Our band's last gig at the Harvest Festival, photo courtesy B. RandolphMartin's beside me, picking out chords and trying to play Kings of Convenience's "Gold in the Air of Summer." The alternate tuning sounds really nice, even though he just stretched on new strings--the ends are sticking out like six lethal whiskers. New strings always sound cold and tinny, but he's warming them up.
Our friend Amy was just here practicing with us for our band's slot in. . .wait for it. . .the Faculty Talent Show at the U! Tonight Amy said we should all just quit our jobs and go on tour--our three girls and her daughter could ride along in the bus, do our accounts, set up and tear down for us. Who needs school? Tonight, over tomato soup and grilled cheese, Merry tried to get Martin and me serious about becoming famous. "You could go on the Prairie Home Companion," she breathed, her eyes round, "Or Mountain Stage!" (When you don't have TV reception, radio provides all points of reference. When asked at school to name a famous person, Merry named Carl Casell, who among other things, is the official scorer for "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," the NPR news show. . .and he IS in the Radio Hall of Fame.)
I said, "Merry, if Daddy and I were famous, we wouldn't get to spend so much time with you girls."
She took this as a valid point, though she finally concluded that Martin's and my dreams were old ones, and we'd probably fulfilled all of them already.
In a flash of warmth, Martin told her one of our dreams was to have three girls, and we did, and one of his dreams was that he would marry me, and he did,
to which I said, "That was one of my dreams, too." (I meant, to marry Martin, of course),
and Merry looked at me and asked, "You wanted to marry YOURSELF?"
I said, "One of my dreams was to have a smart-aleck eight-almost-nine-year old, and that came true." And she grinned.
I am losing any cohesive thread that might have linked this blog entry together. Oh, well. The girls get school off tomorrow for. . .wait for it again. . .the first day of hunting. They will not be hunting, but most of the county will. I will be doing laundry and writing an article and praying for the deer.
3 comments:
You can also do a retro-revival of "Hee Haw".
The hays bales lend that certain ambience.
Dress the girls in calico, and Martin wearing bib-overalls.
There you go, stardom is at your doorstep!
Uncle,
I'll tell Martin to work on his TWANG--it should come real natural, his bein from TeHas an all.
It's more of a drawl in Texas, more pleasant than the nasal whining you hear in some parts of the South.
You need to have the girls work on delivering corny jokes! It could be a really funny gig for you at the next College talent night.
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