My friend Clive at Take it Easy reminds us about Mental Health Awareness Week. We’re in the midst of it here in The States and it’s coming up next week in the UK. But really … there’s no timeline for mental health awareness and it doesn’t take a huge time commitment or expensive exercise equipment. A doctor friend of mine likes to say “When you wake up, get up. And when you get up, do something.” Simple enough, even for this old bird! Stay healthy, my friends!
Have you ever roller skated? As a child I had the type of roller skates that attached to my shoes and tightened with a key. I would skate in my neighborhood with my friends; since the number of cars on the road back then was much less than now, it was safe for us to take over the whole street and skate for hours. I never had a pair of professional-type skates with the beautiful wood wheels, the ones that laced up like ice skates, nor did I ever go to a roller skating rink. My experience was limited to street skating in strap-on skates with my friends … and lots of skinned knees!
2. Have you ever ridden a horse (or donkey) Yes, Iāve actually ridden both. When I was a young girl in The Bronx, I remember there was a truck that would travel around the area making stops along the way. It was not a very large truck, similar to the vehicles belonging to private landscapers you see today. The truck traveled around and played music like an ice cream truck but instead of ice cream, it carried two ponies and offered rides to children whose parents were lucky enough to have an extra 5Ā¢ to spend. The rides didn’t last long, just up and down our street with the truck driver/pony handler holding the rein and leading us around. For city kids such as myself, this was an exciting and memorable event! One summer my sister-in-law and I took our young children horseback riding while on vacation in Montauk. It started out nice but as the day progressed, the weather became increasingly hot and humid and we were all extremely uncomfortable. Since it was a half day tour for beginners, we werenāt exactly galloping bareback down the beach on wild horses which would have provided a cooling breeze. At the end of the day, we were all sweaty, sunburned and covered with mosquito bites … not to mention that we walked like John Wayne for the next two days! There are quite a few horse stables where I currently live and itās not unusual to see people on horseback crossing the local streets going from one trail to another. It’s a lovely way to spend a few hours but horseback riding isnāt anything I see myself doing again. While in Sicily I rode donkeys fairly often. Many of the streets in my fatherās home town are so narrow, the only way to go from one place to another is by foot or on a donkey. Riding a donkey is nothing like riding a horse. Donkeys are much slower than horses; they are approachable and lovable, overall non-reactive and less likely to go into a flight response. Even though I rode horses several times, I did not grow up around them so it was natural for me to feel safer being around a donkey than a horse. Youāre also much closer to the ground should you take a tumble! Our donkeys were always saddled, a much more comfortable and safer way to ride.
3. What was your favourite ride at a fun fair? The rollercoaster, without a doubt. I love rollercoasters ā the good old-fashioned ones with lots of steep climbs and drops ā none of this crazy upside down nonsense you see these days. Just give me an old rollercoaster and Iām a happy camper. All the rides that spin and twist and twirl and go upside down make me terribly nauseous and I steer clear of them. Also I will never go on any ride that involves a free fall; to me that is just insanity. I also used to love water parks and riding the huge twisty-turny slides into the giant pools. They were great fun and an instant way to cool off but these days I can’t walk around theme parks for hours on end because of my arthritis. As my husband always says, “I’m too old for this crap!”
4. Choice of fun fair prizes: coconut, cuddly toy, Ā£10/$10 cash prize. Well, money is always nice but Iād say a cuddly toy to give my granddaughter (unless it’s an elephant which I’d keep for myself! š). We don’t have coconut as a prize here which is too bad because I love coconut. But we do have cotton candy and whatās a day at the fair without the sweet fluffy clouds of pink cotton candy? The legendary Coney Island is an hourās drive from my house and Palisades Park (made famous by the video below) is only 30 minutes away in New Jersey across the Hudson River. We went to both places often when we were younger. For my UK friends, our Coney Island in Brooklyn was inspired by your seaside resort of New Brighton. We now live about 10 minutes away from Playland Park in Rye, NY, an old and very well-known amusement park/beach. Iām a fan of the Dragon Coaster and the arcade but we spend most of our time (at least for now) in Kiddie-Land where our little 4 year old granddaughter can have fun on the kid rides and play mini-golf, which is the only type of golfing Iām into! And letās not forget the Tunnel of Love for me and my mister!
Thanks for offering up a fun prompt, Di! š¢ šļø š
An old man lived alone in the country. He wanted to dig up his garden and plant vegetables, but the ground was too hard. He sat down and wrote a letter to his son, who was in the state penitentiary.
Dear Fred,
It looks like I wonāt be able to plant my garden this year. Iām too old to be digging up a garden plot. If only you were here, I know youād dig the plot for me and all my troubles would be over.
