Showing posts with label South Pacific. Show all posts
Showing posts with label South Pacific. Show all posts
Saturday, November 7, 2015
Bali Hai --The Soundtrack of My Life
Robin has been doing the Soundtrack of my Life posts on her blog Your Daily Dose. I had done a few of my own "life soundtracks" on my Tossing It Out blog as well as the song series (starting at this post) I did for my 2014 Blogging from A to Z April Challenge on Wrote By Rote. Be sure to visit and follow Your Daily Dose for more Life Soundtrack info.
"Bali Hai"
After the film version of the musical South Pacific was released in early 1958, my parents took my sister and I to see it in the theater. They also bought the vinyl LP version of the soundtrack. It was an album that I listened to frequently when I was a child. I was most drawn to the haunting sound of the song "Bali Hai". This mysterious sounding song made me think of places that I'd like to go one day as well as places I'd been that stood out in my memory. The lure of that certain special place is something that is likely common with all of us.
Here is a version of the song as played by a "10l Strings" style orchestra. I'm not quite sure if this is the original 101 Strings Orchestra that released so many albums over the years, but if not, this version is certainly close to it. My mother used to have several albums by the 101 Strings Orchestra and other similar groups. This recording I present here might be the same one that I used to listen to or at least close to it.
The Bali Hai Lure of Adventure and Experience
My spirit for adventure was inspired by my father. He was always ready for a road trip or to go visit someone. We used to go to movies, circuses, unique attractions--wherever my father's sense of curiosity drew him. If he wanted to meet someone he would make every effort to make contact and usually it worked. Often when visiting circuses or other similar entertainment venues he'd get us free access by explaining that we too were entertainers. Good for his pocketbook and great for our being able to experience more.
The lure of the unknown, the exotic, and the interesting has always been within me. Even my own backyard was a place of adventure ready for me to explore or invent new forays into my imagination. Moving to San Diego in 1959 delivered me to a young boy's dream. I was 8 years old went we first arrived. The vast tract neighborhoods were new and still under development. The canyons near our house were still wild, a veritable wonderland for a boy's imagination.
My sister, my friends, and I would spend hours of summer days exploring those canyons. An abandoned old ranch house with debris scattered about the yard was a draw for us though we were cautious about entering the structure. I made up stories in my mind about who might have lived there. For me the spirits of Indians who had once dwelt in those canyon lands seemed to be all around us.
Once we had bicycles our ability to explore the neighborhood and the communities surrounding us increased even more. Any concern about kids being out on the streets was not particularly on most parents minds and we as kids felt little fear about our safety. It was a different world then. We exploited our freedom to the extreme and life was fun and free.
The thrill of exploration and discovery continued into my adult life with adventures in hiking, camping, and long drives. This was expanded even further for me once I started working on the road. My travels allowed me so many opportunities to see places and meet people that would have been unlikely if I'd been tied down to a normal type job in one place.
How many "Bali Hai's" I've been to in my life is something of which I have lost count. And more wait for me. There are places to which I'd like to return as well as places I haven't been to yet but would like to visit one day. One Bali Hai? Not one but many. The world is such a vast and varied place. The song "Bali Hai" plays in the background as I gaze upon pictures of exotic places and run my fingers along the highways on the maps in my road atlas.
Bali Hai is calling me. It always will until the day I leave this Earth. Then maybe I will reach that ultimate Bali Hai.
Do you have a special "Bali Hai" that lures you? Is there a special place that you've been that stands out in your memory? What is it that constitutes your concept of a Bali Hai type of place?
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