Favorite Fridays

I love Friday nights.  The moment Rockstar walks in the door we're on!  Fridays usually mean something fun with my family. (followed by a hot date of course) Right now we are in the middle of basketball season and two of our three kids play, so that means lots of small town gyms. Towns with names like Ashby, Battle Lake, Underwood and Rothsay.  They are all a little different and yet all the same somehow with their smells of popcorn, hotdogs, sweat and glue. When we moved back to our home town after living in a large metro area for over 13 years it was an adjustment.  There are both great reasons (Starbucks)  for living somewhere, and some not so great ones (rush hour) I guess.  But overall we've loved the change.  It 'feels' right to be here.  We've even found really really good coffee and now instead of rush hour we get stuck in the occasional 6 car gridlock while waiting for the town geese to cross the road.



My parents...'Grammie & Papa' with Gracie at one of her recent games

Of course there are days when I wonder what in the world I'm doing back here?  Back here, where many times our Friday night dates end up at Fleet Farm.  Sometimes I long to go into the City to the theater.  (ok who am I kidding...we didn't do that when we lived in the City)  But now that we don't live there I wish we would've done that more often.  Thankfully our 'little city' does have some really talented people who dance, act,  and play beautiful music.  We get to enjoy their gifts without having to pay for parking.  That way we always have enough cash for our run to Fleet Farm afterwards.  Nobody even wonders why we're all dressed up  just to buy windshield wiper fluid.  Yep, that's a Friday night for ya around here.... the nights that I've grown to love, goose poop and all. 

A Family that Plays (music) Together...

One of my most favorite memories as a child was lying in bed at night and hearing my mom make popcorn in the kitchen and listening to my dad play guitar.  As the popcorn smell drifted upstairs I'd hear my dad tuning up for some golden oldies.  The Beatles were really big in our house.  In fact, I consider myself a "Beatle Baby" as I'm sure John, Paul, George and Ringo serenaded me from the ol' turntable as my mom rocked me to sleep.  As the corn popped, and my mouth watered, my parents would usually break into some kind of song.  He'd start by warming up  his guitar with a little ditty I loved called "Alice's Restaurant."  And then, at some point they always seemed to sing "Brown Eyed Girl."  Mom, would be melting butter and singing harmony from the kitchen..... "Do you remember when.... we used to sing...Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la- dee-da- la-dee-da...brown eyed girl"  I usually sang along quietly,  trying to match my moms notes.  I liked that we were both harmonizing with dad, it was kind of  like my own little secret.   I remember thinking if the song were "Blue Eyed Girl" it could have been about me.  I still pretended it was anyway. 

I took piano lessons for many years, played in the marching band, sang in various choirs and singing groups. One of my younger brothers took up piano and guitar too.  I wonder how many hours we spent on our big upright?  It was my Grandma's piano and the one my dad learned to play on too.  Every now and then dad would come in and plop down on the bench beside me and I knew it was time to get serious.  It was CHOPSTICKS time!!!  Sometimes I would play the top, and sometimes the bottom...but the goal of our chopsticks duet was not to make beautiful music... nope, it was to see who could be clever enough to mess up the other persons rhythm.  For a long time I was the underdog, but over the years was able to trip up good old dad a few times too.  This past Christmas our Gracie and her PaPa had their first "Chopsticks Showdown" I tried downloading a short 35 second video of them,  but for some reason blogger wasn't allowing me to.  Suffice it to say Gracie will be the underdog for a while too...but PaPa better watch out because she's feisty!

As I watched my dad and daughter duke it out on the keyboard it brought back so many fond memories of our little den with the big piano on Channing Ave.  I love that my kids will now have some of the same memories too.  Our son Dboy,  has followed in his PaPa and Uncle's footsteps and become a pretty darn good guitar player.  I'm thinking it sure would be fun to have "Alice's Restaurant" played in our house too.  We'll have to get Pa Pa workin' on that next.



This is by far and away one of my favorite Christmas pictures from this past year.  Dboy on guitar, PaPa rockin the bass, and Gracie tickling the ivories with some "Joy to the World" and "Deck the Halls."  It made me really glad that I grew up in a house with lots of music. And even more glad that my kids are too. Oh, and I saved the best for last....sometimes my parents would let me and my brothers come downstairs and join them for popcorn.  Even on a school night!!  Now that really was music to our ears.