It’s Valentine’s Day and I celebrated with a family show at the Ice House, part of my friend Doug Roysdon’s series Saturday’s Child. It’s been a tough time for Doug, with increasing fragmentation of the children’s edu-entertainment scene. I had no expectations of a turnout so I was simply up for the experience. It looked like there would be no weather problems for the morning.
As it turns out, there were 25 or so kids, moms and dads, grandparents on hand so there was a critical mass to work with. Several little girls had their dance on and were up right away shaking that thang to the delight of all. There was one recalcitrant boy with his grandparents who didn’t look like he was going to have any part of this, but, I worked him over (I Want to be a Dog usually breaks them down… ‘pee on telephone poles’). I also did Giants and had his granddad and him come up for the Thunder Tubes, and that worked as well.
Doug brought up Willard, one of his amazing marionettes, to do Charlie Stone with me. Doug plays kazoo while Willard plays flute, dances around, bows to the crowd and generally charms everyone.
I finished up with You Keep A’Knocking and a wonderful moment happened spontaneously. Two little girls came up and danced together, holding hands. Two other girls did the same, and then a total of five girls made a big circle and danced, jumped up and down. None of the girls knew each other beforehand, so it was simply marvelous to witness the openness and good vibes coming from them. And we adults all took notice.
After the show several folks came up and said thanks. One granddad thanked me for Godfreys. And one dad with two small children came up and said he had seen me at his elementary school in Coopersburg when he was a child. He thought it was cool to introduce my music to his next generation. I though it was cool, too.
This stuff happens fairly often nowadays, and I have learned to savor the moments.