Thank goodness

As we got into the van at the end of the day...

"Mom, I had to go to the nurse today because I wasn't feeling well and she looked at my throat and it was o.k. and she looked into my ear and could see my brain and she said 'you have a headache' because she could see my brain and then she listened to my heart and told me that my heart almost was stopping."

Wow. You're heart is stopping? I think that means we can't do the special art project tomorrow with your class because you are sick.

"Oh. I'm fine."

Thank goodness.

Six voters

My assigned task for the Martha Coakley campaign on Special Election day was to drive voters who could not get themselves to the polls. At first I only had three folks to drive, all southeast of my hometown, and figured I would get to return to finish the day holding signs or making a few last ditch Get The Vote Out (GTVO) calls.

The first voter, the note said, used a wheelchair. I arrived at the apartment building, Mrs. D buzzed me in, and I rode up the elevator to her floor. Turning down the hall I was immediately struck by the medicinal smell of a nursing home, although this was a mixed use building. Her door was all the way at the end and slightly ajar. I knocked and opened the door to find a tiny, frail woman sitting in a motorized wheelchair.

After switching to a chair I would push, and attaching Mrs. D's oxygen tank, we locked up and started down the hall. She proceeded to rail, in her tiny voice, about people in her building "who aren't even registered to VOTE!" She continued, aghast "Can you imagine?"

We arrived at my mini-van and she struggled mightily to get herself up into the passenger seat. As we started to drive I mentioned which polling station I was taking her to and she felt pretty strongly that she voted at another location. I suggested we go to the one I was told and run in to ask. She agreed.

I entered the large church hall only to find two precincts voting in that location. It became apparent I was asking for someone else and when I finished explaining Mrs. D's situation, a clerk declared "Well you should just bring her ballot to the car. Let me get one of the police officers to escort you". And like that I was able to bring a ballot and pen to Mrs. D and she voted in my van. It was an honor to have my dingy van be the site of something so important.

Another voter later in the day became a US citizen 35 years ago. Mr. A was born in Trinidad and Tribago but raised his three sons in the big city. He had a prosthetic leg, above the knee, that kept popping out requiring him to stop and either have me push it back while sitting in his wheelchair or he would rearrange it so he could stand. It took him 30 minutes to get out of his house.

While driving to the polls he talked about how the United States was the greatest country in the world and that voting was very important. At one point he declared "Let's get Martha elected!" with a broad grin and a clap of his hands.

Coming back he mused "maybe I should have gotten an absentee ballot" so that he didn't have to vote at the polls. "But then I would've never met you!" I replied.

It took 30 minutes to get him back into his house, through the garage and up a winding staircase. I left him at the top of his stairs, on a mobile stair chair waving goodbye.

I drove others that day. An 88-year-old woman who had never missed an election since she was 21 ("we couldn't vote until we were 21" she reminded me). A 56-year-old man living in an assisted living facility who had suffered a massive stroke and asked my help to fill out his ballot since he couldn't find the dot to fill in. One woman who told me about how she missed out on her chance to vote for McGovern (and declared with pride that Massachusetts was the only state to vote for him) because she had emergency surgery that day.

While I was on the losing side of the election (in more ways than one), I did win in other ways. I helped six people vote. Six people who each had very good reasons, and in some cases many of them, to not vote.

So while I am still sorting out my anger and disappointment from other parts of the election, I am hopeful.

Because people vote.

Just like Madeline

I would not say that the little girls at Miss Clavel's school, the smallest one being Madeline, were a big part of my childhood. I knew of them but don't recall reading the books as a child. We have a few of the books in the house but they aren't ones we read repeatedly - over and over again - like others.

That will change because I now share a special bond with Madeline.

It all started last Monday, December 7th, the day before my birthday. I started to feel a bit blah during a meeting (but then who doesn't feel blah during meetings) and noticed I wasn't hungry (an odd state for me). I made myself eat some soup with a friend and blessedly she was interesting and engaging so I could focus on the topics and not how I felt.

