First, today marks the anniversary of a very important event in my life. My life turned on this date. It was the first day at Marquette University School of Engineering in 1960. Oh yeah, there was another event. Grasshopper No. 1 was born this date. It was an interesting day. Happy birthday Debs.
There are times that I get “smitten” by interesting people. They do something special or unique that sets them apart. In this case I can think of three people that recently caught my interesting.
The first of Lena Lamont. She was the star of a play in Minneapolis called Singin’ in the Rain. She had a tall gorgeous body. And then, she opened her mouth. Her voice was high pitched and very irritating. She could be a trophy girlfriend as long as she agreed not to open her mouth. Grasshopper No. 5 can immitate Lena very well. Lena kind of stays in your head. The voice didn’t match the body expectations.
Then there was Garrison Keillor. Your mom and I went to see the movie “Prairie Home Companion”. It is a tribute to the radio program that has been on the air in Minnesota and North Dakota for years. Garrison in the writer, director and moderator of the program every Saturday. Garrison in 6-5 inches tall and looks like he is kind of dopey. You sometimes think that he is out of touch with the world when he is not “on stage” but then when the lights come on and he begins to do the show, he comes alive. He is witty. He is in control. He is a good singer. He is a good story teller. He is very different from what you anticipate he would be. Turns out he writes political opinions for some larger newspapers. Very interesting. His appearance is very different from who he is. Go figure.
Finally, I was coerced in to watching “Dancing With the Stars” last Tuesday night. I have to admit that my interest was tweeked by Emmitt Smith being a contestant. Emmitt as you all know was a running back for the Dallas Cowboys football team in the NFL. He played 17 years and his teams won 4 Super Bowls. He was tough. He was chiseled granite. He ran over people. My anticipation was that he would be stiff and probably not a very good dancer. Emmitt was fantastic. He is muscular, taller than I thought with the cutest little smile you could every imagine. He has rhythm. Of course his dancing partner was exciting too, but the two of them dazzled the audience to a rendition “Her Daddy was a Preacher Man”. Emmitt’s performance blew me away. He was fun to watch. Again, go figure.
I guess the lesson is that people come in all sorts of interesting packages at unexpected times and you should enjoy the moment when they do.
Love,
Dad