I’m always drawn to bandstands and I love the one that stands so proudly in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford. It was erected around 1900 and I’ve been reading in the Waterford Co. Museum’s Dungarvan: Historic Guide & Town Trail that:
Here on many summer evenings, tourists known locally as ‘Gaybricks’ and Dungarvan residents enjoyed the music of the brass band.
All of this makes me think of The Great Gatsby and especially the 1974 version of the film starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow. I had adored the novel as a teenager and it was in May 1979 that I finally got to see the film.
The reason I remember that first viewing is because it was the night before my final exams in Trinity College and my ‘big sister’ arrived to check on me and fully intent on advising me not to stay up all night cramming. She was stunned to find me lying on my bed totally engrossed in The Great Gatsby which I was viewing on the portable black and white television that my parents had given me for my 21st birthday the previous October. Seeing, that I was in another world, ‘big sis’ headed off, phoned home to report our mother that I was possibly ‘too relaxed’ about the exams!
Last night, I watched the 1974 version of The Great Gatsby again and I have a feeling that no matter what the new version is like I will forever remain in this dreamy time-warp.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xxNkdFse5w
Go on tell me what bandstands evoke in you!
SOCIAL BRIDGE ~ Jean Tubridy connecting with you from Ireland 