Another year around the sun

Memorable birthdays:

Ages 1 to 9: I believe that the entire California rainy season falls on Feb. 5. It always rained. We hardly ever went outside.

Age 10: Maybe we should have stayed indoors. A brawl broke out in our backyard. At least the birthday boy wasn’t hurt.

Age 13: My father took us bowling. Before the age of pin-spotters, he had to put all of the bowling pins back himself. Fortunately, we didn’t hit many anyway.

Age 16: I made a bee-line to DMV to get my driver’s license. After that I was quite popular with 14 and 15 year-olds.

Age 21: My first legal visit to a bar was boring and disappointing.

Age 30: At Stowe ski resort, I danced vigorously with  20-somethings to prove I wasn’t getting old.

Age 38: I was stood up by my girlfriend after an argument. I spent my birthday alone.

Age 40: After I played music at my party, a better pianist sat in and upstaged me. Happy birthday, Mike!

Age 42: Pickett, a much better girlfriend, suggested we all dance to music from the new MTV. Kids came too. What fun!

Age 50: I was upset all day because my co-workers and my family did not wish me a happy birthday. That is, until the surprise party, when Pickett brought a cake to my work. I was in a state of shock.

Age 60: I was depressed about being old. Old? Sixty? Let me tell you about old, kid!

Age 70: The best birthday ever. Three other singers put on a concert with me at our house, and I played Broadway tunes in a sing-along. I sang “I’m StillHere,” probably a little prematurely.

Age 74: At the opening night of “1776,” the cast of McLean Community Players celebrated with me after the show.

Age 80: I sang “I’m Still Here” again, in a Zoom birthday party during the pandemic.

Age 84: I’m still here!

My snow experiences

 

Maybe I should have stayed in California. I never saw snow until we went sledding in the Sierra Nevada when I was 15.

So moving east, I had a number of bad encounters with the unfamiliar winter weather:

1965: Why scrape ice off your windshield? In Pittsburgh, I just tossed a bucket of hot water on it. Oh! It cracks? I never thought of that!

1966: I had the bright idea to drive from Pittsburgh to my new job in Portland, Oregon, in March. I got past Chicago and Minneapolis OK, but I wanted to look at Mount Rushmore. When I saw a snowflake fall on George Washington’s eye, it was too late. My U-Haul became unhitched, and I fell on ice while I put it back and broke a rib or two.

1975: I broke another rib at Aspen, Colo., when a cross-country guide took us down an icy road that turned to pavement and I fell. Oddly, that was my only ski injury ever. I went downhill skiing several hundred times and was never hurt.

1978: The President’s Day storm dropped 18 inches of snow in Arlington the day after a big party I held at my house with few visitors. I lived off the leftover chili a friend made for a week.

1987 (Nov. 11): The new company I worked for moved to Vienna, VA, from Boise, Idaho, and managers were surprised to see a foot of snow in Virginia on Veterans’ Day. No snow day for us! The boss picked us all up in his Range Rover to go to work.

2016: During a famous blizzard, my back went out the first time I dug a shovelful of snow. Pickett, who took over, vowed to move us out of our house into an apartment. We did, but we had little snow the five years we lived there.

2026: I became hysterical in Cluster Springs over a threatened snowstorm while Pickett was gone. Fortunately, the storm was a bust and I shouldn’t have worried so much. Where was Pickett? She fled to California, of course.

At least, in snow you often get pretty scenery. Then why, in about 65 years away from the Golden State, did I see only about three white Christmases?

The bad ideas hall of shame

 

Some major mistakes in history:

 

1.         The Segway. The stand-up scooter to ride around town was bulky, hard to maneuver and over-hyped. I have seen them used on tours of Washington, D.C. monuments, but little else.

2.         Hydrogen airships for travel. They were abandoned after a fire on the Hindenburg in 1937 killed 35 passengers and crew. (The Goodyear blimp floats with helium.)

3.         Pay toilets. Still common in Europe, they disappeared from big American cities after angry reactions  in the last mid-century.

4.         Reserved seats in movies. Sorry, but most films I see nowadays aren’t that crowded anyway.

5.         Marlon Brando as Sky Masterson in the “Guys and Dolls” movie. Sorry, I have been focusing on this a lot as we prepare for our show in Clarksville. It hurts to see him sing “Luck Be a Lady” instead of Frank Sinatra.

6.         Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. What was he thinking? I heard that it’s cold in Russia in the winter.

7.         New Coke. Consumers rebelled against this sweeter version in 1985, and the company took it off the market in 79 days.