Love, Dad
A few days later he received a letter from his son.
Dear Dad,
Whatever you do, donāt dig up that garden ā thatās where I buried the bodies!
Love, Fred
Early the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left.
The following day the old man received another letter from his son.
Dear Dad,
Go ahead and plant your garden now. That was the best I could do under the circumstances.
And this is what it looks like now after a few weeks of water and sun; I just repotted into a larger pot; now I’m going to stand back and watch what happens. I’ve been thinking I should name it Audrey III!
It looks a bit prehistoric, doesn’t it? All that new reddish growth will unfurl into giant-sized leaves; if you look closely you can see some are already beginning to unfurl. This is one of the largest plants I have. Stay tuned for Audrey III’s growth over the next few weeks.
“For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun? And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.” – Kahlil Gibran
After Roman governor Pontius Pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified, the real brutality began.
Roman soldiers ā experts at torture and death ā stripped Jesus of His clothes and likely chained Him to a stone pillar. They beat Him again and again with a Roman flagrum, a whip that would have had anywhere from three to twelve strands of leather. Metal balls were woven into the leather, and at the end of each strand were pieces of broken pottery, glass, nails, bone, or twisted metal, designed to grab flesh and rip.
Imagine Jesus as He was beaten over and over and over and over again, huge pieces of skin and muscle being ripped and torn away with every blow. By the time the soldiers were done, His back and buttocks and legs would have been bloody, mangled ribbons of flesh and muscle and sinew.
This beating was called āthe half death,ā because half the men who received it died from it. But not Jesus; He had more to endure.
The soldiers put a purple robe on Him, twisted together a crown of thorns from the famous Jerusalem thorn bush ā with thorns that were up to 3 inches long ā and beat it into His skull with a rod, which they also used to batter His face. He was beaten so badly He didnāt even look human.
Now Jesus became an object of mockery. The Roman soldiers knelt before Him, laughingly calling out, āHail, King of the Jews.ā They slapped Him and spit on Him. Through it all, He remained silent.
Soon, they marched Him off to Golgotha, the hill of the skull, just outside Jerusalem. Here the Roman soldiers stripped Him of all His clothes, threw Him down on a wooden cross, stretched out His hands, took a spike nail, and hammered it into His right wrist.
Imagine the pain of each blow, as the hammer came down again and again, driving the nail deeper and deeper into His wrist, Why His wrists? Because the weight of His body, once lifted up on the cross, would tear His hands through the nail if it were put through His palm instead of His wrist. Only the spot where the two bones of the wrist come together could support the full weight of a man hung by a spike nail. Next, the soldiers crossed His feet and drove a spike nail through them. The soldiers then lifted the cross up and dropped it into a previously dug hole. It was probably at this point that all of Jesus’ bones came out of joint.
And thatās when the slow suffering began. There He was for all the world to see ānaked and bleeding and dying. To add insult to His many injuries, the thieves being crucified next to Him began to mock Him, as did the religious leaders and the crowds who had gathered.
To breathe on the cross is no small thing. Jesus had to push His body up to exhale and come down to inhale, scraping His open, bloody back against the rough-hewn wood of the cross for hours. Jesus did not die from the beating or the bleeding, although they were horrendous; he suffocated. The pain would have been excruciating.
Finally, after six hours of tortured breathing, the end was near. Jesus looked up to Heaven and said, āEloi! Eloi! Lama sabachthaniā which means, āMy God! My God! Why have you forsaken me? In that moment, Jesus was enduring the ultimate agony. Then Jesus yelled out the three words that would change the course of historyāāIt is finishedāāand He bowed His bloodied head and died.
There are few things better than waking up feeling happy and in a good mood. It doesn’t matter how you got to that happy place, as long as it didn’t result in someone else’s unhappiness. If you woke up feeling glum, chum, I’m sure this piece of fun from the Bluebird of Bitterness will take that frown and turn it upside down! Looking for a smile? Click here!
This is Rufus Wainwright doing his best Judy Garland singing “Get Happy”. Check out those gorgeous gams!
The layout of Freedomland; I’d forgotten it was in the shape of the US!
Back in 1960, before the first Six Flags opened in Texas, there was Freedomland USA ā¦. a fantastic, 85-acre amusement park with rides, restaurants, attractions, shopping, etc. And one of the things that made this wonderland so amazing was the fact that it was about 20 minutes from my house in The Bronx, NY. We would sit on our front porch at night and watch the fireworks coming from Freedomland.
“What else was so special about the place?”, you ask; well, it was the music hall known as the Moon Bowl!
