Sugar Sugar

Peg Thein

Garnavillo, IA

It was about sixth grade and I was riding the band bus from Quasqueton to Winthrop for practice. We were singing Sugar Sugar by the Archies. The bus driver was playing it on the radio. I played the flute.

Then it was The Carpenters, Close to You. I was lying on the dining room floor eating chocolate bonbons, you know, those chocolate drops with the soft white center. The stereo was a cabinet model in our dining room. We played that 45 over and over again.

Chicago, If you Leave Me Now, takes me back to a break-up after high school. Then I left for Clark College. Disco was the thing in the mid-70s and we would dance to Rubberband Man and Disco Duck. There was a disco place out on Pennsylvania called Alakazazz. We would buy one drink, try to make it last but then to go to the bathroom and fill up our cup with water as we danced the night away.

Then I came to Garnavillo and met Mick. He played base in a country band three nights a week. It was a three-piece group and they played at The Circle in Prairie du Chien.

Sugar Sugar