Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack: Smoke

So, there we were, casually sipping on that Left Hand Nitro and taking the occasional puff on our cigar, head wreathed in smoke, some of which got in our eyes.  And that stung, making me pause to wipe the water from my left eye.  Which, of course, immediately brought this ol' chestnut to mind:

They, said some day you'll find
All who love are blind
When you heart's on fire
You must realize
Smoke gets in your eyes

So I chaffed them, and I gaily laughed
To think they would doubt our love
And yet today, my love has gone away
I am without my love

Now laughing friends deride
Tears I cannot hide
So I smile and say
When a lovely flame dies
Smoke gets in your eyes

There's some confusion about when The Platters released this tune; TheWiki sez 1958, the notes on the Tube o' You say 1959.  All that doesn't matter much to me, because it was in 1959 that I wore out my copy o' "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes."  I was coming down off of my first serious encounter with the fairer sex, at the tender age o' 14.  Her name was Pam... the same age as me... and she was literally the girl next door.  I fell for this girl-child, hard.  So hard, in fact, that her parents forbade Pam to see me after it became plain we were in way deep.  And so I spent the remainder of that summer locked in my room, playing "Smoke" over and over and over and crying my little heart out.  Teen-age angst?  Oh yes, Gentle Reader, we had a massive case!

Well, they don't make 'em like that any longer... both the tune and the love affair.  My first encounter with love broke my heart, an event that was to re-occur time and time again over the years.  We never went into love affairs half-assed, oh no.  We jumped in with both feet, most often blindly, and ALWAYS to disappointment.  Some disappointments took longer than others, but in the end?  Well, I suppose that's just the way it goes.