In an attempt to attract visitors of varying ages, the Moon Bowl featured swing bands from the 1940s and contemporary pop stars. There was a stage and a 15,000 square foot outdoor dance floor. Among the performers who entertained us (and who I saw) were the Count Basie Orchestra, Paul Anka, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, Bobby Rydell, Chubby Checker and more.
A ticket to Freedomland; check out the price of admission!
Bobby Darin performing at the Moon Bowl
Somewhere in my attic I have many tickets and autographs tucked away with all my Beatles scrapbooks and R&R memorabilia. I was a very lucky girl who got to meet a lot of famous people! Unfortunately, Freedomland USA went belly up after just five seasons but I have memories that will last forever.
Today I am featuring one of the performers I saw at Freedomland, the place where I fell in love with him when I was 10 years old ā¦. the one-and-only Bobby Darin, definitely tops on my list. He can bring me out of a lousy mood or help me chill when Iām feeling stressed out.
There arenāt enough adjectives to describe the incredible talents of Bobby Darin. He was the consummate performer, a one-man show who composed songs, conducted the orchestra, sang different genres of music, danced, played the drums, piano, harmonica and guitar, did impressions, acted in movies and dazzled us with his Sinatra-like charm, mannerisms and sense of humor. My fellow-New Yorker was born Walden Robert Cassotto on May 14, 1936. It was a time when ethnic-sounding names such as his were frowned-upon by music producers; they felt something more white bread Americana would help these performers with strange names go further in the biz so Walden Robert Cassotto became Bobby Darin.
Bobby was only 37 years old when he died .ā¦ recurring bouts of rheumatic fever as a child left him with a seriously weakened heart. Believing his time on earth was limited, he lived his life to the fullest, pushing himself to all he could. In 1973, after failing to take antibiotics to protect his heart before a dental visit, Bobby developed sepsis. On December 19, 1973, a four-person surgical team worked for over six hours to repair his damaged heart. In the early morning hours of December 20, Bobby Darin died in the recovery room without regaining consciousness. That day the entertainment world lost one of its brightest stars and my own heart broke a little.
Ā āMack The Knifeā is undoubtedly Bobby Darinās most famous hit ā¦. a cool, finger-snapping song about the notorious killer, thief and arsonist, Macheath (AKA Mac the Knife). The song was originally written in 1928 for the German dramatic play Die Dreigroschenoper (Threepenny Opera) and sounds totally different than Bobby Darinās version.
Another one of Bobbyās hits is āBeyond The Seaā, a jazzed-up version of a romantic love song based on the classical piece called āLe Merā by French composer, lyricist, singer and showman Charles Trenet. The 2004 movie Beyond The Sea was released starring Kevin Spacey in the role of Bobby Darin. In case you only Spacey for his dramatic roles and have never seen him in a musical role, youāre in for a treat. Spacey is a master of impersonations and sang all Bobby Darinās songs himself. He became Bobby Darin and if you like dramatic biographies with a splash of nightclub routines, youāll love this movie.
Anything else you want to know about Freedomland, USA or Bobby Darin you can Google or read in Wiki. Iām just so grateful I had a chance to spend my pre-teen years in a place like Freedomland where I got to see Bobby Darin up close and personal and got his autograph. People have asked me āWhy donāt you sell some of this stuff? Youāve got a treasure trove packed away.ā Yeah, itās a treasure trove and thatās exactly why Iāll be keeping it for as long as I live.
This is Bobby Darin performing his greatest hit, āMack The Knifeā on the Ed Sullivan Show, May 31, 1959.
Now āBeyond The Seaā, also from the same airing of the Ed Sullivan show.
In this video, several of the many talents of the fabulous Bobby Darin are put on display. Bobby sings, plays bluesy harmonica, boogies on piano and performs a blistering Gene Krupa style drum solo. Live on the David Frost Show, 1972 ā¦. 18 months before his death.
I hope you enjoyed taking a walk with me down Memory Lane …. not just sharing my fond, girlhood memories of Freedomland but remembering the remarkable Bobby Darin.
Clark at Wakefield Doctrine is asking us to join bloggers from all over the world as we come together to share those things that we are thankful for. He has asked for ten; Iām sure I have many more than that.
First place on my list is my husband Bill who does everything from changing tires to changing diapers. He has always been a hands-on partner, happily helping me in more ways than I can count.
I am grateful for our sons, their wives and their children, all of whom seem to have turned out to be perfectly normal, happy and well-adjusted.
Iām thankful for the four seasons and, as much as I dislike snow, we have a top-notch snow removal system in our town.
