HOLIDAYS RECALLED IN MUSIC

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!   

A few holiday tunes I recall with their joy and melancholy.    

 The Christmas Song – Manhattan Transfer featuring Tony Bennett – A video by Lee Arboreen

 

All these You Tube videos are for entertainment purposes only and not intended to infringe on any copyrights.

  

CONVOY -- EXPECTATIONS -- ORDERS-AIR-RUSSIA

STRANGE BEHAVIORS

Open letter to whom it may concern  . . . . .  if you receive any reports I was seen behaving rather strangely last Friday afternoon, I just want you to know  . . . . .  I have not slipped a mental cog . . . . .

-yes,  that woman sitting in a lawn chair at the end of the sidewalk outside her dentist’s office next to a  small American flag planted in the ground was me . . . . .

-yes, I  was overlooking  Route 66 with the boulevard’s usual busy auto trafficin all lanes  . . . . .

-yes, I did attract a few curious gazes from passersby and the young boy skateboarding on the sidewalk . . . . .

              

-yes, I did sit there for ten or fifteen minutes before seeing a vehicle with a sign across the front that said, “Convoy Follows” . . . . .

-yes, there was a jeep-like vehicle behind it, but I didn't notice any other military vehicles, plus I wasn’t sure if the other ordinary cars and SUVs were part of the convoy or just the usual traffic . . . . .

-yes, I waited ten minutes or so more but saw no more recognizable military vehicles . . . . .

-yes, I finally gathered my belongings into my car’s trunk, then parked overlooking the boulevard just in case more vehicles should come . . . . .

-yes,  I waited about  ten minutes longer, then as I was about to leave a large military troop carrier type truck and a couple or so more jeep-type vehicles passed by quickly  . . . . .

-yes, I noticed on the back of one of those vehicles a sign that said, “Convoy Ahead”  alerting me to the fact the Convoy had come and gone . . . . .

-yes, I felt kinda foolish that the military vehicle convoy I had expected to see apparently was much more disconnected and shorter than I expected . . . . .

-yes, I understood now why the local newspaper office and police department when I phoned them several hours earlier knew nothing about a convoy coming through our town  as this turned out to be pretty much traffic as usual . . . . .

-yes, I felt rather silly to have contacted our newspaper and local police asking for the convoy schedule here,  plus I had even  gone to the trouble earlier to phone the convoy group’s national office to find out when they would be coming through our town . . . . .

-yes, I was encouraged about seeing the convoy when the phone person spoke enthusiastically about all the vehicles she had seen when they had been in her Midwestern town . . . . .

-yes, when she gave me the convoy leader’s phone number I even called and received a courteous call back giving me an accurately close approximation of when the vehicles would pass through our city. . . . .

-yes, I did plan to take a photo or video to share here, but the convoy was so short, came and went so disjointed and fast, I have nothing to share except this tale of unrealized expectations.

Refer to “Route 66 Convoy” segment in my previous post for specifics about MVPA if unfamiliar.

I am left to share with you one of my favorite versions of the following tune.

“This exclusive performance by The Manhattan Transfer of "Route 66", one of their classic signature tunes.”

EXPECTATIONS  

We have so many expectations in life – of ourselves and of others -- as I did of the Convoy above.  What is reasonable and realistic?   I think of this in relation to all the needs that are arising in view of the disasters sweeping our nation – the current destructive life-taking fires raging in Northern California, our own fires here in Southern California, the hurricanes winds and flooding waters affecting so many U.S. citizens and others elsewhere, as well as those victimized by gun violence.  Certainly the expectation for our good health is ranked high on our list, too, but when disease, accident, illness intrude, our lives are drastically affected, but that's a whole topic unto itself.    

Seems we’re hearing increasing news accounts of older people being especially adversely affected in these disasters.  I think of the Florida nursing home where residents should have been evacuated to a nearby hospital when their facility was flooded.  There have been numerous reports of Puerto Rico older residents in dire need of food, water, medicine and other health care long after the hurricane has passed, not to mention the continuing needs of all other ages.   Reports are still emerging from Northern California fires for unaccounted lives -- but some known older folks, who were unable to evacuate quickly enough to survive,  have been identified.  What were their expectations?   

