Cyprus Memory

I came home tonight and Madam was watching PBS and they were begging. We actually have two PBS stations here in Atlanta and they were both at it. On one was the DoWap reunion and on the other was a Beatles tribute by a group called the Fab Four. The tribute band is very good and they are even English. They did a set of Sgt. Peppers stuff and it reminded me of the little caretaker that took care of the embassy boat house in Kyrenia when I was stationed in Cyprus so many years ago. He was a wizened  little Greek man, squinted from too much sun and slightly hobbled from too much hard work but he took good care of us young idiots at the boathouse while we caroused around, drank too much and spent way too much time trying to pick up the European chicks on holiday. He kept the ski boats gassed up and the sail boats in shape, ran to get us kebabs and cases of beer and wine with just a wink and a few shillings. The most fascinating thing was his love of the Sgt. Peppers album and even though he spoke very little English he knew the words to all the songs and would sing along at the top of his voice whenever we would put on the music and he would make the music a condition for doing our bidding. If we wanted him to do a kebab and wine run he would insist that Sgt. Peppers be played when he returned. I can still see that little old Greek man completely enthralled by the music and giving himself totally to the sound. He didn't understand the words but he understood the emotion and meaning and it resonated in his soul. It was a joy to see someone so pleasured.

There...this memory is now permanent in the great intertubes.