Post by cam83 on Sept 22, 2003 4:04:21 GMT -5
Hi All,
Well here is a thought for all of you. How did you get to know and admire the Carpenters. Please, if you want to, share your stories of that...
Well for me, it was in the Spring of 1988. I was in Grade 9 at a private school, Calvin Christian School in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. I was 15 years old. It was during the lunch hour, and I stayed indoors to read. Well, I had nothing to read except these new textbooks that we used for Health class. So I went thru it page by page. Finally I came to this section on Eating Disorders. I turned the page and there was this huge black and white photo of this woman, surrounded by 2 guys. One of her hands, was holding this guy's chin, and she wasn't smiling, but her teeth were showing. She was very, very thin. I guessed her age to be about 45 or so. She looked older. Beside the picture, it read, "Popular singer Karen Carpenter died of cardiac arrest due to her battle with Anorexia Nervosa in 1983."
I remember thinking...yuck! How could anyone starve themselves? I read further on, and it stated that anorexia nervosa was a disorder where a person would starve themselves and not eat. How bizarre I thought. That name of that disease seemed familiar though, as if locked in my subconcious. Then I remembered! Her name was Bridget and she was a girl the grade ahead of me when I was in Grade 4...she was in Grade 5 and in Gymnastics. And she got thin. So thin, that she had to be hospitilized, and she was a skeleton....just skin and bones. I remember seeing her...just bones. And hearing someone saying, she had that disease that the singing Carpenter lady died of. This would have been around 1983...or so...
I decided to take the book home with me that night, to see if Mom knew who this Karen Carpenter lady was. Maybe Mom knew of her music. Judging from this Carpenter lady's age...I thought she must have been some "has been" singer of the 1950's or the 1960's. She probably sang some boring songs or something...
That night, Mom was in the kitchen preparing supper and peeling carrots and potatoes when I showed her the picture. "Oh Cameron! It's horrible. Close the book!" she said, as she grimaced at the skeletol lady of Karen Carpenter.
"Mom, " I asked, "who is Karen Carpenter?" As I set the book down. "You know who she is. We have her album on the 8-Track. The Carpenters. Go and get it!"
So I raced over to the basket where we kept all our 8-Tracks, and thumbed thru it furiously but could not find it, "Mom! It's not here!" I groaned.
"Bring it here!" she said, as I did as she requested. She wiped her hands on the towel, and began to flip thru with ease. She pulled one out, "Here it is!"
"Can I put it on?" I asked to which she readily agreed. I looked at this album called The Singles 1969-1973. On the back was this picture of 2 guys(the pic was maybe 2 inches by 3 inches...b&w)...one with dark hair and a blonde haired guy...I was expecting some 1970's like group that were rockers! I was preparing myself, as I put the 8-Track in...but out came beautiful music. Sing. Yesterday Once More. Close To You...songs that I remembered growing up. This was the Carpenters. On closer inspection of the picture, I realized it was Karen and some guy. By their bell bottomed clothes and long hair, I just assumed it was 2 guys...plus the pic was very very small...Who was the guy? Her husband...then I found out later, it was her brother Richard...and that they were singing all the songs...just the two of them...she was playing drums and he was arranging and playing keyboards...etc.
And from then on the obsession continued...I began to collect albums and tapes, and articles and pictures. I fell in love with that voice! And the rest is history. From then on my life has been full with collecting Carpenters memorabelia...
My jumbled thoughts,
Cameron Longo
clongo83@hotmail.com
Well here is a thought for all of you. How did you get to know and admire the Carpenters. Please, if you want to, share your stories of that...
Well for me, it was in the Spring of 1988. I was in Grade 9 at a private school, Calvin Christian School in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. I was 15 years old. It was during the lunch hour, and I stayed indoors to read. Well, I had nothing to read except these new textbooks that we used for Health class. So I went thru it page by page. Finally I came to this section on Eating Disorders. I turned the page and there was this huge black and white photo of this woman, surrounded by 2 guys. One of her hands, was holding this guy's chin, and she wasn't smiling, but her teeth were showing. She was very, very thin. I guessed her age to be about 45 or so. She looked older. Beside the picture, it read, "Popular singer Karen Carpenter died of cardiac arrest due to her battle with Anorexia Nervosa in 1983."
I remember thinking...yuck! How could anyone starve themselves? I read further on, and it stated that anorexia nervosa was a disorder where a person would starve themselves and not eat. How bizarre I thought. That name of that disease seemed familiar though, as if locked in my subconcious. Then I remembered! Her name was Bridget and she was a girl the grade ahead of me when I was in Grade 4...she was in Grade 5 and in Gymnastics. And she got thin. So thin, that she had to be hospitilized, and she was a skeleton....just skin and bones. I remember seeing her...just bones. And hearing someone saying, she had that disease that the singing Carpenter lady died of. This would have been around 1983...or so...
I decided to take the book home with me that night, to see if Mom knew who this Karen Carpenter lady was. Maybe Mom knew of her music. Judging from this Carpenter lady's age...I thought she must have been some "has been" singer of the 1950's or the 1960's. She probably sang some boring songs or something...
That night, Mom was in the kitchen preparing supper and peeling carrots and potatoes when I showed her the picture. "Oh Cameron! It's horrible. Close the book!" she said, as she grimaced at the skeletol lady of Karen Carpenter.
"Mom, " I asked, "who is Karen Carpenter?" As I set the book down. "You know who she is. We have her album on the 8-Track. The Carpenters. Go and get it!"
So I raced over to the basket where we kept all our 8-Tracks, and thumbed thru it furiously but could not find it, "Mom! It's not here!" I groaned.
"Bring it here!" she said, as I did as she requested. She wiped her hands on the towel, and began to flip thru with ease. She pulled one out, "Here it is!"
"Can I put it on?" I asked to which she readily agreed. I looked at this album called The Singles 1969-1973. On the back was this picture of 2 guys(the pic was maybe 2 inches by 3 inches...b&w)...one with dark hair and a blonde haired guy...I was expecting some 1970's like group that were rockers! I was preparing myself, as I put the 8-Track in...but out came beautiful music. Sing. Yesterday Once More. Close To You...songs that I remembered growing up. This was the Carpenters. On closer inspection of the picture, I realized it was Karen and some guy. By their bell bottomed clothes and long hair, I just assumed it was 2 guys...plus the pic was very very small...Who was the guy? Her husband...then I found out later, it was her brother Richard...and that they were singing all the songs...just the two of them...she was playing drums and he was arranging and playing keyboards...etc.
And from then on the obsession continued...I began to collect albums and tapes, and articles and pictures. I fell in love with that voice! And the rest is history. From then on my life has been full with collecting Carpenters memorabelia...
My jumbled thoughts,
Cameron Longo
clongo83@hotmail.com
