In The Mist Of A Memory

"When the deep purple falls over sleepy garden walls
And the stars begin to twinkle in the sky --
In the mist of a memory you wander on back to me
Breathing my name with a sigh....."

Memory is such a funny, selective thing. I have a very specific memory when I hear the Peter DeRose song Deep Purple with lyrics by Mitchell Parish. It is from the spring of my freshman year of high school, 1958, also my brother Ron's senior year. We lived almost five miles from town and often there were activities that kept us in town after school. Usually Ron drove his car to school, so that was no problem. But even if he didn't there were several neighbor kids with cars who would bring us home.

My memory is of such an evening except instead of a neighbor bringing us home, a couple of Ron's classmates did - Carole Templeton and Darryl Rhodes. I was aware they had been dating a short time after she broke her engagement to another guy. We had just gotten to our place when the song came on the car radio. Ron & I were thanking them for the ride and getting ready to exit the back seat. As the song ended -

"In the still of the night once again I hold you tight
Though you're gone, your love lives on when moonlight beams
And as long as my heart will beat, sweet lover we'll always meet
Here in my deep purple dreams."

They were gazing into one another's eyes and I thought, "They're in love!" As a 14-year-old girl, I thought that was the most romantic thing I'd ever witnessed - which is probably why the memory has persisted fifty-five years.

I decided I wanted to verify the way I remembered that evening so I went in search of proof in my diary. What I found was this: "We were going to come home with Jerry Sackett (our neighbor; also a senior), but it was so late that Carole Templeton borrowed Sherry Quinn's car and brought us home." No mention of Darryl being along. So did I remember it wrong? Or was Darryl in the car and I didn't mention him? Or did what I remember happen another time and I didn't write it in my diary?

I would also have sworn it was the Nino Tempo and April Stevens version of the song that was playing yet it could not have been - that version didn't come out until 1963. It doesn't matter. I am still always going to see Carole and Darryl looking at each other lovingly whenever I hear "When the deep purple falls........"