In
an April dream
once she came to me
when you smiled I looked into your eyes
and I knew I’d be loving you
And
then you touched my hand
and I learned April dreams can come true
Oh are we just April fools
– Songwriter: Burt Bacharach and Hall David
– Artist: Dionne Warwick
THE SONG April Fools composed by Burt Bacharach and Hall David and performed by Dionne Warwick has a soft spot somewhere deep inside my heart and listening to it never fails to give me that mushy moist eyes feeling.
Does this make Moi a sentimental old fool, a silly romantic?
Guilty, this grizzled bohemian ageing hippie is all of the above. The fourth month of the year, April has a special place in my heart. You can say I have a soft spot for April.
In fact you can say “I’’ve got pieces of April, I keep them in a memory bouquet.”
Why, you may ask, all these mushy romantic fascination with the month of April which is usually associated with Semana Santa or Holy Week, certainly not a time for romance. Semana Santa for Catholics is a commemoration of the passion and supreme sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
I used to have one very specific reason for all these mushy romantic fascination with the month of April until some four years ago when I decided to go back to my roots as a journalist and now I have two very special reasons for this sentimental attachment for April.
April has always that melancholy mood and somehow the situation we’re in seems to highlight that as we are now in the middle of the coronavirus a.k.a. SARS CoV-2, more popularly known as the COVID-19, pandemic.
As always all things must pass. We will get through this so turn down the lights play some smooth jazz and let’s get on with the romance of April. A glass of cold Chablis would certainly set the proper mood.
The title of this column is April Fools which is also a 1969 romantic comedy film starring Jack Lemmon and Catherine Deneuve. “The film is about an unhappily married man finding love with an unhappily married woman. The two find their marriages loveless as they discover more about each other one night and decide to run away together the next evening.”
April Fools is also the title of the soundtrack of that film composed by Burt Bacharach and Hall David and performed by Dionne Warwick.
I saw this movie when I was a teenager and it made quite the impression even back then, particularly the soundtrack. Years later I’ve noticed certain parallels between my life and that movie. Or maybe it was just the silly romantic in me.
You see I was born on April 7 which is tomorrow and I fell in love with my soul mate and life partner also on April.
Call it an icing to the cake of April, Panay News was also born 39 years ago on April 7. Maybe it was a simple twist of fate that brought me to this column on the Editorial page of Panay News but the sentimental old fool that Moi is, I prefer to call it destiny.
Sometime back in 2014 after almost three decades away we decided to go back to Iloilo City following an uneventful stint in my alma mater teaching what else but journalism. I decided to make this 360-degree turn and go back to my roots as a journalist.
Of course it has to be Panay News as no other publication or newspaper will do. Since then I have found my niche – no, I prefer to call home – in this column on the Op-Ed page of Panay News and I have never looked back.
Thirty-nine years ago on April 7, 1981 to be exact, Panay News was born…Yes, indeed, April dreams do come true. Happy birthday!/PN
