I have officially become one of those people who has a pair of reading glasses in every room where there is a remote possibility I might want to read something. Sigh. What’s next? Wearing them around my neck on a chain?
January 19 is my mother’s birthday. It is also Dolly Parton’s. As I’ve mentioned before, it is also Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s birthday. Talk about synchronicity! My mother would be 86; she died in 1988. Dolly is 66. Buffy, being a fictional character, never ages.
On the Episcopal Church calendar of saints it is the feast day of St. Wulfstan (c. 1008 – 20 January 1095), Bishop of Worcester. He was the last surviving pre-Conquest bishop and the only English-born bishop after 1075. Oh boy.
But today we recognize those latter day saints, Mary and Dolly.
My mother's the squirmy one on the right
My mother was born and raised in Worcester, MA. She was a happy child who knocked her teeth back in her head while sledding, so enthusiastic was the abandonment with which she threw herself down the hill. She wore braces (at age 3) to correct her teeth. She was the opposite of me as a child. I was timid where she was gregarious and daring. Her stories of her childhood frequently scared me. Especially the one about the great New England hurricane of 1938–when they ran out in the street to see the destruction! And then, of course, she skied the Headwall on Mt. Washington at Tuckerman’s Ravine while a college girl at Middlebury. She was fearless.
But life can change you. Things happen. You get married and have three kids.You move away from home and your family. You live among strangers. Despite her challenges, my mother was a great mother. She taught me that you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. She taught me to keep it simple. She taught me that antiques should be lived with, not kept behind a silk rope. She taught me that Shane and Ninotchka and Breakfast at Tiffany’s and The Quiet Man and The Adventures of Robin Hood are great movies and that Errol Flynn was the epitome of handsomeness. She defended Elvis. She tried to teach me and my sister the importance of ladylike behavior at all times. She hated vulgarity. She taught me that you have to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. She taught me the importance of being spontaneous and that parties should always have favors. She taught me that you could never have enough bookshelves and that there is always money for books.
And then there’s Dolly. Dolly Rebecca Parton as you well know, is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, who is best known for her work in country music. Dolly was born in Sevierville, Tennessee, the fourth of twelve children born to Robert Lee Parton and Avie Lee Parton. She is clearly a multi-talented person, but her song-writing is where she really shines. Indeed, she has written over 3,000 songs and has earned over 35 BMI Pop and Country Awards throughout her prolific songwriting career. In 2001 she was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. She was honored as a BMI Icon at the 2003 BMI Country Awards. Yes, she is an icon.
A lot of people don’t know that since she hit it big, Dolly Parton has supported many charitable efforts, particularly in the area of literacy, primarily through her Dollywood Foundation. Her literacy program, “Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library”, a part of the Dollywood Foundation, mails one book per month to each enrolled child from the time of their birth until they enter kindergarten. It began in Sevier County but has now been replicated in 566 counties across 36 U.S. states (as well as in Canada). In December 2007 it expanded to Europe with the South Yorkshire town of Rotherham, United Kingdom, being the first British locality to receive the books. The program distributes more than 2.5 million free books to children annually. Is this awesome or what?
And her Dollywood theme park has brought jobs and tax revenues to a previously depressed region. She has probably done more to help people live respectable lives in Tennessee than anyone else. Dolly never just played lip service to where she came from. She has spread her wealth around from the very beginning. I have always thought she should run for Governor. She would be a great one. She is clearly a great role-model for all young women. That is why I encouraged daughter #2 to choose Dolly as her 6th grade Reach project. Here she is in costume holding her shoe box Grand Ole Opry for her (1st place) presentation:
Unfortunately her platform sandals are not visible.
She has written so many great songs, but Coat of Many Colors is my favorite. (Dolly has also described it as her favorite of all the songs she’s ever written.) In my humble opinion it is one of the best songs ever written by an American, right up there with those greats written by Stephen Foster, Rogers & Hammerstein, Irving Berlin, Johnny Mercer, Bob Dylan and all the rest. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. Hearing it sung by Dolly is a real emotional experience!
