I've been a bit of a mardy git the last couple of days, ever since this song popped into my head:
The video isn't the best quality, but it's as good as I can be bothered to find.
When Baby Bird released this, I, the Host, was working in a supermarket after deferring my graphic design degree for a year. That gap year soon turned into my life - I liked earning money too much to fart-arse about at art school for another three years.
Anyway, while working there, I fell in lust with a co-worker. A shelf-stacker, no less. And a ginger one at that! He was the first ginger I ever fancied: tall, handsome, a bit of a lad, and a fantastic body! He had an amazing six pack, as I recall, and a very manly smell.
I remember one evening after the store had closed, I'd closed down all the tills and was making my way through the aisles to the rear of the store, when I saw him, topless (it must have been a hot day, and after the air con was switched off), stacking cans of something-or-other. As I neared him, he nodded in greeting then turned back to the shelves. I remember smiling faintly in return and inhaling the smell of him as I passed behind him - Not in a pervy Hannibal Lector style, just breathing it in as part of the air. He smelt of Man, of testosterone.
I could still smell him as I gathered my things from my locker and left the store for my car. I switched the radio on (no tape deck, and certainly no CD player - it was 1996, after all) and Baby Bird's 'You're gorgeous' came on.
Ever since then, I attributed the song to my memories of him that evening, and every other sight of him afterwards.
He wasn't quite Damian Lewis, but he's close enough.
I don't quite know where I'm going with this, other than: Shit. I need a man!
I was going to make a snide comment like "a shelf-stacker? Aiming high, huh?" or something including the words "aisles" and "rear," but d'ya know what? It's too hot and I just can't be arsed.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy that you've got your ginger memory.
Oh, and 1996? I was still at school.
This took place in autumn of 1996, so you were most definitely not at school. Unless you were held back a year?
ReplyDeleteYou were a supermarket girl? That figures!
ReplyDeleteAre you stuck in a time-warp? Mardy for the last couple of days? You're always mardy!
OK, I'd *just* left.
ReplyDeleteI'm still younger than you.
Like Tim, I must resist the urge to make snide remarks about a ginger shelf-stacker because (tears up) I WANT YOU TO FIND A NICE MAN!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, did he offer you £20?
I love that song so much. I can't believe it was 11 years ago... I hope you find a nice man. I know what you mean about the man smell.
ReplyDeleteAhhh. Being a shop girl. You know, I was too. And I was a hag for the first time in 96 as well. I had a wicked bad crush on this awesome individual (no other way to describe him) who was a rusty sort of ginger. He wasn't a shelf stacker though. He worked the registers with me. Turns out he was massively ghey and we had some marvellous times. We used to go out nearly every weekend and he'd parade me around, and we'd be wickedly saucy.
I miss him.
He was working as a shelf stacker in a Tesco stooooooore....
ReplyDeleteP&T: I spent three years of my life sashaying up and down the aisles of that supermarket, gossiping with the checkout girls and eyeing up the fit stacker boys.
ReplyDeleteAnd I like being mardy!
Tim: I don't think "I'd *just* left" can equate to three years ago!
Piggy must have meant you when he said about being stuck in a time warp.
Aww, thank you, MJ!
* makes note in diary that this was the day that MJ said something nice *
re £20: Tim or Ginger?
T-Bird: "Dierdre Chambers!" We were both shop girls at the same time! Yay!
Shame we were on opposite sides of the world...
CyberPetra: That much is true...
Well, actually, it was Safeway, but let's not be pedantic.
I love that song. I love Alcazar's version best, though.
Three years?! What?! I started Senior School in '89, and stayed on for two years at Sixth Form! Five years of school plus two in Sixth Form gives you 1996!
ReplyDeleteI can tell *someone* spent their maths class doodling pictures of Wesley Crusher and unobtainable gingers in their back of their books!
It's weird how songs and things can trigger certain memories...The only red heads I know are chicks...so I can't help you find another red headed fella; But if you're interested, I can find you a stocky lesbian who builds shelves!
ReplyDeleteMmmm. What a yummy memory.
ReplyDeleteI was at Uni at the time.
ReplyDeleteThee was this girl used to come into the bar and always but it on.
And I used to think the lyrics pretty much summed up what I was thinking as I looked at her.
What a strange young man you are.
ReplyDeleteDamien Lewis and gingers. Oh, I am so nostalgic now.
ReplyDeleteYep - we were shop girls at the same time, in different hemispheres. You would have loved my friend too. A bit of a slut, but in the nicest possible way. He just was so gorgeous and didn't want anyone to feel left out...
We used to have a ginger in our class. Grossly overweight, paler than you, almost neon orange hair and freckles all over his face, arms and neck.
ReplyDeletePoor kid. Not that he was teased because he wasn't. He was in with the kool kids because he liked football (and tried to play it once in a while too)
Besides that I haven't really noticed any ginger "men" (he was a boy, haven't seen him since then).
I suppose Carrot Top might be avaliable IDV. If you are interested.
That song though, was fabulous.
"I remember smiling faintly in return and inhaling the smell of him as I passed behind him - Not in a pervy Hannibal Lector style"
ReplyDeleteHaha! I so wish you had! "You use Nivea for Men skin cream, and sometimes you wear CK One, but not today."
Ah 1996..
Tim: Sixth form isn't counted as school - It's college. But if it is, then I left 'school' in 1993, only two years before you.
ReplyDeleteUh, thanks Eros, but I'm quite handy with a drill.
Snooze: It is rather. I sometimes wish for those days.
Crushed: See. You get it. That's exactly how I felt when looking at Ginger Boy.
Puppy & Hippo: Why, thank you!
And thank you for stopping by. You too, Crushed.
T-Bird: I thought it was time for a bit of Damian.
Your friend sounds slutty in the nicest possible way. Oh. I've just repeated pretty much what you said. Ah well, I'm not gonna change it now.
CyberPetra: No thank you. Carrot Top doesn't sound like the kind of ginger I like. My Ginger Boy didn't have freeckles, strangely. And his hair was more copper than neon. Straight, too. Hair and sexually.
Skillz: Bwah hah ha! Oh, how I've missed you. I do wish I'd said that now.