‘Time in a Bottle’
Jim Croce was right
“Yes, Jim Croce, if I could save time in a bottle I would too,” proclaims Joan Benowitz. In From Our Readers, she recalls meaningful moments she would relive.
Listening to the words of the song “Time in a Bottle” by Jim Croce makes me think of moments I would save if I could. Time passes and we don’t even feel it, but we can’t help but notice when people cease to exist along the way. Those, so significant in our lives, seemingly here one day and gone the next.
Watching an old VHS video tape with my grandchildren the other day made me long for days gone by. There was my mom expressing her hopes and dreams for my daughter on her wedding day. Her voice! I haven’t heard it in years, and suddenly it was as though she were sitting right next to me whispering in my ear. Oh, if I could just slip her into a bottle and then set her free whenever I yearn to hear her sing, to feel her arms around me and to smell her Arpège aroma. What a joy that would be. And my dad, smiling in the video, looking at his family with such love, such emotion. I long to see the glimmer in his eyes once again. It’s not the same on video tape. Something’s missing. It’s the essence of an individual that makes them unique that I miss the most.
Ah, there’s my friend Blanche. She and I finished each other’s sentences. Somehow we drifted apart slowly, like milkweed seeds on a breeze – not noticing that valuable time was passing and we would never have the opportunity to recoup it. And now she’s gone. Too late to say goodbye.
What I wouldn’t give for that bottle to be in my possession, to hold it against my heart, to pluck out the cork and break that airtight seal. And out would come my Uncle Everette strumming his nose to a Hawaiian melody making the kids laugh uncontrollably, or my Aunt Yetta, giving me a chewing gum popping tutorial so I could make that loud snapping sound that I so admired. Moments from my childhood. Small moments. Warm moments. Or even years later to watch Albie, my father-in-law, pretending to sew his fingers together and asking his granddaughter Lauren to pull the magic string, his face aglow with merriment at her awe, as his fingers spread wide once again!
Back to that videotape – there are my girls at ages 7, 8 and 11 singing individually in front of an audience on a family cruise. I’m so happy that now they’re accomplished successful women but to have a visit once again with those intrepid little girls! Or to relive the first time my husband Joel took my hand in his, and the electricity that ran up my arm straight to my heart.
Yes, Jim Croce, if I could save time in a bottle I would too! I’d capture every breathtaking event and every miniscule moment just so I could live them again.
Read more like Joan Benowitz’s reflections on time in a bottle and other contributions from Boomer readers, including nostalgia, essays, and short fiction, in
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