I had to leave the big city early to see the boys in a Musical Theatre review. They and 40+ other kids spent the last six weeks learning Singing in the Rain, We Go Together and other songs and this was the big performance. I got to the school auditorium and immediately started feeling chilled and then really hot. My gut started to hurt and all I wanted to do was curl up under the medal chairs.

I watched the performance, clapped and cheered. I thought I had done a good job covering up my discomfort. As the boys bounced off the stage one of them came up to me and asked "why are you so mad? You looked mad during the show."

So much for hiding it from them.

I managed to get us in the van and then realized I was really hurting. It was so bad I taught one of my sons how to make an emergency call on my phone. "Does this mean you are going to crash?" he asked warily. Fortunately we were able to retrieve their younger sister from her after care program and arrive home safely without crashing.

I told the kids to fend for themselves for dinner and not torture the dog. I curled up in bed, read on-line the symptoms for appendicitis, and laid there convinced it wasn't my appendix. It didn't feel like the flu - no achy joints or headaches - and it wasn't a stomach bug. The pain was all in my gut. And while it was painful, and I had heard all these stories of people suffering blinding, rolling-on-the-floor pain, it in no way compared to giving birth without an epidural.

So I laid there trying to convince myself that it wasn't my appendix.

And then I smartened up, called the after-hours staff at my doctor's office and called a friend to drive me to the hospital. By 9:00 pm I was drinking barium for a CT scan and by 2:30 am, my birthday, I was going under general anesthesia for an appendectomy.

And, just like Madeline, I now have a scar to the right of my belly button. And she is now one of my favorite characters from children's literature.

Now I just need a yellow hat with a black bow.

Say whatever

While driving to school one brother told on the other one.

"I saw him sitting on his chair the wrong way. His bottom was on the back rest and his feet were on the seat!"

What followed was a cascade of confessions, tattle-telling and a 5-year-old younger sister begging that we not talk about this.

The upshot was that someone was copping a little attitude in his third-grade class, in part to keep up with the antics of his friends and in part because I gave him permission.

I what?

"Yeah Mom! You told me that I could say whatever I want when I am with my friends!"

Back up a year or so ago when the first, real ugly word came out of my sons' mouths. I was in a panic. How does one stop them from using obscenities, snarky sayings, crass gestures? How does one, as the saying goes, not think of an elephant when someone says elephant?

A dear friend had an ingenious response. She tells her daughters she can't control what they say to their friends but in their family home they have to use appropriate language.

So that was my response and we've done pretty well in the family, language wise.

What I didn't think would happen was he would take the comment to mean all actions with friends, outside of our house, including class time.

We have now clarified that what I meant was during recess. Class time means work time.

And I have to go apologize to a third grade teacher.

Heard it from a friend

We were all in the car this weekend and there were several times when I was floored at the songs the boys could sing along to.

True by Spandeu Ballet wasn't too much of a surprise. A song by Daughtry was a bit of a shock but I figured they were probably hearing it on the radio at camp.

But when this song came on - and they sang nearly every lyric, with terrific phrasing and feeling - I nearly fell out of the car.

Laughing.

Because really, 8-year-old boys can sing the following with such authority -

Heard it from a friend who
Heard it from a friend who
Heard it from another you been messin' around
They say you got a boyfriend
You're out late every weekend
They're talkin' about you and it's bringin' me down

Never thought I would hear REO Speedwagon's Take it on the Run sung so well by third graders.

Any song sung by little kids that makes you (happily) smile?

Sorry for the lack of Linky Love options. Just put a link to your post in the comments and I'll make a nice little list.

Travel to You - The South Carolina Mix

When I arrived, over an hour late, at the Charleston, South Carolina airport last weekend (a foreshadow of things to come) I found Ambassador waiting for me with open arms. We hugged, giggled and promptly walked the four steps to the car rental desk (the airport was this big - put your thumb 1/2 an inch from your first finger).





