In my 20s, I worked in a popular retail shop in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. It was a very groovy, World-Beat-y kind of place, and very of the time (late 80s, early 90s). East African music pumped through the speakers as we tried to keep out the local shoplifters and scam artists, gossiped with the other shop merchants, and tried on all the ethnic bounty in the store — keffiyeh after dhotis after sarong after cheongsam. We, the shopgirls, were hip (for the time, of course) and cute and we often had young men coming by to flirt, or court, or gauge the level of our willingness for one-night stands (level: often very high!)

One of the frequent visitors was Fa Fa, a beautiful man from the Carribean who liked my coworker Tracy and would bring all sorts of treats and gifts. He brought in a tape of Soca music, which became our immediate favorite in the store.

I guess Soca stands for soul calypso music. A very distinctive Soca song you’ve heard is “Hot Hot Hot,” covered by Buster Pointdexter and heard in countless commercials and wedding receptions. I’m sad it got overplayed because really, it’s a great song.

Also in heavy rotation at the store was a tape that included the song “Playtime in Brazil” by Edmundo Ros (still a huge favorite of mine — and he’s still alive at 99!) There’s a line that includes the phrase “From Chile to Bombay”, but when I recorded the tape from the album, it skipped a few times, so the line became “from Chile to Bom … from Chile to Bom … from Chile to Bom …”

When I play my Edmundo Ros CD now, I still tense up at that line, expecting the skipping. It sounds wrong without it.

And there’s a soap called Fa and every time I see it I still think of Fa Fa.

Wow, the simpler days, before songs got overplayed and when exotic young men would lurk among the sparkly imported shirts, bringing gifts to the beautiful young girls.