— at Chive Sea Bar + Lounge.
— with Joe Guy, Craig Johansen, and Jim Reed at Flashbacks in Richmond Hill.
— with Joe Guy
"A Baylor Christmas"
The hour-long show was from Baylor University, a place I didn't know.
There may have been four songs that knew, but most were new to me.
Some were sung by the entire chorus.
Some, like "Cradle Hymn", only had women's voices.
Some, like "Waltz of the Fairies", was purely instrumental and showed off the orchestra.
Amazingly, there was only one 'mercial break for the whole hour, and that had been a very brief station ID.
Coffee was served in the souvenir cup he'd brought me from Sitka, Alaska.
All in all, such a fine way to begin this post-Thanksgiving Friday.
i thank You, God.
This was received from my first niece, just moments after the Peanuts gang went by in the Macy's 98th Thanksgiving Day Parade!
Plus, I'd watched "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" last night, so those characters were fresh in my mind as well as my heart.
Right place, right time!!!
Sherry Moore was the first to send me this, and I promptly moved it along to others that I know and love.
So very festive, isn't it?
He and Mary were to be at Tyler and Hannah's in Rincon; Tony and Laura, as well as Dane the dog, went down to Tampa to be with her two middle sons, Cole and Alek.
With the food given to me, I had ham and pasta soup to start my day.
Fourth, I'm glad to be such a regular face at AMC that I get treated like royalty.
I went to the cinema for the 1000 bonus points for getting a ticket to "Wicked, Part 1".
That wasn't what I wanted to see, though.
Santa and his brother Krampus were on my list!
So, they told me which screening room held "Red One" and there I went!
How lovely that the two movies had the same starting time!
Most years, that game is a loss for them, but not this year!
Sure, as Jeff the ex said, it was a real nail-biter during those last two minutes of play, but the Lions managed to keep their edge over the Chicago Bears.
Whew!!!
Rain is forecast in a day or so, and the yards both needed a trim.
The front yard won out and I mowed at least two-thirds of it before the Ryobi stopped.
Perhaps I will finish it tomorrow, perhaps not.
Seventh, after all was done, I feasted upon smoked turkey breast, baked sweet potato, and deviled eggs.
That was a meal I didn't have to cook or prep, thanks to my brothers.
Eighth, I'm now being treated to "Mary Poppins" - the 1964 musical with Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke - on the telly.
i thank You, God, for this day of gratitude.
"What's that, dearie?"
His new kitteh. He's named her Emily.
He says she's five months old. He also seems to think she's as big as Chloe was.
"His old lady cat that died a few years ago? She was pretty large!"
That's what I told him. Still, he has it in his head that Emily is that size.
"Doesn't he have paintings of his other cats? He could compare this new one to those."
Actually, part of his housekeeping changes with the divorce was throwing out all of that. I don't really understand why. Perhaps he and The 'Cole spent time together during those painting sessions, with him doing that while she did something else, but both in the same space. Like I said, I don't know why, but I do understand the need for a dramatic change when a relationship ends.
"Yes, but you didn't throw out anything you had created as an artist. You painted every room in the house with bright colors!"
Not quite true. The pantry has yet to be painted. (smile!) Plus, I wouldn't call the colors "bright", just definitely not in the realm of "eggshell white" that they were. "Warm", that's what they are.
"Yes, dearie. So, back to this evening. How did that go?"
He'd cooked dinner, something called "General Tso's Tofu", and it was okay. We'd talked a bit before he served it up, then we watched "Wicked Little Letters" while we ate.
"Oh, that's the Olivia Colman movie he'd wanted to see!"
That's right. And get this: he'd saved it to watch with me.
"How very nice! Knowing he could have watched it any time, how truly wonderful that he'd waited to see it with you. He's a good friend."
Yes, he is. I was quite touched that he'd held back on seeing it.
"So, y'all have future plans? I hope?"
Not anything set in ink, but school is almost out and he wants us to do dinner and a movie at his Osprey Cove nest in the next two weeks. I suggested I bring a pizza. Maybe I'll pick up one of those Margherita pizzas I so like at Publix and bring that! We could even cook it there and chat while it was getting done. Oh, I do like that idea!
I have it in my head that his gravestone is in the third row from the lane, but that is wrong.
His is in the second row, and only about halfway down the lane.
The photo is taken looking toward the lane.
I straightened up the area, taking away a huge bag of debris from the area.
Those little glass beads were scattered across another grave, but I collected them to brighten up his name plate.
Samuel Marquieth Johnson, gone fifteen years now.
He would have been 58 this year, just a year younger than my youngest brother.
I've surrendered my post as administrator of his facebook page.
Bob WIley and Perry Foster are still administrators, so he will still have someone to make posts and check on fb status updates.
I just cannot have that responsibility anymore... but I will still tend his grave from time to time, just to make sure his name can still be read by those who love him.
He was a good friend, and I still miss our Thursday outings.
"That's not quite right, you know."
What's that you say?
"In the play tonight. Drinking the spring water didn't make them forever young. It made them forever the age they were when they first drank it. That's why when 'Jessie' saw that 'Winnie' was about to drink from it, he stopped her."