We found our car and, much to our glee, discovered it had a sun roof.

Which came in handy as we drove over the Cooper River bridge, taking photos of the span while blaring Ambassador's "Travel to You" mix of songs - one of my myriad of gifts from him from that weekend.

Chain Reaction - Steps

Don't Leave Me This Way - The Communards

Groove is in the Heart - Dee-lite

History Repeating - Shirley Bassey and Propellerhead

It's a Sin - Pet Shop Boys

Knock on Wood - Amii Stewart

A Little Respect - Erasure

Never Can Say Goodbye - The Communards

Pride (In the Name of Love) - The Groove Factory

Waterfalls (Workout Mix) - TLC

What's on Your Mind (Pure Energy) - Information Society

Allegra's Aria - Soprano Yanick Alexandre

It's Oh So Quiet - Bjork

Miss Chatelaine - k.d. lang

Everlasting Love - Gloria Estefan

Whispering Your Name - Alison Moyet

And the song I associate with these photos is this fabulous rendition of Don't Leave Me This Way by the Communards. You have not lived until you've sung this loudly in a car with Ambassador.

Any song that you have known forever and now have a fresh memory with it? Do share.

Sorry for the lack of Linky Love options. Just put a link to your post in the comments and I'll make a nice little list.

Harpers Ferry WV - didn't find any

Amazing Guy suggested that on our second day of driving into the southern part of these United States during the April school vacation we scoot over to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. I initially thought that was a pretty bleak and boring suggestion. All I had was visions of some dilapidated shed with a marker saying "John Brown's Fort".

John Brown's Fort at Harpers Ferry.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

"For Sale A NEGRO GIRL, about 9 years old...." A reproduction of a 1830 advertisement.

Harpers Ferry is part of the National Parks Service. It has a full and rich history in addition to being in a splendid part of the country. The name comes from Robert Harper and his ferry service that crossed the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers. Thomas Jefferson wrote after describing the view from an outcrop renamed "Jefferson's Rock" that "this scene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic."

View from Jefferson's Rock

In 1803 Merriweather Lewis traveled to Harpers Ferry to gather provisions and weapons for his and Clark's expedition across the unknown parts of the continent.

Kids looking out from Robert Harper's house.

While I was familiar with John Brown's raid and attempts to start a slave revolt in 1859, and his subsequent execution, I was completely ignorant of the continued role that Harpers Ferry played in the ongoing civil rights movement.

Harpers Ferry was captured and recaptured six times on September 15, 1862 during the Civil War.

Less than 10 years after Brown tried to incite an armed revolt, Storer College was founded and opened for all regardless of gender, race or religion. And in 1906 The Niagra Movement was founded, the precursor to the NAACP, by W.E.B. DuBois for two purposes; "organized determination and aggressive action on the part of men who believed in Negro freedom and growth," and opposition to "present methods of strangling honest criticism."


There were meticulous recreations of old stores and homes. We got to see tailor shops, boarding rooms and homes for the wealthy. We listened to recordings of actors portraying slaves describing their lives and activists talking about human rights in the late 19th century. We climbed stairs carved out of the mountainous rock. There were views of the Shenandoah Valley and trains rumbling by.


I was surprised at how few people were there. Often when I visit a place I will check it off in my mind as "been there, no need to return." Harpers Ferry is a place I want to revisit again. I hope others visit it too.


As we were leaving, little lady forlornly told Amazing Guy that she didn't see a ferry. He explained to her that there were no more boats to bring goods across the rivers.

"No" she replied. "One with wings."

So maybe not all of us were impressed.

Sith

"Mom! Our new coach said a bad word after a game last year."

This announcement was made in the car on the way to soccer practice. The boys are now on a travel soccer team. Don't get me started on the fact that second graders are now traveling to other towns to play soccer. I didn't start playing town soccer until third grade. However, the boys love that they are on this team of mostly third graders and I think the experience will be good for them. They have joined a team that played last year and clearly the "old-timers" wanted to let the new-comers know what they are in for.

