I Get (Got?) Around

So there’s this Beach Boys song from 1964 called I Get Around.  Not to be confused with the 1994 I Get Around from Tupac, same title, different approach.

Now, the Beach Boys rendition of I Get Around went something like this, “I get around…from town to town…I’m a real cool head…I’m making real  good bread”…(etc, etc).  It goes on to state “my buddies and me are getting real well known, the bad guys know us and they leave us alone”.  So, it was “hip” to get around back then, if, and only if, you were a guy.  Imagine if a girl group, say, like The Supremes sang a a girl version of I Get Around back in 1964?   Banned in Boston?  Speaking of banned in Boston, did you know that The Association’s first hit, Along Comes Mary was banned in Boston – apparently because of the reference to Mary, a colloquialism for marijuana? Go figure, times have changed.

You see, I didn’t get around back in 1964 nor do I get around much today.  That was left up to the super cool, surfer dudes I suppose, of which, I was not one.  However, had I did get around, how would I refer to it today?  Would I say, “I Got Around”?  Or would I say, “I Did Get Around”?  Or simple state, “I’ve Been Around”? I actuality, I did get around a bit in my younger years, but not in high school – it was a few years later.  After all, I was in the Navy for four years!  You see, by 1969 “I was gettin’ bugged driving up and down the same old strip”…and so on.

Some of you may be saying right now, I did notget around much either, but, I Wish I had Gotten Around More, I Would Have Had a Much Better Time in High School.  How’s that for a Weird Al song title?  Or , perhaps, the other end of the spectrum, I Really Wish I Hadn’t Got Around So Much, I Could Have Avoided Many Years of Child Support.

No, my years in high school didn’t really exemplify that Beach Boys iconic 60’s tune.  I Get Around was a great song, but it wasn’t my anthem.  I think my song was more along the lines of In My Room, which is where I spent the majority of my time from 1964 to 1967 when I wasn’t actually at school…listening to Beach Boy songs on my record player.