I had listened to Don't Cry Joni by Conway Twitty since I was young. That was one of the few songs I could sing albeit 'Son, you won't make it the music industry' tone. That other was El Paso. Guess the songs reflect my age .... Heck, I could do a sexy rendition of "Girls wanna have F..." but that is reserved for close doors audition. In that, I would make John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever like the Monkees on the Beach.
Opps! There goes my age grouping again.
Okay, I was introduced to a short tale on cross-generational relationship ie. older/ younger stuff. I read it and then researched it. There are three factors to the cause of it; money, sex and fame. I thought hard on it, and the movie "The Graduate" with Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman ( my age grouping again.... sigh ). No, not Lolita with Marlon Brando. I read and saw that. I liked the movie more ( I was in my teens then. Visualization helps. ).
So, I embarked on my own interpretation.
"Joni and Me" was written. A reader commented it was convoluted in the ending. Well, it was mean to be.
Jimmy, the character, not me in reality still held his love for Joni after twenty-five years. He left when he was twenty-seven ( Jimmy came back after five years to find Joni married his best friend John. It happens in real life. ). Twenty-five years later, he turned up and found Joni had died but there was a young Joni there; the daughter of Joni and John. And she was visually impaired. Somewhere in my convoluted tale, I decided to bring in the 'guardian' love of Jimmy towards his friend's daughter. Now going back to the three reasons that such relationships may form, I took an exploratory approach to the idea of 'sex'. It was the one payback young Joni felt she could offer to pay back Jimmy. She was unable to do much given her handicapped. Sex was the boy's mind that dated her then. She felt maybe that what was Jimmy desired. That was the passage that could 'convoluted' the tale.
However, I placed Jimmy to do the right thing. ( I was not ready for the brickbats ifhe had thought otherwise. ) He wanted to give Joni the life she should have. Maybe the life if he had married Joni the mother.
And since then, I found myself drawn back to the lyrics of the song.
And more tales formed from it.
I have done, Joni and Me I, II, III and IV last night. All of it with a different theme and genre. I just wanted to try my different approach.
And it was fun to re-visit the younger age ( there goes my age grouping again.... sigh )
I hope you will enjoy reading them.
Cheers
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