So back to the bad word.

"What did he say?" I asked.

"I can't repeat it" he said cautiously as he glanced back at his younger sister.

"She's not paying attention" I assured him.

He lowers his head and leans forward.

"Sith" he tells me in a stage whisper.

"Sith?" I confirm.

He gets all worried. "Yes."

"Ohhhh...." I mutter as the light changes.

He thinks for a minute. "Isn't that a name too?"

"You mean 'Seth'? That is a different word."

"Oh. But our coach said a bad word."

Yes. He did.

Sith.

Yes.

While driving home from a Saturday morning ballet lesson, my 4-year-old and I heard this song on the radio.

And as the song ended with the singer asking "Are we human? Or are we dancer?" Little Lady answered from the back seat with an unequivocal,

"yes."

Just making sure

"Mama?" asked my 4 year old from her car seat.

"Yes?"

"Will you teach me how to drive before I'm a grown-up?"

"Yes. And it will be an honor too."

Giving back his medals Part II

Several of you asked what the boys thought the appropriate punishment should be for a certain swimmer caught smoking pot. This was the rest of the conversation in the car Monday evening....

One boy declared with some disgust, "Y'know Barry Bonds isn't in jail for using steroids."

"He wouldn't tell the truth about it" said the other one knowingly (I mean how do these kids know this?).

silence

The knowing one adds, "But no one would let him play on their team. He's not playing any baseball now".

I finally weigh in with "Don't you think that is a pretty big punishment? To not play the sport you love and have people not like you?"

"Ooooooo......" they both murmered.

Seems like that would be a pretty big punishment to some 8-year-olds.

Giving back his medals

"Mom! Mom! MOM!!!!!!!!! " yelled one boy from the back of the van.

"Yes" I said in a much quieter voice.

"Did you know that Michael Phelps, um, drank drugs? So-and-so told me today" he informed me.

"Does that mean he has to give back his gold medals?" asked his brother.

And so began the explanation about performance enhancing drugs and "recreational" drugs (which are still, technically, illegal).

Which led to this response,

"But what will be his consequence for taking drugs? Won't he be punished?"

I just love the black-and-white world of 8-year-olds.

"What's sexy?"

While listening to a Brazilian song with the lyric "girls be looking sexy, lookin' mighty fine", I heard the following question from the back of the van.

"Mom? What's 'sexy' mean?"

That was so easy to answer.

"Do you remember that last hotel we stayed in before vacation ended?"

"Yes."

"Do you remember how, when we were loading the car, you and your brother saw that lady leave the hotel?"

A much slower "yeah" came out of his mouth.

"Do you remember how she was wearing a short black skirt, really high heal shoes and a top that, um, made her breasts look big?"

Giggles were now coming from both 8-year-old boys in the back of the van. "Yeah" was barely uttered in between snorts.

"Remember how you and your brother couldn't stop looking at her? That was sexy for you."

"OHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

Vacation Tunes

Music Monday, after a needed vacation, is back....

Any trip with my family involves music. While we played the boys' 8th birthday CD a lot, another mix came into play. My Running While On Vacation mix.

The surprise hit of the list? J. Geils Band "Just Can't Wait". The kids came up with the following additions to the chorus

I just can't wait
("to get to the beach" sang/yelled the kids from the back of the van)
Just can't wait
("to play in the sand")
Just can't wait
("to swim in the pool")
Just can't wait
("to get out of the car")

Click below to listen the the song. There is no video. And really, is one necessary when you can have visions of three children going nuts rocking out in the back of the van? Or of me slogging running briskly in 137% humidity up very steep hills?

So now that Music Monday is back in full swing, any summer vacation tunes to share? Do tell....

Finally freed from CD tyranny

Want another reason for why my dad is amazing, terrific and downright wonderful?

