This song always takes me to simpler times. I used to live in a small colony near an oil refinery. The colony was for the workers and it had lots of leafy sections, a communal pool, and a palapa, which is like a big palm shelter for parties and gatherings.

I would sometimes go out of the house and walk (after homework) or maybe play with the other kids. I remember we once played as if we were shipwrecked and were lost in an unknown island. A few of us had read the mysterious island by Jules Verne, so some ideas for that adventure came from the pages of that book.

Sometimes I had to play on my own and I would imagine myself as a medieval adventurer. It could be Robin Hood (which I think precedes the middle ages!) or a lonely knight/swashbuckler, roaming around, doing good deeds and disappearing into the night.

What can I say? I was a sucker for Bill Bixby’s Hulk and its sad, depressing ending when he walks on his own under utterly melancholic music.

But when I was on “adventure mode”? I’d hum the “hoorah hoorah hey!” song I saw on tv once and made such a mark I could remember it, but never the name or lyrics. It wasn’t until much, much later in life, while watching VH1 classic and nursing sore feet after walking on the jungles of Villahermosa, that I rekindled my love with the song. Tenpole Tudor. No longer was I a kid who played on the safety of his closed gate colony. Now it was the overgrown grounds of Villahermosa and Tabasco. Quite a few good memories, but not many.

The song also made a comeback as it was featured on the credits of Pirates! an adventure with Scientists, an overlooked Aardman animation classic that brought many smiles.

-Sam J. Valdés López