Oh, you're talking about "Tuck Everlasting", the play at Savannah Children's Theatre.
Kinda sorta. I actually took that phrase verbatim from retired police officer 'Arthur Dales'. When speaking to 'Mulder', he said, "Baseball keeps you forever young." I took that as a fitting reason to have watched "The Unnatural" when I got home last night from the play. That made it not a coincidence that I chose to finally watch that episode I'd recorded a couple of months ago.
"Right place, right time. Yes, I see the correlation, but the play posed a deep question. That's why you decided to see it after all, as you've had some serious health issues with your heart since you last saw it in October of 2018."
That's right. That was 6 years ago and all was well and I was recently retired. Savannah Stage Company performed it then, with Taylor Rigsbee as the 10-year-old 'Winnie' and Carson Schem as 'Jessie'. I remember it well, even though I never wrote about it."How odd. You seem to write about everything now!"
I know it must seem that way. It wasn't until fb reminded me of a post I left there about it that I realized I had no written record here of having gone. That's not to say I don't recall the play, though. I have definite memories of that story and the questions it raised. Would I choose immortality, knowing it meant I would see all who I loved age and die? My answer back then had been a resounding "No". If I were to become immortal, it would be because immortality was thrust upon me, as it was for the Tucks, as it had been for the title character in "The Age Of Adaline". None of them had the option to choose that path in life. None of them even knew they were immortal until they realized that years had passed and they were not aging.
"Yes, the townspeople actually brought it to the Tucks' attention, accusing them of sorcery. Sure, they were up in the home of Adirondack bluegrass, and the year was 1793 when they drank the spring's water. That meant it was early 1800's when folks around there noticed none of them changed. 'Miles' was a 22-year-old husband of two small children; they changed and grew, but he remained the same. His oldest was only 7 when his parents moved away from that town, taking their sons, 'Miles' and 'Jessie' with them."
That's exactly what I was saying. The immortal ones had to leave ones they loved who had remained mortal.
"Well, they could have taken others to the spring, let them drink, too."
Why would 'Miles' want his children to remain their ages forever? Because that's the way it would work. Their minds would grow and change with their new experiences, but their bodies and appearance would be forever that of little children. That's like that movie last month with the little girl who was turned into vampire. Not being able to grow into a woman made her become bitter and even turned her against her Sire.
"Oh, that's right! And she had been about the same age as 'Winnie'. Come to think of it, 'Winnie Foster' was the same age as your twin great-nieces."
"In her defense, it was 1880 when they met. She lived in a small mountain town where life moved slowly. She met 'Jessie' when she ran away to the nearby copse of woods near her Granny's home. She thought he was just a teenage boy until he started throwing all that math at her. She didn't know he was being honest with her. Then she met his parents and brother and realized they were telling the truth. The Tucks knew that she was too young to drink that special water, as she would be trapped forever in the 10-year-old body she currently had."
Yes. But, before the Tucks left town this time, 'Jessie' gave the girl a vial of the water. He wanted her to drink it when she turned 17 so the two of them could live out eternity forever young. At the time, she promised him she would.
"Yes, but did she keep that promise?"
Again, in her defense, she was a 10-year-old girl in 1880. Her best friend was a toad that lived in the garden. She used the vial of water to save its life when it was attacked by a neighbor's dog. I can certainly see Leila or Alyssa doing the same thing to save the life of a pet or another animal.
"Point made. But why didn't she refill the bottle from the spring?"
Who knows? Perhaps she couldn't find the spring again. Perhaps she simply forgot about it. Perhaps she had intended to refill the bottle when she got older, but was unable to do so. Perhaps she fell in love and forgot about 'Jessie'. We don't know. And the Tucks did not return to that little town for 70 years. They missed seeing her again by two years. They would not have known what happened in her life had it not been for the tombstone, which proclaimed her as a beloved "wife, mother, and grandmother".
"Oh, poor 'Jessie'!"
"Is that him in the two photographs? Wearing the overalls and hat?"
Yes, it is, and that's 'Winnie', played by Isabel Hollingsworth, there with him. I told him I was very impressed with how well they captured the joy of life, as well as the responsibility of knowing they had to protect others from their immortality. I should have asked if he was already 17 or not.
"That would have been interesting. I'm sure none of the others would have had the chance to play their age in this piece."
That's true. This was done with no adults, just students. Lila Allen and Eli Chapman did beautifully well as the parents, who would have been forever in their late 30's or early 40's, well aware of the immensity of being suddenly immortal. Hailey Morris played the other brother, having once known the responsibility and joy of being a parent. I thought Hailey did well at incorporating that loss into 'Miles'.
"Indeed he did. They all had that extra depth that you wouldn't expect from teens."
Not true. I know that well, as I see it with every performance there at the SavChTh, as well as at the other schools where I go for theatrical entertainment. I've posted this show, as well as the one from SavArtsAcad, on my fb page, to encourage others. I've even recommended the musical from SavStageCo in that post! I do hope folks will see all three, as I have. Nothing like hearing others' stories to bring understanding to your own.