He got the permanently logged Housemartins CD out of our minivan player. So now we can listen to Neil Diamond, Annie Lennox and Papa Grows Funk to our hearts' content.

When I excitedly asked him how did he do it - with visions of tools, complicated body contortions and some swearing in my head - he replied simply,

"I hit a button and it came out."

miscellaneous dance tunes (feb 1986)

During high school I acquired one of those completely cool and necessary pieces of equipment for any music lover.

A turntable with a double cassette player.

This allowed me to make mix tapes from both albums and cassettes. Which led to the creation of my very first mix tape called miscellaneous dance tunes (feb 1986):

Side A

What's your problem? - blancmange
She went pop - Iam Siam
This is England - The Clash
Turning Japanese - Vapors
State of the Nation - Industry
What I like about you - Romantics
Everything Counts - Depeche Mode
Take on Me - A-Ha
Big in Japan - Alphaville
Don't Go - Yaz
Girl with a Curious Hand - Digny Fignus

Side B

I Want You - Caberet Voltaire
See You - Depeche Mode
Relax! - Frankie Goes to Hollywood (or as I wrote on the card, FGTH)
In a Big Country - Big Country
Situation - Yaz
Fallen Angel - Alphaville
Blue Movie - Digney Fignus
Beatnik - Buggles
Strip - Adam Ant
Just Can't Get Enough - Depeche Mode

This tape has now become a staple in the minivan since The Housemartins CD became permanently lodged into the stereo. This only proves to the kids that I have adored Yaz for well over 20 years and next month's trip to see them in NYC is well-earned.

But little lady's favorite tune from this? Local Boston performer Digney Fignus's Girl with a Curious Hand.

Still have any of those "ancient" cassette tapes? What would we hear if you played it for us? Or are you so young that you have no idea what I am talking about?

Sing along....

A bit sick of it

So while I wrote last week that I was very happy to have rediscovered the Housemartins, I'm a bit sick of them right now. There are two problems with the Housemartins CD I've recently been given. One is that it starts to skip during the 6th song and nothing plays after that.

The second is that it is stuck in the car CD player. No other CD will play. I've listened to this CD repeatedly for weeks. Especially since it is little lady's favorite set songs right now.

It's a bit too happy in the van right now. Poor Jenn from Holland had to listen to the Housemartins all weekend in the van.

I'm lucky she didn't skip into the airport yesterday.

Is there a song you are a bit sick of? Have you driven away a dear friend with a song? Do tell...

Get up off our knees

Get up Off Our Knees - The Housemartins

[special kudos to Flower Child for reminding me how awesome the Housemartins are!]

Famines will be famines, banquets will be banquets
Some spend winter in a palace, some spend it in blankets
Don’t wag your fingers at them and turn to walk away
Don’t shoot someone tomorrow that you can shoot today
Time to end the praying
Listen what they’re saying

Get up off your knees
You can wag your finger till your finger’s sore
Shake your head till it shakes no more

Paupers will be paupers, bankers will be bankers
Some own pennies in a jar, some own oil tankers
What may sound like tomorrow could be ours today
There’s no more need for sorrow if we get off our knees to pray

Time to end the praying
Listen what they’re saying

Get up off your knees
You can wag your finger till your finger’s sore
Shake your head till it shakes no more

Countries will be countries, borders will be borders
Some have lost their folks at war, some have given orders
What may sound like tomorrow could be ours today
There's no more need for sorrow if we get off our knees to pray

Time to end the praying
Listen what they’re saying
Get up off our knees

What I just loved about this song, as a high school junior - and again as a soccer mom driving a van with her kids screaming this song from the way back - was how it dared people not to hide behind their religion but to get up and do something. To not think "oh, because I prayed the world will be better."

Or worse, to think that a particular religion or belief is better. No one person, no one religion, is better.

Let's agree to believe what we need to believe to get through the day. But none of us are better than anyone else. We're all in this together.

Get up off your knees



Is there a song that gets your social justice juices flowing? Did you reconnect with music you hadn't heard in a long time? Do tell....




