Learned My Lesson Well

I heard the song "Garden Party" on the radio yesterday and thought that I've always rather liked it - - - but didn't have a clue what it was about.

In fact I didn't have a clue what it was called either - - I guessed it was called All Right Now - - but thanks to the wonders of Youtube it didn't take me long to track it down:



Ricky Nelson - - and, again, I really didn't know anything about him. Then I found this cover version which explains the whole thing - I don't know how accurate it is, of course - - but I certainly found it interesting.



I didn't know any of that. But then, a lot of things seem to have passed me by in the early 1970s, probably because I was busy doing my homework (or, on occasion, putting off doing my homework and watching Star Trek instead). I was totally focused on exams to the exclusion of almost everything else - I was at the kind of school where it was all "I got 84%, what did you get?"

It established a habit in me of working most of the time and feeling really guilty at any time when I wasn't. I still feel that way, in general. Before exams I was always nervous to the point of terror. Ridiculous. I never failed any - probably because I was so terrified that I worked like crazy - and so I never learned that if I did fail, it wouldn't be the end of the world.

But it's all right now, I've learned my lesson well - well, with regard to exams, at least. When I passed my driving test, age thirty, I thought - that's it for the exams in this lifetime. No more. And I've stuck to it.