A year ago I realized that the Built to Spill lyric “Seven-up, I touched her thumb and she knew it was me/Although she couldn’t see, unless of course she peeked,” referred to the elementary classroom game Seven-Up. I heard part of that song just an hour ago. I switched off the lights and turned off my CD player before heading out to get some groceries. That CD was on and that lyric played just before I hit the stop button. That’s when I realized that at the end of the round of Seven-Up in question, she would have guessed correctly that it was him who had touched her thumb, and that’s how he knew that she knew it was him. Previously, I hadn’t thought any further than him touching her thumb. I assumed that the two of them just had a silent understanding that he had picked her.
very interesting. I had forgotten all about that game until you mentioned it.
That is one of my most favourite songs ever. I like it precisely for the reference to that game; it makes me nostalgic. Isn’t Doug Martsch the coolest. Sigh.
yeah, it makes me feel all bittersweet nostalgic too. the 7up line and also the one before it. “beneath a parachute I saw her without shoes”. that was the one where all the kids circled around an old army parachute and flapped it really hard, made it puff up into the air, and then everybody sat inside it with their butts on the edges holding all of the air in. did y’all play that too, or was it just in everett washington and twin falls idaho?
We did play parachute games. I’m not sure where. Not at school – maybe cub scouts or camp.
The parachute game is universal. This is just such an amazing but short song. Reminds you of elementary school and the sad little kids who didn’t have shoes and ended up stuck in whatever shithole little town you grew up in. Knocked up and doomed rot in desperation.