8.         Google Glasses. I don’t know anyone who tried wearing a computer on their noses.

9.         Audrey Hepburn in the “My Fair Lady” movie instead of Julie Andrews, who played Eliza Doolittle on Broadway. Julie got her revenge with “Mary Poppins” and “The Sound of Music.”

10.  Indoor auto racing. Do they still do that? The noise and smoke really bothered my dad when we attended one in Oakland when I was 16.

 

 

Southside Surprises

I thought

I knew what was going on around  here until I talked to our B&B guests. 

Three of them I met over breakfast had driven all the way from Newport News to see a Renaissance Faire.  Really? Here? Yes, Woodbine Vineyards in Buffalo Junction had 300 visitors in November for  sword-fighting, jousting and costumed revelry, followed by a legacy ball in the evening. 

Who would have thought? (I’ll bet they sold a lot of wine.) Then the two guests were going to visit an aqua-zoo in the afternoon. Huh?  What’s an aqua-zoo? Oh, it is a mixture of an aquarium and an animal zoo called the Hill City Aqua/Zoo at a shopping mall in Lynchburg. 

Another told me about a haunted hayride held every October at Staunton River Battlefield State Park. 

Really? Several years ago, guests told me about a new winery across the border into North Carolina: Tunnel Creek Vineyards. I visited the next day and they hired me to play piano. 

So I looked up a bunch of things people might not have known about in the area. 

—Kirby Cultural Arts Complex in Roxboro. I’ve seen a bunch of shows there including “Hats,” “ A Christmas Carol” and “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill”.  It is often overlooked because it is in another state. 

—TJM Center in Cluster Springs is a great venue for community events and meetings. It hosts a seniors appreciation dinner once a month. 

—Moton Museum in Farmville recalls the 

student strike that led to a landmark court decision on desegregation and Prince Edward County’s decision later to replace public schools with private schools. 

—Prestwould Plantation, sandstone Georgian manor  near Clarksville, provides a glimpse of plantation life in the 18th and 19 th  centuries.

—  The Boydton Model Railroad Club, based above the Town Hall at 461 Madison Street in Boydton, maintains several operating model- train layouts and hosts open-house events when visitors can run trains. It is open 9 to 11 a.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. 

— MacCollum Moore Gardens in  Chase City is a historic museum and beautifully landscaped garden complex showcasing regional history, art, and nature in a serene setting

—  Poplar Forest, near Lynchburg, is Thomas Jefferson’s octagonal retreat home, a beautifully preserved architectural masterpiece he designed for privacy, study and experimental building. 

—Danville Baseball: The city has two summer baseball teams of college players, the Otterbots and the Dairy Daddies. They both play at the stadium in Dan Daniels Park. 

—The Thomas Day House in Milton, N.C., has psostponed renovations until next December. That means you can still visit Tuesdays through Saturdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Hourly tours are given of the home of the African-American cabinet maker who was the state’s largest furniture manufacturer before the Civil War.  Info at 336-592-8120.

Me? A Gangster? For an hour, yes

 

The great thing about acting is you get to be somebody else.

When I was rehearsing an unfamiliar role for Prizery Summer Theater, director Chris Jones once told me,“Don’t be Mike Doan.”

Huh? Why not? What’s the matter with Mike Doan?”

Well, as Monica Walter, director of “Guys and Dolls Senior,” told us, “Immerse yourself in your character. Think of who that person would be.” It is a challenge for all of us.

Preston Hubble, whom we know as a mild-oannered gentleman, has to become a scheming underworld gangster, Sky Masterson. Holly Stadtler, an assertive film producer in real life, switches to the role of the bland, shy missionary Sarah. Colleen “Coco” Corrice, a smart lady with a lovely voice, becomes a low-class uneducated dancer in the role of Adelaide.And there is Gary Walter, an experienced actor who claims not to be a singer. Well, he is now!

And me? I get to play music director. Yes, it is quite stressful but mostly fun and good for my aging brain cells.

I’m also portraying an argumentative street-smart gambler who picks horses with his betting buddies. Me? I know nothing about horses. I’m even allergic.

We are having a blast in our pretend roles as we prepare for the musical featuring over-55 actors on Feb. 14 and 15 at 2 p.m. at Clarksville Fine Arts Center. We aren’t even charging admission—donations are welcomed, though.

But then reality occasionally sets in. Something to make you forget your made-up roles for a while. We are all absorbing the recent death of Mike Kimmel, who was going to play the role of Lieutenant Branigan. I barely knew him, yet I am mourning too. We are a family.