Being a good cook able to prepare a variety of meals; take out is a rare treat.
We have great neighbors who also happen to be dear friends. We’ve shared happy times and have waited anxiously together in the emergency room. We are here for each other.
Good movies and baseball games to watch from my recliner while eating the aforementioned HƤagen-Dazs.
Music and the ability to create it, listen to it, feel it in my soul and blog about it.
I am eternally grateful for accepting the challenge to write a 250-word story back in 2017. If not for that, I would not be sharing my stories with you today, meeting people and making friends along the way.
And finally, Iām thankful for the longer periods of daylight that come with Spring and even though it means losing an hour of sleep, itās ok …. today is a free day with nothing to do and nowhere to go. Changing the clocks is silly; I vote we stick to DST all year long.
Thanks to Clark for giving me the chance to write about ten things for which I am grateful.
Take care, stay well, be safe always and give thanks!
PS: I am supremely thankful for George Harrison, an extremely talented musician as well as a funny, introspective, thoughtful, spiritual and quietly accepting man.
This is a new challenge for me ā¦. an episode of Truthful Tuesday. The idea is to respond to the question (or questions) being asked and to be 100% truthful in our responses. No glib answers, no funny business, no fibs. Just raw honesty.
For this weekās Truthful Tuesday, our host Frank says:
Weāre going to play a game of āThis or That.ā Even if something else is truly your favorite, the idea isnāt necessarily to get to the favorite, but to reveal which of the two options you would prefer. I will accept a vote of neither if there is truly no preference between the two listed, but donāt provide a third alternative.
Spring or Summer? Spring Summer or Autumn? Summer Autumn or Winter? Autumn Spring or Autumn? Spring Summer or Winter? Summer Spring or Winter? Spring
Picnic in the park or Backyard barbecue? Backyard barbecue. Iām not a sit-in-the-grass type of girl. I donāt like bugs or even the thought of something crawling on me. I love a good grilled steak or burger and a nice wine or ice cold beer, sitting on my deck, watching the birds, talking to my husband. I like being able to go inside whenever I want to and not having to hunt for a bathroom or chance getting caught in the rain.
Dining outside or Dining inside? Dining inside for all the reasons I mentioned above. Iāll eat outside before the mosquitoes come out or the humidity sets in but after that, Iām inside watching the ballgame.
Cooking out (backyard grill) or Eating out (restaurant)? Well, obviously it depends on the occasion but Iād have to say ācooking out (backyard grill)ā. Iām well beyond that point in my life where I need or want to get dressed to go out with a bunch of people I donāt know or like and having to pay ridiculous prices for food I can probably cook just as well at home. However, I do enjoy going to a restaurant for a special occasion and have a few coming up over the next couple of months that Iām really looking forward to.
Fresh cut flowers or Potted plants? Definitely potted plants! I have a green thumb and many plants in my sunroom. I welcome the gift of a plant over flowers any day.
Once upon a time I was writing music blogs for a great little site called The Rhythm Section (TRS). Some of you followed my posts there; others were unaware of the site’s existence. As of a few days ago, The Rhythm Section was officially shut down.
I had the dream of starting my own music blog and gave it a great deal of thought; unfortunately, too many things got in the way. In the end I decided I had neither the time nor the ambition to maintain two sites and give both the attention they deserve.
I spent a lot of time working on TRS and thought “what a shame to let everything I wrote simply fade away”. And so I’m moving on, away from forces and people who drag me down and doing more of what makes me happy … like making one site out of two.
With that thought in mind, I have transferred every one of my posts from The Rhythm Section and incorporated them into The Elephantās Trunk; they are all here in chronological order, tucked away between my stories, poems and other music posts. While looking them over, I have discovered some graphics did not survive the transfer; that’s unfortunate but it’s the chance we take when moving a lot of data around. Fortunately, the text and videos are intact.
I invite you, if you are so inclined, to check out TRS posts; they are dated March 2, 2023 and run through December 31, 2023. You’ll find them.
I hope you enjoy the words I have written and the music I have chosen.
Not too long ago we got into the subject of the pros and cons of reality television. At that time I mentioned that I enjoyed watching American Idol when it first came out and now America’s Got Talent. Admitting that didn’t embarrass me at all; I have always been a fan of music talent shows and what bigger musical competition program is there than AGT?
This evening while checking out what was on my DVR I came across this. What a great example of reaching for the moon and realizing what had only been imagined.
Stay tuned right here for a brand new Friday post starting on April 28. It’s gonna be great music blogs and videos all day, every day in The Rhythm Section and it’s gonna be cool!
The Elephant's Trunk 