Angel in the Morning

One day at work in the Brookside Inn restaurant in Beulah, years ago, (years and years and years ago!) the entire staff and customer base were involved and a song together. Someone asked, “Who sang “Just Call Me Angel in the Morning?” and the next person would sing it, “just call me angel in the morning” and say,” I don’t know, let me ask so and so.” This went from person to person, one asking, the other singing it back and saying I don’t know, let's ask so and so. Finally someone called the local radio station and asked “Who sang Just Call Me Angel in the Morning?” and the disc jockey sang the song back and said “gee I don’t know, let me research it.” 

The point is, everyone got involved in the song and it connected everyone!

The recent flash mob trend where people “spontaneously” performed, sang, danced to, or acted out in public areas such as Grand Central Station or shopping malls or even Oprah is another way that people connected to each other with music. How can you have a bad day when a whole crowd is moving in sync to a fun song? Opera in the produce section, how great is that? What a fun way to introduce people to new sounds and styles! (You have to watch this video!) Mariano's Flash Mob Opera

I do not like music that is abstract, that sounds like abstract painting and art looks. But I was privileged one day to hear my friend Dan Silver perform an amazing piece of music that was written by a prisoner of war for piano, clarinet, violin, and cello. Had I only heard this music, it would have not touched me as much as seeing the performers, how they held their instruments and approached each part, the sober remembrance of those who performed this first. I get goose bumps just thinking back to this. I can still hear the hope and the birdsong expressed by men who believed that when this was first performed, that was in fact the end of time.
Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time 

Before this performance, while walking to the chapel, I found a cabin full of instructors and one student practicing jazz. Everyone was drawn to this cabin! Front row seats to music that you could not help but smile to and move! Wide awake, laughing music. It was like being in a water fight with sound. Amazing!
Afro-Cuba Jazz 

Because I was privileged to work with people like Dan Silver and Mike Davison (just to name two) I was “woke up” by the diligence of these guys practicing and practicing and practicing. They are the instructors, and they practice! They allowed me to interview them as a personal project. I wanted to know what made them practice, why music was so important. Although I spoke with them separately, each one talked about how music is a universal language. It unites people. It allows expression. It is emotion. I will share these interviews as I continue this blog in one way or another; these conversations were priceless to me.

Oh,  and who sang “Angel in the Morning? The original singer was someone kind of obscure. Lots of people including Juice Newton had released it. Merrilee Rush had the original hit with this song 1968. 

Angel in the Morning

Aging Gracefully

Oh my goodness, I am old. I still have (some) color in my hair and most my teeth, but I am old. At 52, I am pretty ancient. If this was 1900, that is.

Can you imagine only living until your late forties? These days, some people are just beginning to have children at age forty. Some are returning to college to change careers, as I did. Some people are grandparents and great grandparents and possibly even great-great grandparents.  

Back in 1900, I guess you didn’t get much opportunity to see your grandkids for long. Maybe you did. Marriages happened in the teen years quite often, and childbearing began early, age fourteen or so. But child mortality was pretty high back then.  30.4% of all deaths were children under the age of 5 in the 1900s. (MMWR, 1999) Everyday counted as a bonus. I am willing to bet that nobody got bored back then. There was no time! 

What would our world be like without the changes that have improved on health and wellness? 

 

I remember using outhouses and I have to tell you, I am sinfully glad to not have to use them anymore! I remember snakes, bees, slivers, and smells. No fun! I miss the old hand pumps for water, but cannot live without my hot shower. As for getting my big rear end into one of those little metal tubs in front of the fire for bath night? Forget it! Modern bathroom facilities are a lot cleaner than the old outhouses. Water for drinking and bathing in is more readily available to most people in the United States. A simple thing like washing your hands helps stop or slow down the spread of illness and disease more than a person might guess. Back then, even doctors weren’t aware how important it was to wash hands.

When I was young, there were people who used special crutches and had leg braces, some still attending school in the 1960s, some older. Polio was still a very scary disease.

