Boys on the Side

After a little searching I found the root of my memory of Joan Armatrading's song, "Willow." It is the movie Boys on the Side. I think I have seen that movie a few times, and just thinking about it now makes me want to watch it again. Too bad I doubt own the DVD.

I know that I had the soundtrack for a while. I might still have it. I played nearly all the songs on it constantly. A mix of artists like that hit a personal string in your being at different times. One day you're driving in your royal blue 1982 Pontiac sedan down Old Canton Road past a "Christmas tree farm" and Strong Road. You round the curve past the lake on either side, large houses with decks overlooking the water. Past houses with peeling paint and rusty cars parked in the dusty and gravely driveways. And Joan is singing,

"I said I'm strong,
Straight,
Willing
To be a shelter
In a storm
Your willow
Oh willow
When the sun is out"

I found other songs by Joan Armatrading and I liked them equally as much, but for some reason I had tied myself emotionally to "Willow" and couldn't create such a fond memory with the other songs. No significant event happened in my life while listening to "Willow." No revelations or epiphanies, at least none that I can recall now. Just a quiet memory of driving one sunny day, either late Spring or early Autumn, probably during my senior year of high school. Since the movie came out in February 1995, maybe I was already contemplating graduation and the responsibilities to follow. It is very possible I was thinking about a classmate who, over Christmas break, had been admitted into a rehabilitation center for his addiction to acid and marijuana. I was concerned for him and hoped he'd get better. I was also concerned for another friend who was worrying herself sick about him. Maybe I wished I could be a willow for my friends, or that we were already willows for each other, sheltering and protecting each other in whatever way we were able. Willow.