Vinyl Records and Memories

My wife Veronica (Bonnie Ronnie) and I have been digitising our old vinyl records for the past couple of days. A few years ago Ronnie bought one of those Digital Turntable Players and we just never had the time to set it up, learn how to use it etc. - you know... all the excuses the procrastinator uses. Well we finally got around to setting it up and learning how to use it as we practised on some of our older less popular records, just in case we mucked up.

Once we got onto a roll and actually worked out how we could listen to the digital recording as we were duplicating and dubbing etc. we really started to have a bit of fun. We started with the "seven singles" (45rpm) as we used to call them,  Bonnie Ronnie had sorted them by Genre with Romance at the top of her stack.

This is the first record player we have had since leaving Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) so we hadn't heard some of these songs since the seventies and very early eighties. It didn't take long for the memories to come flooding back and it was as though we had gone back in time almost forty years. The memories were so vivid and the emotions as real today as they were back then. Progress is slow because we have laughed till we cried, danced a bit and sobbed till we were exhausted, we would then rest and reflect on our life together.

It has been a very good life, an adventurous life with more trials and tribulations than we expected but it has moulded us together in such a way that my Bonnie Ronnie is not my soul mate, she IS my soul. I realised this when we were broken down, penniless halfway across the Australian Nullarbor with two small children asleep in a small tent - it was midnight we had just finished some repairs to the car when she commented on the beauty and serenity that surrounded us. There was no panic, or accusation of failure. I had brought her half way around the world, completely cutting her off from everyone who was near and dear to her, to a point in time and quite possibly the most isolated place on earth to become destitute with little hope for the future and in return she gave me strength, through her love and faith in me. This however is a story for another time [Perth-Brisbane].

There had been two occasions while we were courting and romancing back in the day when pressure from my parents, particularly my father had caused us to break up. We were fighting a war at the time and I would often be deployed for months on end which really cramps a courtship I can tell you, so that didn't help matters. Why were my parents so against my Bonnie Ronnie I hear you ask?

For a start my father had unrealistic expectations for me, we often joked about his desire for me to study law and enter politics - he would tell everyone that I would be Prime Minister one day ...but Dad wasn't joking so I became a huge disappointment to him when my grades dropped at school, I left early and took up a trade - well that didn't go down well I can assure you. Dad didn't have much to say about the various girls I dated (there weren't many anyway) but Bonnie Ronnie was different and I learned a thing or two about my father that I must say I don't much care for to this day. Dad is my father and I love him and honour him but Ronnie wasn't just a girlfriend, I was totally smitten and completely in love with her and she loved me... and I loved that she loved me.

Dad was rude, abusive and downright obnoxious to Ronnie, we were young, fighting prejudice, parents, so called friends, time, distance and a war and the pressure became too much for us - for me... and I couldn't stand the way Ronnie's heart was breaking while looking for acceptance from my family. My brothers all three, always accepted Ronnie right off the bat and I knew that they would take care of her if anything were to happen to me. I think that they each were a little in love with my Bonnie Ronnie and I'm not talking about lust here. I have the best brothers on earth.

Anyway on two occasions I tried to end our relationship primarily because Dad had managed to convince me that I would treat Ronnie badly in the future - yes I know my mind wasn't exactly healthy at the time, one of the occasions was after sitting at a guard post sucking on the flash-hider of my rifle for four hours (Definitely another story!) Life was not going as expected and hope had almost run out (almost - I didn't pull the trigger although I had applied some pressure from time to time). 

Our break-ups never lasted more than a day or two but they felt like an eternity because I simply could not stop loving this girl no matter how hard I tried and believe me I tried, what kind of life could a screw up like me offer this beautiful creature. She needed love, she had had so much abuse prejudice and rejection in her life and she had a right to expect a good life with a good provider. I knew after the second break-up that even if I couldn't be the provider that my Bonnie Ronnie deserved, she would never find anyone who would love her more than I. This was something that I could give her and I believed that this would see us through anything that life could throw at us.... and guess what - I was right.

Oh you should have seen her light up like a Christmas tree when our son was born, my heart swelled so much that day that I felt sure it would explode in my chest. Words cannot describe the positive change that our Son and later our Daughter would have on my Bonnie Ronnie, she was determined to prove all the nay sayers wrong - and she did, but in such spectacular fashion that my Father actually accepted her in the end.

This is only a glimpse at what these vinyl records have rekindled - The range of emotions are incredible.

Bonnie Ronnie

Till next time God Bless!