Have you ever been listening to a song on the radio, humming the tune, maybe tapping your foot, because it is an old melody from 45 years ago, and then the lyrics jump out at you like you’ve never heard them before?
This song played on the car radio as I drove back home from the store yesterday. I tried to remember who the singer was - Carole King maybe, or Carly Simon? I always mix them up. I love them both! But this was Carly Simon.
Maybe the radio in my newer Mazda was more HiFi (do they even use that term anymore?) than the radio in that old red Toyota. But the words jumped out in front of the music this time.
“Nobody Does it Better
Makes me feel Sad for the Rest
Nobody Does it Half as Good as You
Baby, you’re the Best…”
Instantly my memories returned to my wife Carolyn. She and I were lovers for nearly fifty years. She died five years ago with Alzheimer’s disease, and my heart still aches for her. My arms still long to hold her tight.
“The Way that You Hold Me
Whenever You Hold Me
There’s Some Kind of Magic inside You”
This was the theme for a James Bond movie, “The Spy who Loved Me.”
We were living in the backwoods of Western Colorado and never got to see the movie when it came out. Didn’t get a lot of current music on the radio out there in the wilds, either.
“That Keeps Me from Runnin’
But just Keep it Comin’
How’d You Learn to Do the Things You Do?”
In the spring of 1968 Carolyn had separated from her husband and was staying with her Aunt Laverna on DeanAnn St. in Garden Grove, California, and I was living in an apartment alone a couple of miles north on Chapman Ave.
Laverna’s husband Don and I had gone to school together at Walla Walla College and we had been long time friends. Laverna made it a point to invite me over for dinner regularly and bragged on how good Carolyn cooked.
Laverna had met my steady girlfriend Cathy on a visit to Merced once before, but I think she thought I could be enticed away. I missed all the signals then, but I figured it out later. Turned out she was right.
After the dinners Carolyn and I talked and teased each other, and got to know each other better. One June evening as I was leaving to go home for the night, she came outside and asked for a hug. I picked up the hint and invited her to my apartment. She agreed and followed me in her green Oldsmobile as I rode home on my motorcycle.
“And Nobody Does it Better,
Though Sometimes I wish Someone Could…”
We both had a fantastic time that night. We took our time and went slow and easy, making sure that no erogenous zone was overlooked. She swore that it was the first time she had ever felt an orgasm in her life. One wasn’t enough - we did it again before she left.
“Nobody Does it
Quite the Way You Do
Why’d you Have to Be So Good?”
The next morning, Sunday, I got a call from Laverna inviting me over for breakfast. I rode over and found out that her husband was at work and Carolyn was at K-Mart, learning a new job. We sat around the dining room table and Laverna had made me scrambled eggs, toast, and a glass of Dr. Pepper on ice for each of us.
She casually asked, " How are you feeling this morning?", and I said I was feeling bright eyed and bushy tailed, or something like that. She followed up with, "Why would you feel that way?" When I told her it must be due to “clean living” she snorted Dr. Pepper through her nose. I knew immediately Carolyn had filled her in on the details of last night and it wasn’t our secret anymore.
In a couple of weeks Laverna informed me that Carolyn was going back to her husband to try to work things out for the benefit of their seven year old daughter, Darlene.
I wasn’t surprised. I had told Carolyn not to get serious, as I already had a steady girlfriend up north in Merced.
For the next several months we lived our separate lives and didn’t see much of each other. I continued to visit my girlfriend up north, and Carolyn tried to revive her marriage with J.T.
Late one evening, it must have been October, I heard a knock on my apartment door. I had been reading a magazine on the sofa, so I laid it down and went to see who was there. Carolyn stood there with a smile on her face and a bottle of Dr. Pepper in each hand.
I invited her in and she immediately told me that J.T. and she had gotten into a big argument, and he had threatened to leave her and go back to Oklahoma. She said she called his bluff, loaded all his clothes in the green Oldsmobile, and told him to go then. So he was on his way out of the state and out of the marriage for real.
She was ready and I was willing, and we were soon having another hot time in the bedroom. After we were both satisfied, we just lay there and talked for another hour or so. She was amazed that I stayed up to talk afterward instead of just rolling over to sleep. She wasn’t used to that.
Several days later, she called and told me that J.T. had arrived in Oklahoma at his mother’s house, and had called her wanting to come back. She told him no, she had had enough, and just send her the divorce papers.
She invited me over to her house for dinner that night and said I could stay every night if I wished. I didn’t need a second invitation. My brother John got to take over my apartment, as he had found work at the same place I was working, and we were sharing the apartment then.
After a couple of weeks I told her, “I think I’m falling in love”. She was overjoyed and said she was hoping so. Then she realized I had said, “I think,” and quickly backed up. I let her know that my girlfriend up north had told me she wouldn’t marry me unless I went back to college and got a degree. I was falling out of love with Cathy fast.
Just a few days later I called Cathy and told her our relationship was over, and that I was in love with someone else and I was not coming back to Merced. Of course, she was not happy about it, but I made it clear that we were over as a couple.
On November 18, I gave my solemn vow to Carolyn to love her and her alone for the rest of my life, and she gave me the same promise. On March 15 the next year we got the official license and a small marriage ceremony at a retired judge's house in Orange, California, to make sure there would be no trouble keeping custody of Darlene. Some people are still confused about why we celebrated two different anniversaries.
I know this sounds like I’m bragging, but we both felt the same way about each other. She was the best lover I ever had. God, how I miss her!
“Nobody Does it Better
Makes Me feel Sad for the Rest
Nobody Does it Half as Good as You
Baby, You’re the Best.”
October 27, 2023
Don Rogers
©
The Song, “Nobody Does It Better” was the theme for the James Bond
movie “The Spy Who Loved Me.”
Lyrics by Carol Bayer Sager
Music by Marvin Hamlisch who also played the piano for the recording by Carly Simon in 1977.
