I Remember You

In the Summer of 2005, I was book shopping in a charity shop on the King’s Road, Chelsea. A radio was playing in the shop, and a female singer was performing the old standard “I Remember You”. It got me thinking of the Australian singer Frank Ifield, and of my late grandmother, who was a fan of Ifield and would often play his record of the same song. Although I hadn’t thought of it in years, that record, complete with Ifield’s yodelling you-hoos, entered my mind and I could not get rid of it. It was still playing through my head when I left the shop and boarded a bus for Earl’s Court. It was a route that I’d never ridden on before. The bus turned down a road which I had never travelled along before, and became stuck solid in a traffic jam. Frank Ifield’s voice was still going through my mind as I glanced out of the left side window. We were opposite a narrow road. At the far end of it, facing the bus, was a pub. It was called The Ifield. When I got home that evening, I checked on the internet. It is the only pub of that name in the UK.