Free Verse, Poem

Nickelodeon Nights

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Written for W3 Prompt #168: Wea’ve Written Weekly
where David invites us to write about old-time wonders –
where cogs spin, gears click, and imaginations run on steam.
Here’s where my imagination took me. 

© Nightcafe

A chrome grin,
bubble glass and neon sighs,
a magniloquent sentinel in the diner’s gleam.

Nickels clink, a whispered wish,
numbers punched, a mechanical groan,
then crackle-pop, a scratchy song begins.

Dusty singers, lost loves,
highway dreams and heartbreak tunes,
spinning stories in a bygone sound.

The booth glows warmer,
the cherry coke tastes sweeter,
as time slows down, held captive in the music.


NAR©2025

This is “Jukebox Jive” by The Rubettes

W3 Prompt #168: Wea’ve Written Weekly

All text and graphics are copyright for Nancy’s Notes 🖊️🎶, The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk, The Rhythm Section, et al., and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.

27 thoughts on “Nickelodeon Nights”

  4. Nancy, this poem wraps me in the glow of a memory I never lived but somehow still miss. I feel like I can taste the cherry coke and hear the dusty voices crooning through the static—so evocative and tender.

    ~David

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    1. Love your comment, David! Jukeboxes were once standard in just about every diner. Some diners had mini-jukes at each booth; as a kid, I couldn’t wait to drop a nickel in and wait for my song to play. Some things never change! Thanks very much!

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      1. They were big here for a couple of years. This one got to #3 but their biggie was their first, Sugar Baby Love, which was #1 here and the only one to scrape into your chart. They were a fun glam rock band which we students all claimed not to like – and then they filled the dance floor.

        I hope Keith enjoyed it too 🤣

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