Today’s Daily Prompt from The Daily Post is “Can’t Drive 55.” It reads:
“Take the third line of the last song you heard, make it your post title, and write for a maximum of 15 minutes. GO!”
You can see the prompt and other responses here.
Well, there is my line up on the title of my post. Do you know the song?
It’s Peter Gabriel’s In Your Eyes and here are my fifteen minutes of writing, freestyle. Setting the timer … NOW.
Seriously, can anyone who was alive in 1989 hear Peter Gabriel’s In Your Eyes without thinking about Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) holding a boom box over his head outside of Diane Court’s (Ione Skye) bedroom window? Please. If you haven’t seen Say Anything find a way to see it. Now. You’ll love Lloyd.
I referenced Lloyd just yesterday to a friend. “I gave her my heart. She gave me a pen.” Except I substituted in “cupcake” for “pen” because that’s what the situation called for.
Lloyd’s the best. Like Jack Flacco who features a “Women Who Wow Wednesday” weekly post, I’m thinking of doing a “Magnificent Made-Up Men Monday” feature, and making Lloyd my Inaugural Man. Would anyone be interested in such a feature? Because I’m totally serious. Let me know in the comments.
Alright. The song. The verse is: Love, I get so lost sometimes. Days pass and this emptiness fills my heart. When I want to run away, I drive off in my car. But whichever way I go I come back to the place you are.
Sigh … what a lovely lyric.
As for line three- which I interpret as the driving line: I distinctly recall being in high school and “going for drives” for the sake of driving. I specifically remember one particular night driving my early 80’s brown Chevy Caprice (the same make and model driven by undercover police officers, lucky me), windows down, listening to Cheap Trick’s The Flame.
It’s odd the things we remember, no? This was over twenty years ago and I remember that ride– the way the air felt, the way the song sounded, exactly which traffic light I was stopped at (the corner of Van Houten and Clifton Avenue). I don’t remember anything in particular happening that had upset me and made me want to drive. I don’t remember being sad or happy or anything. I just recall that I was driving around with no destination for the heck of it. For something to do. To listen to the radio and feel the air through the windows and check out the town.
Like Lloyd spending his summer chasing Diane with no plan for his future, driving around with no destination seems like such a luxury of youth.
And on that note, my fifteen minutes are just about up. Watch Say Anything this weekend. Drive around without a destination. You can always go back home.
Quote: Lloyd Dobler: I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don’t want to do that.
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