Back through the years
I go wonderin’ once again
Back to the seasons of my youth
I recall a box of rags that someone gave us
And how my momma put the rags to use
There were rags of many colors
Every piece was small
And I didn’t have a coat
And it was way down in the fall
Momma sewed the rags together
Sewin’ every piece with love
She made my coat of many colors
That I was so proud of
As she sewed, she told a story
From the bible, she had read
About a coat of many colors
Joseph wore and then she said
Perhaps this coat will bring you
Good luck and happiness
And I just couldn’t wait to wear it
And momma blessed it with a kiss
Chorus:
My coat of many colors
That my momma made for me
Made only from rags
But I wore it so proudly
Although we had no money
I was rich as I could be
In my coat of many colors
My momma made for me
So with patches on my britches
Holes in both my shoes
In my coat of many colors
I hurried off to school
Just to find the others laughing
And making fun of me
In my coat of many colors
My momma made for me
And oh I couldn’t understand it
For I felt I was rich
And I told them of the love
My momma sewed in every stitch
And I told ‘em all the story
Momma told me while she sewed
And how my coat of many colors
Was worth more than all their clothes
But they didn’t understand it
And I tried to make them see
That one is only poor
Only if they choose to be
Now I know we had no money
But I was rich as I could be
In my coat of many colors
My momma made for me
Made just for me
So happy birthday, Mary and Dolly…and Buffy! You’re the best!
For some undefinable reason, I remember it as a particularly happy one, maybe because I associate it with one of the presents I got that year
Gordon Lightfoot's Don Quixote
and particularly, with the song, from which the album took its name, Don Quixote. I’ve been listening to it recently and it has stood the test of time really well. Here are the lyrics:
Through the woodland, through the valley
Comes a horseman wild and free
Tilting at the windmills passing
Who can the brave young horseman be
He is wild but he is mellow
He is strong but he is weak
He is cruel but he is gentle
He is wise but he is meek
Reaching for his saddlebag
He takes a battered book into his hand
Standing like a prophet bold
He shouts across the ocean to the shore
Till he can shout no moreI have come o’er moor and mountain
Like the hawk upon the wing
I was once a shining knight
Who was the guardian of a king
I have searched the whole world over
Looking for a place to sleep
I have seen the strong survive
And I have seen the lean grown weakSee the children of the earth
Who wake to find the table bare
See the gentry in the country
Riding off to take the airReaching for his saddlebag
He takes a rusty sword into his hand
Then striking up a knightly pose
He shouts across the ocean to the shore
Till he can shout no moreSee the jailor with his key
Who locks away all trace of sin
See the judge upon the bench
Who tries the case as best he can
See the wise and wicked ones
Who feed upon life’s sacred fire
See the soldier with his gun
Who must be dead to be admiredSee the man who tips the needle
See the man who buys and sells
See the man who puts the collar
On the ones who dare not tell
See the drunkard in the tavern
Stemming gold to make ends meet
See the youth in ghetto black
Condemned to life upon the streetReaching for his saddlebag
He takes a tarnished cross into his hand
Then standing like a preacher now
He shouts across the ocean to the shore
Then in a blaze of tangled hooves
He gallops off across the dusty plain
In vain to search again
Where no one will hearThrough the woodland, through the valley
Comes a horseman wild and free
Tilting at the windmills passing
Who can the brave young horseman be
He is wild but he is mellow
He is strong but he is weak
He is cruel but he is gentle
He is wise but he is meek
I’m sure the song is on youtube and I would have embedded a video, but I’m not that techno-savvy. What’s your favorite Gordon Lightfoot song?
I am living in the Google years, no question of that. And there are advantages to it. When you forget something, you can whip out your iPhone and go to Google. The Senior Moment has become the Google moment, and it has a much nicer, hipper, younger, more contemporary sound doesn’t it? By handling the obligations of the search mechanism, you almost prove you can keep up.”
