52. "Wasn't That a Party" by The Irish Rovers
Arguably the greatest song every written to include someone wearing a grapefruit for a hat and a hockey-talkin' kitty. But that's not why it's on my list. It takes the honored place of #52 (my football jersey number) because it triggers one of my favorite memories of Chris.
For reasons that will forever remain unknown, when Chris and I asked to be driver's ed buddies and do all of our driving together, Gary Yearsley said "Okay." He then said he normally didn't do early-morning driving, but for us two he'd make an exception. Neither of us was crazy about getting up early. We were even less crazy about having to face the Little Short Fat Man before breakfast. But there are few sacrifices teenage boys are not willing to make to get a driver's license, so we said thank you and walked away grateful that we hadn't been paired up for driving with some nincompoop from McCammon.
Since driving around Arimo did little to challenge our considerable driving skills (we'd both been driving farm trucks since we were nine or ten), Little Short Fat Man decided to test our abilities in the big city of Pocatello. Now I had been born in Pocatello and lived there for the first three years of my life, so I steered us toward my old home on Cahoon street--a favorite destination of the Olson family anytime we made a supply run to the Gate City. More importantly, just down the road from Cahoon street was the Hot Spot--one of the premier gas stations in all of Bannock County. It's premierness was based less on the quality of its gas and more on the quantity of its donuts. Chris and I convinced Yearsley to stop at the Hot Spot by promising to buy him a donut. He is not called Little Short Fat Man for nothing, so he negotiated for a second donut before giving us permission to pull into the gas station. I don't remember exactly what kind of donuts we got for Yearsely, but I know for sure that mine were filled with either jelly or custard. Upon returning to the car with our donuts, we began to drive back into Arimo before school started. Because Yearsley had become so contented by the free donuts, he allowed us to turn on the radio, and at some point before we got onto the freeway, "Wasn't That A Party" began to play. Normally, such a song would be heard only on the Dr. Demento show. But "Wasn't That a Party" had become a big enough hit to be played on popular FM radio. Yearsley hadn't heard the song before, and he cracked up at the line, "That little-bitty track meet down on Main Street was just to see if the cops could run."
What joy filled my heart that day! Because of my innate rebellious nature, I derived great pleasure from the experience of driving while eating a jelly and singing along with Chris about drunk driving in a PO-lice car in front of my driver's ed instructor. It just didn't get any better than that! The only thing that could have made that moment any more pleasurable to my teenage brain would have been to see the Solid Gold dancers do a scantily-clad routine to the song. But I can't have everything.
Or can I?
https://youtu.be/BxwloEfCbtQ
