Mrs. Robinson-The Lemonheads,
This song combined a few things at the time that all collided at once: my first of many viewings of “The Graduate”, my internal images that all romantic or pseudo romantic situations in my life resembled scenes from popular movies and the popularity of the
Lemonheads. If I found myself liking the same girl that another acquaintance did,
‘Reality Bites’; if I played a song on heavy rotation, loudly, while obsessing about some girl, ‘Say Anything.’ And if I found myself racing to tell some girl how I felt, ‘The
Graduate’.
The collision of these moments in pop culture mixed with my psyche, creating a lot of daydreams for most of high school. The Lemonheads had bursted on the scene with their album ‘It’s A Shame About Ray’ , complete with a remake of ‘Mrs. Robinson’, made liking ‘The Graduate’ cool for my age. The movie showed an ordinary, awkward weirdo in a series of romantic entanglements beyond comprehension. In a way, the movie said to me, ‘if it can happen for this guy, it can happen for anyone.’
Strange as it may seem, the Lemonheads had a lot to do with my daydreaming in school and musical interests for many years. I cherished ‘It’s A Shame About Ray’, felt pretty good about ‘Come On, Feel The Lemonheads’ and devoured ‘Car Button Cloth’ because by that time, Juliana Hatfield quit the band, Evan Dando’s drug addiction spiraled out of control, thus ending the band’s alternative rock legacy. I even followed Evan Dando’s solo career during my twenties, and still found his voice to be comforting and original. This song represents the start of my worlds colliding, and in fact, the daydreaming losing
out to actual, real life experiences. TV, music or film were my only reference points. Zak
and Kelly’s relationship in ‘Saved By The Bell’ was engaging, heartbreaking and from
my ideals, how all relationships should be; although I found their ongoing romance in
college and wedding to be a bit on the unrealistic side. But it took me a while to catch up
to the rest of my peers with emotional, romantic and sexual maturity, for a variety of
reasons, one of them being songs like ‘Mrs. Robinson.’
______
“did you call her yet? Oh my god, how long does this have to gone on for?” Robbie continued to bait me until I dialed her number.
She sounded sleepy on the phone. “Brad is supposed to come over later and take me with his friends to play volleyball at the beach.”
“Brad, since when are you guys hanging out?”
She sounded aloof, “Oh, I don’t know, he’s been stopping by a lot lately for some reason.” I could picture her, sitting on her bed, playing with her dark hair, holding one pale arm over the other, playfully unaware of the impact she had on guys.
“Oh, OK, well, how about I call you tomorrow? We can hang out or something?”
Her voice sounded a little less sleepy. “That would be great, think of something fun to do.
Bye.”
I got off the phone, looking somewhat defeated, anxious. “What’s your problem? What’d she say?” Robby chimed in, usually looking to stick his nose and gigantic forehead in my business. “Nothing much, she’s hanging out with Brad today, playing volleyball later.”
“Dude, stop being such a pussy about this. Go over there and ask her out, you’ve been making me sick about how much you’ve liked her all summer.”
“Bro, I don’t even have a car today and she lives across town.”
“Take my brother’s bike. I know it’s for a 7th grader, but it should work. What time is
Brad going over there?”
“In a few hours maybe.”
I sprinted out of his house, grabbed his brother Andy’s bike, while Andy was busy tying
his shoe. “Hey, you better bring that back in one piece you jerk!” with that he threw his
basketball at me, almost knocking me off. “Get outta here.” 80 degrees outside, riding as fast as possible, pedaling hard, but not trying to work up too
much of a sweat so that I wouldn’t stink when I arrived. Down Stone ave in LaGrange
Park, crossing Ogden ave. was a bit of a challenge, the stoplight took forever. I had to get
near Lyons township’s track, by Sunset ave, where she lived. Cruising down Brainard,
passing the high school.
I planned it in my head about what I was going to say. Heart pounding, steering through
the sidewalks, thinking about what my friends were doing at that exact moment: playing
River City Ransom on Nintendo, and trying to punch each other in the arms after they
‘called doorknob’ when one of them farted.
She smiled when she opened the door, with tan shorts on, slightly hunching her shoulders
the way she always did. Her hair pulled up in a scrunchy, she sat down, moved her hand
over her head. “Hey”
“I know that you’re supposed to hang out with Brad later.”
“Yeah, I don’t know really know how I feel about that.”
“Well…..I guess, I just….I don’t think you should go out with him.” It just came straight
out of my mouth and I realized I couldn’t take it back. She gazed at me with her eyes,
waiting for the rest. “I don’t think you should go out with him, because…I’ve liked you
for a long time. Remember last month, when you left on the camping trip for two weeks? I knew I wasn’t going to see you for a while and I raced over your house, to tell you how
I felt. I swerved through traffic to get to your house. We sat and talked, and I….couldn’t
do it.”
She smiled, gave me a calming look, and touched her hand to my arm. “I feel the same
way.”
For a moment, it hadn’t occurred to me that she actually said those words out loud. We
just stared at each other for a minute, and I grabbed her hand.
I didn’t know what to do, “Do you want to go out for a while?”
“Sure, where to?”
“Well, I have to return Robby’s brother’s bike, and then people were going to the
LaGrange theater. Is that OK?”
“Sounds good.” She ran inside to tell her parents where she was going.
We walked up to the movie theater, holding hands, while our friends were walking further ahead.
We approached the movie theater, I pulled in her close into me. Our mouths opened.
Wrapped up in each other under the streetlight at the corner of Cossitt and LaGrange Rd,
with families walking around, children playing. She whispered, “I don’t want to leave,” as she continued to stick her tongue in my mouth. I hadn’t noticed my mom’s car sitting nearby, picking me up way too early.