FATHERS DAY

It was a terrific Fathers Day. Filled with fun, laughter and exhaustion. The family picked me up at 10:00 and we headed north to a beautiful little historic town on the coast. We went for a enactment of a Civil War battle. The grandkids were hilarious. We were closer to the Northern Armies end then that of the confederates. It began with excessively loud cannon noises and a multitude of crying screaming babies and small children. The noise was so frightening that the kids attempted to match the canons decibels. The combination was deafening. The cannons never really stopped, but the kids disappeared. Who knows, maybe the cannons got them.

The battle started slowly with my grandkids yelling for them to get on with it. They did “get on with it” but not one was dying. They yelled for them to die. It was slow coming, but they finally began to die. But they didn’t stay dead. They were down for only a few seconds before they were in the battle again. That was troublesome to the kids. Why don’t they just die? My feeling exactly! So I said, maybe it was because the ground was damp and cold. It shouldn’t matter. They are dead. Well even the dead want to be warm. Very troubling! Especially since some of the shooting was only 20 feet apart. I just assumed that most of these soldiers on both sides were terrible shots.

After a grand tour of the Northern Army living quarters we headed down south. We had tickets to see The Sound Of Music in a fascinating outdoor theater set deep in the forest. I wanted to go, but after all the walking, I doubted I could make it back up their hill. I was having so much fun I decided to take a chance.

We got KFC on the way to the forest theater, We ran to my apartment to attempt to eat within 10 minutes (We were running late), Use the restroom and got out of there. I went to college cafeterias. I can eat in 10 minutes. We also picked up some more blankets.

What a weird and wonderful place. The path to the theater was very steep and was a walk of about 10 minutes each way. Fortunately, they had a shuttle service to transport the weak, physically unable and out of shape people like me to the bottom. They dropped me off in a mud hole at the back of the stage. I had no idea any backstage could be so primitive. There were curtains hung between trees for dressing rooms. It was fundamentally completely open and one porta potty to serve the entire cast. I hope no one was sick before a show.

This whole experience was new to me. Instructions said to bring blankets and lawn chairs. The seats were all ground level. I mean the auditorium was stair stepped up, but you sat on the ground or the blankets you brought. We brought lawn chairs but not the acceptable type. They wanted you to bring beach type chairs. I brought a regular full sized folding chair. I tried a beach chair they had available, but the back was so low I would never have make it through the show. Eventually they found a place I could sit.

It was a terrific all volunteer community show. The theater has been under continuous operation for 88 years. That helped me understand the backstage area. There have been no improvements in 88 years. There were very good voices and sound was wonderful. What a wonderful time we all had.
As we got to my place they gave me a wonderful fathers day gift. My daughter will be taking me to Seattle to see a Broadway production of Joseph and His Wonderful Technicolor Dream Coat. This is my absolutely mostest, favoritest, Broadway musical. You cannot walk out without tapping your feet. It tells the story of the Biblical Joseph very well with almost every style of music implemented by Andrew Lloyd Webber to communicate. Love, love, love it. It is such a happy show.

The day could not have been better.