended in Time

I don’t remember exactly when it happened. I know I was with my summer friends that day. And this moment, for its simplicity, was one of the best of my life.

I always had more friends in the summer than in winter. I felt friendlier, more approachable, less hostile inside and out. That summer, it was Megan, Corey, Jenna. We were in with the group of beach kids, lifeguards, rich kids pretending to be hippie layabouts. And we had a damn good time doing it.

This was one of the more quiet moments of those first few mad weeks of summer when school first let out and it seemed that we were free forever. Maybe it rained that day—heavy clouds giving purchase to warm rain that smelled of a comfortable saltwater bath.

We were sitting on my porch, some in chairs, others leaning against the railing, looking out to the street and talking. I spent most summer days on that porch, just watching the sun roll past, talking and sipping ice water with lime.

Anyway, back to that moment. Cody was with us. He was a lifeguardflowerchild that summer too. His nose was starting to burn pink and peel, a telltale badge of hours and hours baking in the sun.

Cody had brought his guitar, and was picking at it a bit. It was a high quality instrument, and the notes sounded warm and resonant, resonant enough to still reverberate through the years and bring back the feeling of those warm easy days.

He played the beginnings of some songs, limited in repertoire like most seventeen-year-old kids. But he liked Simon and Garfunkel too. He played the first few notes of the 59th Street Bridge Song, and the sound of it was as they had meant it to be. It was the sound of purity, of unfiltered, sunny happiness, of good intention and playful honesty. At that moment I knew I wouldn’t ever forget this simple moment of feeling truly happy. And since then, many of my life’s best moments have fallen in step with that tune, always leading back to that golden moment when the song rung out on the front porch of my home.