I love music. As a matter of fact I claim that to be one of my talents, loving music....lyrics and melodies, from the simple to the sublime, from hip hop to classical. I wish, I really wish that I was capable of putting my thoughts to music, but I then again I find that it isn't necessary for me to do so because other people do. Isn't it amazing that people all over have exactly the same or similar experiences and feelings to life that I do, and they can write it to fit my emotions to a T?
Throughout my life I found that most of those lyrics that met my emotional fit, were the ones involving love, family, and happy times. In recent years they have involved heartbreak, unrequited love, and memories of happier times. Still more recently the songs that I relate to involve reconciling with all those emotions, acceptance, survival, hope, and yes, even joy.
There have been so many times I have considered writing a blog on different songs that simply describe what my feeling is at that particular moment. So here is the first of many.
And I guess I'm feeling alright!
On my playlist to the right you will be listening to Jodee Messina singing
"I'm Alright" written and also recorded by Phil Vassar.
I'm all I'm all I'm alright
It's a beautiful day not a cloud in sight so I guess I'm doin' alright
O-oh o-oh, I'm alright
I got a good old friend here with me tonight and I guess I'm doin' alright
Said I guess I'm doin' alright
Oh I'm all I'm all I'm alright
It's a beautiful day not a cloud in sight so I guess I'm doin' alright
O-oh o-oh, I'm ma ma ma alright
I got a good old friend here with me tonight and I guess I'm doin' alright
Well I'm doin' alright
Well I'm doin' alright
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Can you imagine...
I got a card from my Mom yesterday. She was talking about her "beautiful, bouncing, baby girl" having a birthday.
Being a rather ordinary person, it is amazing to note that I did bounce into the world in a rather extraordinary way. I loved the story when I was young, and when I got older I thought that it had been "added upon" for the "telling" value, but found that it was pretty much as presented. One of the newspaper articles said "this little lady will have quite a story to tell when she is older, with plenty of newspaper articles to show because Denver newspapers gave quite a play to this happy event". My baby books are replete with lots of newspaper articles.
My dad worked for Ford Motor Company and it was in the company newspaper something like this "Ford employee, William Bliss, helped deliver his little baby girl, Leslie Dianne, in his 1946 Ford Coupe." Wasn't that irony? To me the most ironic thing is that my Dad who was raised in Denver his whole life got lost getting my Mom to the hospital. How is that possible? Okay, maybe there was a terrible snow blizzard and he couldn't see a thing. Perhaps it was pure panic at the thought of becoming a father, or the fact that I wasn't expected for five to six weeks. Maybe he had too much coffee in him because he had to sit at the counter drinking coffee waiting for the Dr. to call because they had no phone at their apartment. My Mom must have been freezing in the car, in labor, no less watching him through the window just drinking more coffee. Of course to hear my mom tell the story she wasn't even sure she was in labor until her water broke. I don't know why my dad got lost but he did.
This was the era that was just transitioning from binding women so they couldn't give birth until the proper time. My Dad had just read a LIFE magazine article discussing the detrimental effects this practice would have on babies and their mothers. He suggested my mom remove her panties so it wouldn't bind and when she did I was born. Now this is the part I thought was magnified. "You were born and before you hit the floor Daddy grabbed you, and I grabbed the steering wheel." "WHAT???" Did they really mean I was born as they were moving in this blizzard condition while they were lost? Come on! How incredible is that? Well it was true apparently. Sometimes it is this quick birth that is used to explain, or try to explain, my short height; "You hit the floorboard and it stunted your growth." My craziness; "The reason you are so NUTS is because you hit the floorboard when you were born."
This wasn't the end of this amazing story. After I was born my Mom wrapped me in her coat. You know I never asked, but I do assume that at some point they did stop the car and re-adjust. But, eventually they headed on their little hunt for the hospital. Just ahead there is a light in the distance, yes, yes, it IS a hospital.
Being a rather ordinary person, it is amazing to note that I did bounce into the world in a rather extraordinary way. I loved the story when I was young, and when I got older I thought that it had been "added upon" for the "telling" value, but found that it was pretty much as presented. One of the newspaper articles said "this little lady will have quite a story to tell when she is older, with plenty of newspaper articles to show because Denver newspapers gave quite a play to this happy event". My baby books are replete with lots of newspaper articles.
My dad worked for Ford Motor Company and it was in the company newspaper something like this "Ford employee, William Bliss, helped deliver his little baby girl, Leslie Dianne, in his 1946 Ford Coupe." Wasn't that irony? To me the most ironic thing is that my Dad who was raised in Denver his whole life got lost getting my Mom to the hospital. How is that possible? Okay, maybe there was a terrible snow blizzard and he couldn't see a thing. Perhaps it was pure panic at the thought of becoming a father, or the fact that I wasn't expected for five to six weeks. Maybe he had too much coffee in him because he had to sit at the counter drinking coffee waiting for the Dr. to call because they had no phone at their apartment. My Mom must have been freezing in the car, in labor, no less watching him through the window just drinking more coffee. Of course to hear my mom tell the story she wasn't even sure she was in labor until her water broke. I don't know why my dad got lost but he did.
This was the era that was just transitioning from binding women so they couldn't give birth until the proper time. My Dad had just read a LIFE magazine article discussing the detrimental effects this practice would have on babies and their mothers. He suggested my mom remove her panties so it wouldn't bind and when she did I was born. Now this is the part I thought was magnified. "You were born and before you hit the floor Daddy grabbed you, and I grabbed the steering wheel." "WHAT???" Did they really mean I was born as they were moving in this blizzard condition while they were lost? Come on! How incredible is that? Well it was true apparently. Sometimes it is this quick birth that is used to explain, or try to explain, my short height; "You hit the floorboard and it stunted your growth." My craziness; "The reason you are so NUTS is because you hit the floorboard when you were born."
This wasn't the end of this amazing story. After I was born my Mom wrapped me in her coat. You know I never asked, but I do assume that at some point they did stop the car and re-adjust. But, eventually they headed on their little hunt for the hospital. Just ahead there is a light in the distance, yes, yes, it IS a hospital.
Can you imagine the nurses trying to put together the rantings of my 26 year old father exclaiming "My wife just had a baby in the car. My baby is in the car." Finally they placated him by scurrying to the car...I'm sure they didn't want to, remember there was a blizzard! When they got there the nurse said "There IS a baby, there IS a baby!" She sent my Dad back into the hospital for the gauze and scissors. My mom said she had gauze for many years to come because they just kept stuffing it into his pockets. The nurse cut the cord and declared "You can't bring them in here. This is a tuberculosis hospital." She sent them on their way to Beth Israel hospital.
After they finally arrived at the correct hospital they went to get a gurney, or was it a wheelchair, for my mom and me. My mom being the farm girl she was, was ready to get up and walk into the hospital. It was all just too easy for her, but she was so naive, she hadn't had the afterbirth removed yet. Can you imagine her walking in with the cord swinging back and forth between her legs?? Yuck and LOL...hard to get over that vision.
So finally we made it. I was declared born at 5:20 am (I don't know if that was the birth time, or the arrival at the hospital time) on October 14, 1947. My Dad was William James Bliss 26 years old, and my Mom was Veora Rose Johnson Bliss 22 years old. I was a baby boomer. There was no room for my mom at the inn, and her hospital bed was in the hallway. I wasn't the only baby born that day, but I know I had the biggest adventure getting there.
I am 62 years old today so that day was long ago. I've had a very good and fulfilling life, but I don't think there has ever been a day I have been so unexpected and so extraordinary. Maybe it's time I start living up to my grand entrance! LOL
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