Strange Spring Weather

The weather was pretty normal when I finally got up this morning around 9:30. It was mostly sunny, with a few clouds that were hardly threatening. I read The Artist's Way and worked in my journal, then put on Brunch With the Beatles. Brunch concentrated on one of my favorite Beatles albums, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, one of the first CDs I ever owned. (It was a birthday present from Mom in 1993, along with the cast album for the original 1952 Broadway version of Can-Can. I still have both CDs.) I love the jaunty "With a Little Help from My Friends." Other familiar tunes from Pepper include "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite!", "When I'm 64", the title number, and the innovative "A Day In the Life." Also released around the same time were the  hit singles "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever."

I called Mom after finishing my Banana Silver Dollar Pancakes. We had a nice, long chat. Mom was getting ready to run some chores before going to a jazz concert in Cape May with Dad. Apparently, it's a tribute to a local musician who played jazz piano in some area clubs and bed-and-breakfasts as well as on many professional studio sessions who died suddenly earlier this year. Mom's hoping to find more concerts and events in the southern Cape May County area that she can attend, with or without Dad, now that she has more free time and no longer has to take care of children or a household.

I am, too. I did get a lot of things sorted out here last summer. I cleared out old files on CD and zip disc and all those videos, and that really helped lift a lot of weight out of my soul. All that kept me inside a lot, though, as did the bad weather throughout much of August. I'd like to try to get out more this summer. I've been wanting to make a trip back to Atlantic City, if only to take a look at the Outlets, and now might be a good time to do it. I'd like to try a day trip to Wildwood, too. One of the very few things I miss about Wildwood is strolling the boardwalk in the summer. If I have some money by August, I may also attempt that day trip to New York I debated but finally opted not to do during the summer of 2010.

The other thing we discussed was my brother Keefe. Not only did he just buy his first car, a 1998 Camaro, but he'll be on leave in a few weeks. Mom wants to have a family party for him on the 19th. She's going to invite my sisters and their family and close friends, Keefe's small circle of pals, his beloved girlfriend Vicki, their neighbors in Erma, and a few family friends. It sounds like they're going to rent a tent and have a big barbecue. I just hope it doesn't get too crazy. I tried calling Rose to confirm the 19th, but I got her answering machine. I left a message; if she doesn't call back by tomorrow, I'll call her.

The Beatles show was long done when Mom and I finally got off the phone. I put on my sandals, grabbed my purse, and went for a walk to the park and to CVS. CVS was my first stop. I just needed brush picks. Also got Crest toothpaste on a really good sale for $1.99, and decided to try a bag of the new all-green Mint M&Ms.

I strolled through Newton River Park as I munched on my little chocolate goodies. There were many people out, enjoying the peaceful, pretty day. Kids and their parents ran around the playground. Teenagers skateboarded on the paths. The big mimosa tree's woody bean-like pods were now brown and falling to the ground; they crunched under my feet. I saw a robin by the mimosa who stood so stock-still, I thought he was a statue until he flew away, towards Collingswood High's sports fields across the street.

As I passed over the arched cobblestone bridge (which had new railings), I noticed dark, heavy clouds in the distance. I didn't like the look of that at all. I walked faster across the street and down the same path I did last week, hoping to avoid the oncoming storm. The leaf-laden trees made dark green arches as I passed under them. They seemed mysterious and almost spooky. It was like a world out of time, despite the houses on the hill above me.

The clouds were almost above me as I hurried up the stone steps and onto East Collingswood Avenue. Despite the weather, there were still a lot of people about. I passed a woman strolling a basket of laundry home from the laundromat on the corner as the first fat drops of rain began to fall.

My original plan was to pick up a hoagie at WaWa. The rain changed this a bit. There's a deli, Amato Bros, across the street from the laundromat. I rushed over there as the shower grew heavier. When I first moved to Oaklyn, the building was a newsstand, Oaklyn News. It shut down shortly afterwards. It's been a deli under at least three or four different names ever since. At the very least, the current owners did a much nicer job of remodeling the place than the previous owners. There were new granite counters, beverage coolers, and wire tables, along with a mounted TV playing a Phillies game. (They were losing badly to the Miami Marlins.) I ordered a turkey club wrap with mustard on a tomato-basil tortilla. The thing was so big, I ended up taking most of the second half home.

The rain slowed down as I walked home, and was gone by the time I discovered a tiny rose bush with bright magenta flowers nestled among the tangle alongside the train overpass. I couldn't resist picking one for my hair.

Though the sun eventually came out, I didn't trust the weather and stayed inside the rest of the night. I baked a basic Golden Butter Cake using fruit concentrate instead of a lot of the sugar as I ran jazz CDs and the 1948 MGM musical Summer Holiday. A reworking of the play Ah, Wilderness, Summer Holiday introduces us to the Miller family, who live in suburban Connecticut in the early 20th century. Dad (Walter Huston) owns the town newspaper and is fairly progressive-minded for the era. Uncle Sid (Frank Morgan) wants to marry his long-time girlfriend Lilly (Agnes Moorehead), but she's not crazy about his drunken behavior or broken promises. Middle son Richard (Mickey Rooney) has picked up a lot of radical notions from the books he's been reading and passes them onto his shy girlfriend (Gloria Del Haven). Her banker pop is scandalized when his daughter starts spouting Marxist theories and erotic poetry and makes her break up with Richard. The upset teen learns far more about life than he ever wanted when, in a fit of despair, he spends a drunken night with a chorus girl and learns that maybe he's not quite ready for the grown-up world yet.

This is a really sweet variation on Meet Me In St. Louis and the later On Moonlight Bay. Director Rouben Mamoulien brought many of the same trademark touches he gave to Love Me Tonight, including a song passing from one character to the next, and the natural flow of dialogue into music and back again. This is especially apparent in the opening number "In Our Home Town," as the Millers discuss their home and their places in it, and in the sequence where the gold-digging chorus girl gets Rooney drunk. Filters and fades allow him to imagine her in scantier and scantier costumes, until she's sitting in his lap and singing "I Think You're the Sweetest Kid I Ever Knew."

The rain came back as I was finishing up my shower, this time in the form of a doozy of a thunderstorm. It faded out around 8:30, but the rain's been off and on ever since.