My mother, who had a congenital hip problem, was faced with fear and prejudice because people thought she had tuberculosis. Some people who were ill from tuberculosis used crutches, and she used crutches. Vaccinations are a somewhat new idea but they have proved very effective in getting rid of childhood diseases that killed or maimed.

(I know there are people who want to avoid having their children vaccinated, and there are rumors of vaccinations causing autism and other problems. Look at the evidence; see how much vaccinations have changed childhood mortality. Information about vaccines that includes the risks as well as benefits is readily available. Please do not base your decisions on hearsay, but on documented proofs. )

So many improvements for health have been implemented since 1900. Now the average lifespan is at least in the upper 80s and heading into the 100s.Life is good! We still have a lot to learn about enjoying these healthy times, though!

Here is a chart that shows what causes of death were then and are now. 

I found this chart at http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2012/07/dramatic-change-death.html

Speaking personally, I need to take more time to do things I enjoy like walking, painting, visiting friends and family. I need to lose weight, because heart disease, diabetes, and vascular problems are in our family. I need to be able to grieve losses and rejoice and gifts each day brings. 

Going camping in the Upper Peninsula would be fun too.

  

What will you do with the extra time these days give you?

Early motor car trip to the Upper Peninsula for a camping trip. 

Willard and Effie Maginity, Ralph, Virgil, Marguerite

Still alive!

I am sorry to have broken my goal so soon of uploading twice a week. In the works is information on HIPAA, Vaccinations, my husband Tom's bee sting story, and more. Please hang in there, I promise to be posting at least one of these this week!
Thank you
Linette

INAPPROPRIATE SONGS TO SING AT YOUR WORKPLACE #1

I was working away, unaware that the song that was stuck in my head was becoming the song I was humming. It was a good day, and the music was a fun little rhythmic piece. It didn’t seem odd at all. I kept quietly be-bopping in my seat until all at once I opened my mouth to sing the chorus. I then realized that I was on the verge of singing an inappropriate song at my workplace. What song?

None other than “Stroke Me” by Billy Squires.

Music has a way of sneaking into life. It doesn’t care if it is appropriate or not, sacred or profane. Any given day I have traditional hymns, choir pieces, opera, country, rap, rock, commercials and TV show theme songs all running through my head, adding to my feeble attempts at creating my own music. Add something like the Internet, and it becomes amazing how much of this stuff can stay captive inside without something breaking loose.  (I don’t think I am alone in this.)

But, why is it the most annoying and evil songs get so firmly stuck in the brain and need desperate measures to get them out?  Like “Midnight at the Oasis” or (ewww! Urgh!) “MacArthur Park or the new commercial with the Muppets in it. I still have cigarette commercials in my brain, for pity’s sake! How long has it been since they were pulled off the air?

Take the Captain Kangaroo theme song. I loved Captain Kangaroo, loved the show, and never missed out on Ping-Pong balls or the sweeping up of the spotlight. But, after one day of hearing it over and over again from a co-worker, the song became equal to nails on a black board.

It could be worse.

 

There are lots of silly songs out and about that still niggle their way into my brain radio. My brother, God bless him, introduced me to Frank Zappa and Cheech and Chong (just typing their names turns on “Basketball Jones.”) My dad had Homer and Jethro on record, they of the “May the bird of paradise fly up your nose” fame. One of my first records was “Gimme Dat Thing”. They don’t make silly songs like they used to. Now there is only some song about taking “Selfies”.  “Cotton Eye Joe” maybe? Nah, too old.

Well, now, if you haven’t found a familiar tune to be stuck with, allow me to help you. How about the theme from the Andy Griffith show? The Jeopardy tune for when they are putting in their final answers? Is anyone else trying to get “Billy, Don’t be a Hero” out of their minds? I have been trying for years!

Well, have a good day, and don't forget to share your most annoying song with someone you care for, just like I did!