–Nora Ephron, I Remember Nothing
Almost. And I don’t have an iPhone. I have to be content to look things up on my laptop, so I can’t do it in restaurants or on the subway etc.
Actually the search engine I love and use the most is IMDB.com–the internet movie database. My brain used to be its own movie database, but, sadly, it is no more. I have to look things up. But thankfully there is IMDB, just in the nick of time. Sigh.
I used to be a whiz at Trivial Pursuit (the original version) and could always answer the movie questions. It was almost embarrassing at times how much I knew. But fun facts about old movies just took hold in my brain like French vocabulary or chemistry equations did not. I have no doubt that some of my friends growing up thought my interest in the movies was a tad tacky, bien sur, but that’s the way it was/is. I loved the movies themselves–it wasn’t some screaming-Beatlesmania-kind of thing. I will admit I was probably the only tenth grader in 1972 who loved Leslie Howard, who had been dead for nearly 30 years at the time. I even stayed home from school once to watch It’s Love I’m After (1937) on television. There were no DVDs back then and no telling when the chance might come again to see it, so I had to take such action! (My mother approved.)
So anyway, I had to check on IMDB to find out the name of that movie I stayed home from school to watch. Thank goodness I can handle the obligations of that particular search mechanism!
Kang: It does not matter which way you vote. Either way your planet is doomed. Doomed. Doomed.
photo by Chris Fraser of Ogdensburg
Today’s local headline: Ice storm warning issued; roads getting slipperier as ice accumulates; sleet, freezing rain to continue…
Oh, joy. And on the first day of classes too. I’ve been here at work since 7:20 am and now I’m going home. But first I get to spend a half hour or so trying to chip my car out of the ice. Then the slippery ride home. On the way here this morning I had to pull over and scrape the windshield even though the inside of my car was tropical. I’m not looking forward to this. On the bright side — it is pretty!
“She had long accepted the fact that happiness is like swallows in spring. It may come and nest under your eaves or it may not. You cannot command it. When you expect to be happy, you are not, and when you don’t expect to be happy, there is suddenly Easter in your soul, though it be midwinter.”
–Elizabeth Goudge
Everyone is making resolutions, even the staff at Kate Spade New York. They even have a new bangle: This is the year to play your cards right.
Play your cards right. That got me thinking. Now there’s a saying that was used in our home growing up. I have had this conversation with my children numerous times…about how no one uses idioms anymore (except apparently Kate Spade). Through the years they have been met by many a blank stare when they used a colorful expression commonly used at home. No one (except my family) says:
Hold the fort.
Hold your horses.
Back to the salt mines.
I have a bone to pick with you.
(and an ax to grind.)
Let’s rustle up some dinner!
There are, of course, many more examples that I can not think of at the moment. Can you think of any?
“My child, the troubles and temptations of your life are beginning, and may be many; but you can overcome and outlive them all if you learn to feel the strength and tenderness of your Heavenly Father as you do that of your earthly one. The more you love and trust Him, the nearer you will feel to Him, and the less you will depend on human power and wisdom. His love and care never tire or change, can never be taken from you, but may become the source of lifelong peace, happiness, and strength. Believe this heartily, and go to God with all your little cares, and hopes, and sins, and sorrows, as freely and confidingly as you come to your mother.”
Louisa May Alcott (from Little Women)
(I found this quote on the wonderful blog Hay Quaker. Check it out!)
“Yes. I can imagine. Out. I don’t know you. I don’t want to know you. And if I did, this wouldn’t be either the day or the hour.”
“Never the time and place and the loved one all together,” I said.
“What’s that?” She tried to throw me out with the point of her chin, but even she wasn’t that good.
“Browning. The poet, not the automatic. I feel sure you’d prefer the automatic.”
–-The Little Sister
dual personalities 