Just a touch of the past is all I’m asking
Just a feeling I’m wanting to know
It’s a time where my spirit is walking
It’s a place where I’m longing to go.
How I love the old songs that they are singing
How they make my old heart beat with joy
They’re a light in an ocean of darkness
That surround all my years as a boy.
Now I know all the sadness of the traveler
Who has gone far away from his home
And he knows he can never return there
For the place and the people are gone.
How I wish that my heart could ever wander
In those days that will be first and last
In my memory of things to be cherished
Let me live with a touch of the past.
~Larry Perkins
I’ve had the song Just a Touch of the Past on my mind for the last several weeks. It’s one of my favorite songs and Paul and Pap’s version always makes me sigh.
Another reason I’ve been thinking about the song is probably the time I’ve been spending with Pap. He’s been telling me stories from his childhood days and I can tell it’s a time and place he’d like to go back and visit. But as the song says the people and the places are gone. I’m just glad they’re still alive and well in Pap’s memory.
Tipper
Memories as we age flood our minds it seems. My brother and I can get on the phone and talk for hours about our memories. He does most of the talking and I try to write down some of what he is saying. Like with my mother, you are blessed to have the time to spend with your dad and hear his wonderful stories, his thoughts he can share with you. I am so happy I had the last ten years of my mother’s life to hear her life stories. Today on my Profiles and Pedigrees blog, I am telling my memories of my wedding day, 51 years ago today.
I first heard this sung by Robin and Linda Williams. I like your version better.
Tipper, get those stories written down or better yet recorded. The girls and their children will cherish them.
Continuing to send healing thoughts and prayers to you all.
Wonderful song today.
Thank you!
Beautiful!!!
As one grows older, many memories flow through their mind and I am no different.
Still, I like to believe the best time in my life is NOW, and I’m blessed to be here NOW experiencing it.
God bless.
RB
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The song is beautiful. Here is a Welsh word that describes it as well.
hiraeth — (noun) — a homesickness for a home to which you cannot return, a home which maybe never was; the nostalgia, the yearnings, the grief for lost places of your youth.
Tipper,
Of all the songs that you all do,
“Just a Touch of the Past” is my
favorite. I have it 1st on my
Bookmarks or Favorites. I get
tickled every time I watch the video, especially when Paul has a
“senior” moment and Pap gives him
that “look”. You act as if nothing had happened and dare not to look up. This is why I
love the Blind Pig Gang’s singing…Ken
How apt that phrase ! Our spirits go walking where we physically can no longer go. There is such a world of deeper meaning that opens through the door of that idea. So many poems, songs, stories, books and movies have been made about that longing to go back.
Sounds like you and your Dad have found one of the silver linings to your present cloud. I am glad for you all that you have so much of your family nearby. Perhaps, in one of those ways we have a hard time understanding, you each have had one of those ‘handfulls of purpose’ dropped for you that redeems the distress.
Great Song and a great job performing it. I think we all have this desire, sometimes something or someone pushes the nostalgia button. In reality our memory part of our brain tends to recall pleasant happenings more easily than the unpleasant ones. I find I miss the people of my youth much more than the days of hard labor.
Beautiful song and beautiful post Tipper! So glad Pap is coming along and you are having this quality time with him.
Tipper–As we grow older, our yearning for the world of our youth, a world we have largely lost, grows stronger. I know that is the case with me, but a better index to that reality of life comes from my monthly e-newsletter. Much of it is devoted to turning back the clock, and readers comment more on that aspect of the newsletter than any other.
One of my favorite outdoor writers, Havilah Babcock, had this to say about the matter: “Boyhood improves with age, and the more remote it is the nicer the boyhood seems to become.”
Another one, Robert Ruark, wrote that “There are a lot of men who never quite being boys.” I certainly belong to that tribe, at least in my mind, and I strongly suspect Pap does as well.
Jim Casada
Tipper , please write down things Pap tells you so you won’t forget them .
My mom is gone ,and there are things I wish I had written down that she had told me , and have ask her more questions.
Still praying for the family.
Tipper , please write down things Pap tells you so you won’t forget them .
My mom is gone ,and there are things I wish I had written down that she had told me , and have ask her more questions.
Still praying for the family.
Tipper , please write down things Pap tells you so you won’t forget them .
My mom is gone ,and there are things I wish I had written down that she had told me , and have ask her more questions.
Still praying for the family.
Tipper , please write down things Pap tells you so you won’t forget them .
My mom is gone ,and there are things I wish I had written down that she had told me , and have ask her more questions.
Still praying for the family.
I can so relate to this song. Sometimes when we are forced to slow down we really can get into the deeper meaning of life. Still hoping Pap improves every day, and the time you are devoting to him now is priceless.
That is a poignant song. My folks (born 1920 & 1922)were able to go back to their home stomping grounds for many years and until the 1990s, it seemed like it was as it always was in spite of the obvious decline in their hometown. They would drive down the street and wave to old friends, old friends would see them and flag them down for a visit. I always envied them because the place of my upbringing had changed so much by then that it was almost unrecognizable. Somewhere around 2010 – Dad said things had changed too much and he didn’t want to go back until we buried him. We buried Mom first,but in so many ways, Dad is still living in his old home town.
Pap’s stories will become more precious with time – but you know that. I’m glad you can be with him as he recuperates. Sorry it has to be such a long haul but he seems like the kind of guy who keeps on truckin’ no matter what.
Never heard the song before, but guess it’s now one of my favorites. Love the lyrics. Hope the memories are always there, it and mobility are the two things I fear losing the most. Always need a little “touch of the past” to put the present in perspective.
I always enjoyed it when older family members began to share their stories of childhood, even the years before the listener was born. As my parents aged, they shared more and more about their childhood and early adult stages. I wish now that I had kept a diary of them instead of relying on my memory. Great singing!
Are you writing them down, Tipper? I wish I had.
Good song! I got to spend a little time talking with Pap yesterday. Actually I did more listening than talking. In spite of all his illness and pain he maintains a very positive perspective on life. I find it very uplifting.
Thank you, Tipper. Beautiful song and brand new to me. i am guessing that is Pap in the photo. Handsome young man with clear seeing eyes. Blessings on all y’all and healing energy too.
Beautiful song. I was not familiar with it but it speaks to the things we all hold dear.
Our memories are the one thing no one can take from us.
Before I had scrolled past Pap’s picture and the first verse, I figured I knew some of what you were thinking – whether or not you put it in words or not.
Like many of the really significant times and events in life, there is a sweet mixed in with the bitter. The time you’re sharing with Pap is certainly such a time for you, and I strongly suspect that the same is true for him.
Continued prayers headed toward heaven and thoughts towards the folks in Wilson Holler.