Drawing Adventurously 2019 (7)

The theme is “Out like a lamb’ this time around to say goodbye to March and welcome April with its showers which hopefully bring May flowers.

When I was a child, we lived in very rural, northeastern Pennsylvania on 80 acres of isolated land. We always used to tease my father that he was a frustrated farmer because he wanted to keep animals and grow crops despite working as an attorney during the week. The result was that we had a pair of ponies, a dozen ducks to live on the pond, a couple of worn out apple trees and three fields of hay which the real farmers would cut in the late summer for use on their real farms. The final members of our menagerie were a small flock of sheep. In the spring, we’d shear them for wool and one of the teachers from my elementary school would spin it into yarn and knit sweaters and socks and hats and mittens with it. Nice memories. Anyway, for the challenge this week, here is my ‘lamb’:

Adulting

Lights, camera, action

Part-time jobs and full time classes

The cheap apartments

Shared by three or more

Shabby sofas, drafty windows

Stuffed with yesterday’s news

But nobody noticed or nobody cared

When we were young

And full of exuberance

Dancing, spinning

Performing for each other

In our too cool, thrift store clothes

Saved our cash for the hair salon

And army surplus boots

Looking for the next thrill

In late nights and lazy mornings

Each one a version of the other

Playing on repeat

Running around in circles

Like the records on the turntable

Everyone’s a player

And the beat goes on

A mass of undulating bodies

Like a murmuration of starlings

Moving almost as one

It’s joy of life unbounded

Until the break of dawn

But youth is nimble and fleet footed

And time is cruel but fair

Shows no pity for the partygoers

Burning the candle at both ends

As the house lights come up

Show those tiny lines and wrinkles

It’s last call once and for all

Grow up baby, morning’s here…

*Galway is a city full of students, just beginning their journeys, finding their way. They’re so full of life and free of care … at least on the surface. Oh, to be young again without the burdens and responsibilities that adulthood places upon us. Carpe diem! Seize the day! The time goes quickly and you never get it back.

Oh Captain, My Captain…

If you’re an American child of the 1970’s, your memories must include the television variety show. Laugh-In, Hee-Haw, The Flip Wilson Show, Donny and Marie, The Carol Burnett Show, Sonny and Cher and … The Captain and Tennille.

Although their popularity was brief, “Captain” Daryl Dragon and his wife Tony Tenille were a huge hit in the ’70’s. And a big influence on style: Tony Tenille’s pageboy was as popular as Farrah Fawcett’s feathered waves and Dorothy Hamill’s wedge. At some point in my youth, I sported each of those hairstyles. Good thing I tossed all those photos…

I think the time is right for a Captain and Tenille resurgence. In fact, I have repeatedly tried to convince my husband that we should start a Captain and Tenille cover act. Tonight as we walked through the lobby of the Irish hotel where we are staying, what should come on the sound system but “Love Will Keep Us Together” – their biggest hit. It’s a sign. All we need is a captain’s hat, navy blue jacket and a white cravat for the hubs and for me? A fabulous Bob Mackie gown! What do you think? Isn’t that a great idea? You know… in case the whole writing, art thing doesn’t work out?