And be sure to visit Looking Into all this week because Flower Child is taking us to Miami with her photography. You don't want to miss it!!

How do they do it? or 525,600 ways they amaze me

"Mom! There was an assembly today!" yells one guy from the back of the van.

"Really" I ask.

"Yeah! The kids in musical theater sang 5 songs!" the other one yells.

"They sang Under the Sea and that song from Annie."

"Tomorrow?"

"No the other one."

"Hard knock life?"

"YEAH!!!!"

They grew silent as they tried to figure out the other songs.

***

Later in the evening we finished dinner and homework and were starting to mill around for the pre-bedtime activity when suddenly, in perfect unison, the boys started singing Seasons of Love from the musical Rent.

"What? How do you know this?" I asked incredulously.

"It was one of the songs at the assembly."

"Had you heard it before?"

"No."

I showed them this video. I just marvel at their ability to remember a song, perfectly, after only hearing it once.

Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand
Six Hundred Minutes
Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand
Moments so dear
Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand
Six Hundred Minutes
How Do You Measure - Measure A Year?
In Daylights - In Sunsets
In Midnights - In Cups Of Coffee
In Inches - In Miles
In Laughter - In Strife

Got a song that startled you? Do share.... and link back to me. That's part of the game.



And yes, I'm traveling again. Will be back later this week. Forgive my absence. I'm sure you all are writing wonderful things. It is my loss to be missing them.

Walking in Memphis

Last week was February school vacation week. We went to Nashville, Tennessee to visit Amazing Guy's younger brother, his wife and their nearly one-year-old twin girls. On Monday we did a spontaneous trip to the Manmoth Caves outside of Bowling Green, Kentucky then on Tuesday we went to Memphis for several days. We returned to Nashville for one final night then had a joyous day spent in airports during Friday's snowstorms blanketing the Northeast.

For the hours of driving we were going to do in Tennessee (and Kentucky) last week, I made a CD with several songs (I know, be surprised). It had Tennessee by Arrested Development and Paul Simon's 1985 hit Graceland (everybody now "I'm going to Graceland, Graceland in Memphis Tennessee, I'm going to Graceland").

But the biggest hit by far in the rental van was Marc Cohn's Walking in Memphis.

Although missing from the video is how the song was usually sung in our van as we left Memphis.

Put on my blue suede shoes
["I have BLACK suede shoes" yells a three-year-old girl]
And I boarded the plane
["We took a plane to Tennessee!" yells someone from the back]
Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues
In the middle of the pouring rain
W.C. Handy -- won't you look down over me
Yeah I got a first class ticket
But I'm as blue as a boy can be

Then I'm walking in Memphis
["We walked in Memphis!"]
Walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale
["We walked on Beale Street!"]
Walking in Memphis
But do I really feel the way I feel

Saw the ghost of Elvis
On Union Avenue
["We drove on Union Avenue!" was usually yelled by me]
Followed him up to the gates of Graceland
["We saw Graceland!"]
Then I watched him walk right through
Now security they did not see him
They just hovered 'round his tomb

["We saw Elvis' tomb!"]
But there's a pretty little thing
Waiting for the King
Down in the Jungle Room
["We saw the Jungle Room!"]

(Chorus)

They've got catfish on the table
["Mama! You ate catfish!"]
They've got gospel in the air
["We heard gospel!"]
And Reverend Green be glad to see you
When you haven't got a prayer
But boy you've got a prayer in Memphis

Now Muriel plays piano
Every Friday at the Hollywood
And they brought me down to see her
And they asked me if I would --
Do a little number
And I sang with all my might
And she said --
"Tell me are you a Christian child?"
And I said "Ma'am I am tonight"

(Chorus)

Put on my blue suede shoes
And I boarded the plane
Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues
In the middle of the pouring rain
Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues
In the middle of the pouring rain

Walking in Memphis, Marc Cohn

Singing anything? Please share.