Alabama

 

I was born on Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. We left when I was six months old. My parents weren’t from Alabama. When dad retired from the army, we moved back from Hawaii in the 70’s. Last week, I celebrated my 54th birthday here for the first time in 25 years.  I wonder what has changed in all those years.

Tomboy Summer of 72′

I was known for tomboy antics, but with a price. NOTE the knee bandage!

“You are such a tomboy.”

“No. I’m not.” running as fast as I could from my friend.

“Yes. You are!”

“You can’t catch me. Can you?”

I stopped.  I put my hands on my hips and stuck out my tongue.

Carrie looked at me with her piercing eyes and oh those buck teeth and proclaimed, “do you want to know how many boyfriends you are gonna have?”

Incredibly ‘her tomboy’ friend gladly said, “sure!”

While sitting down in a field of beautifully comfortable grass, Carrie explains to me how I was going to find out the truth of my long line of boyfriends.

It did not occur to me in that moment that maybe I could be a tomboy while looking at my knee bandaged all up.  

“Do this and the more they crack the more boyfriends you are gonna have.”  I watched in complete awe as Carrie popped every finger on her two hands!

“Go ahead and do it.” Carrie said with great anticipation.

So I began to push, pull, and tug my fingers like Carrie was doing.  Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. And than I heard it! “CRACK!” and then I heard only one more pop!

“That’s it for you Alesia.  You ain’t gonna have many.”  I stared at my friend and did not say a word.

“Hey let’s go play some tether ball.” She said.

We both got up and ran like crazy to the playing field.  I beat Carrie in that too!

I probably never beat her in boyfriends though.  The two cracks were enough for me.

 

 

 

 

Pina Colada

I was definitely a product of the music of my times.

I love Sirius Radio and listening to the hits from American Top 40. Today I really got a kick out of the songs from this week for 1980. Each song took me away to the oblivion of love gone wrong. With Valentines around the corner, it is time to think of doing something special for your loved one. Sometimes we take our partner in life for granted. It should not be so. After finally hearing one particular song, I realized how we are not so different from the songs of 33 years ago. Rupert Holmes wrote Escape (The Pina Colada Song) which is an eclectic song about a man reading a news ad that a woman placed looking for a new lover just to find out the ad in the paper was placed by his own partner. It reminds me of how we try to find someone else to love us when we have that love right next to us.
I decided to look up more information about Rupert, the songwriter and singer, and found out how much our home lives were similar. He has an autistic son and he had a daughter who died at the age of 10 of a brain tumor. It was strange reading the similarities in his life to my own as I was drawn to this silly song. Rupert has gone on to writing some magnificent Broadway plays that are full of heart and soul ( http://www.rupertholmes.com/index.php ). In fact his play’s recordings of Edwin DROOD is number one for 2013 on Amazon.
Finally do not forget to do something special for your loved one. Maybe it will be as Rupert sang his song that you too realize how lucky you have it with the guy or gal sleeping right next to you. Here are a few of the lyrics that just put a smile on my face just like it did 33 years ago when I did not care the least for boys:
If you like pina colada,
And getting caught in the rain,
If your not into yoga,
If you have half a brain,
If you like making love at midnight,
In the dunes on the cape,
Then I’m the love that you’ve looked for,
Write to me and escape.

Happy Valentine to my Man as I hear him snoring right next to me.