It was the third of June ...

It would be an interesting way to consume precious hours of life to collect a list of song that have dates featured in them. Today's selection is that sultry Sixties classic, Ode to Billie Jo. The only other song phrase that comes to mind right away is "the first of December was covered with snow," from James Taylor's Sweet Baby James.

When I was growing up, we had boxes of Finnish folk songs on dusty 78s. I used the rest of the records for target practice with my BB gun. Of course, everything old is new again. Now you can download MP3 versions of venerable tunes such as Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag, He'd Have to Get Under - Get Out and Get Under (to Fix Up His Automobile), and Yes! We Have No Bananas.

The BBC is playing the complete works of Beethoven and making those performances available for download.

Before the iPod, before the Walkman, I had a pocket transistor radio. This would have been in the early 60s, when Japanese radios were still something of a novelty. My radio had an earphone. So, much as I do now, I would walk along with the earphone in place, listening to music. Such a small radio couldn't reliably pick up WMEX in Boston, so I'd listen to WORC in Worcester. (At night the whole eastern U.S. was in range.) When I was wearing a jacket or long-sleeved shirt, I could run the earphone cord down my arm and then lean my head against my hand. I was once more in a world of my own.

One time I was walking through South Gardner. A woman stopped me and said, "Oh, you poor boy, needing a hearing aid at your age." When I tried to explain that it was a radio, she walked away quickly, apparently not liking having her sympathy rejected.