The reality is, we may need to reassess our expectations of ourselves and others.   Whether or not we like it, most older people are not going to be as agile, fast, or as able to avoid dangerous situations.  Those with mobility limitations, in addition to being older, are going to be slowed whatever their age, wherever they are, whether they are subjected to a sudden disastrous occurrence, or even if they have warning.   We’re all wise to think about our situation now, or well in advance whenever --  in terms of our own personal status -- our physical condition, where we live, to plan in advance accordingly.  We may need to “leave”, not “stay”, or act early -- long before others.

Often we’re given recommendations about creating an environment inside our residences that will maximize our safety, or to move to a one floor plan setting, to eliminate steps, avoid ladders indoors and outdoors.   There is more we need to do.

We need to inquire in each of our communities about what systems are in place to provide us advance evacuation or shelter-seeking warnings, if we live in a fire, flood, hurricane/tornado high winds area.  Those of us living in earthquake prone areas are looking forward to a possible warning system in California, but that’s a few years away, if at all, though Japan has had an effective one for several years.    

We all will want to familiarize ourselves with what provisions have been made by our community to come to our aid before the storm, if expected, and after the disaster.    Older couples need this information, but older single people certainly do, too, and especially those who may not have family or friends nearby to be checking on their welfare.   Others may need to be occupied looking out for themselves.  Certainly we would hope all of us would be looking out for each other -- that would be our expectation.   

  

ORDERS-AIR-RUSSIA

Expectations for most Americans, other than the most wealthy, are not very promising based on this current Prez‘s continued betraying actions of the voting majority.    Undermining the solvency of the Affordable Care Act (ACA; aka Obamacare) is systematically being done by Executive Order.  What we will have now is basically Trump Care, as any resolution is left to his Congressional political party whose solutions to date have been untenable with either party. 

This administration also continues to dash the expectations of citizens for safety -- environmentally -- as efforts to provide clean air -- the very breath of life -- are undermined by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations reductions.  One such,  results in increasing polluting coal burning (in an already fading industry whose decline has been due to a growing independent evolution to cleaner energy sources).   

Revelations of Russian propaganda efforts to interfere in our past election continue which demonstrates their government's lack of honorable values.   This dishonest ethical failure leaves me with an expectation that, regrettably, Russia's government will continue to be  untrustworthy.   

NEW YEAR 'ESTIVAL

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

Computer I use for blogging crashed Christmas Day and this one is not as amenable to Blogger on the small device's screen.  My Word recent items not accessible, so will see how my future posts go, or when computer issue resolved.

Manhattan Transfer and New York Voices (live 2011) combine with a jazz classic, Birdland.

                                                                                                                        

SNOWFALL MELANCHOLY

Snow and this holiday season are entwined in my memories from my childhood through the early years of my marriage.  Though I've lived in the Southwest and then Southern California many years since then, the only snow we've had here that I've viewed -- except for brief flurries one winter -- are at higher elevations in the mountains rising above our foothill community.    I'm content to enjoy the melancholy mood Manhattan Transfer creates with this Claude Thornhill composition.     

Route 66, Music, Memories

Historic U.S. Highway Route 66 in San Bernardino, California is having a 20th year anniversary "Rendezvous" celebration this weekend. Good food, contests, and entertainment are on the agenda. The event is limited to 1,900 vehicle entrants of "pre-1974 classics, customs, hot rods and any year Corvette." The participants have an assigned parking space during this 4-day event where aficionados can engage in technical car talk and fans can simply marvel at the colors, sheen and styles. Drivers are also invited to cruise the 35 blocks of downtown where up to an expected 500,000 spectators will be admiring their vehicles.

The promotion for this event caught my attention as I've noted what seems to be an increasing interest and nostalgia for "The Mother Road"(map link) which runs from "Chicago to L.A." as a famed song lyric goes. I travel portions of this road regularly since it runs through my home area of Southern California where a long segment is called Foothill Boulevard.

My husband in his single days back in the '50's drove that route with his bachelor buddies on a whirlwind summer round trip vacation from the Midwest to the West Coast. Their adventure stories were always filled with humor and accounts of the unexpected. They had very little money to start and none by the time they returned home. What's a trip for young single male college students without meeting some like-minded adventurous college girls with whom to play car tag across some of the miles, especially if there's time to work in a side trip to Las Vegas.

He was fascinated by the changing countryside from Ohio's green flat land with rolling hills with which he was familiar, to the long stretches of summer brown landscapes emerging west of the Mississippi. Then on to some western desert area with never-ending vast blue skies. The land of towering date palms began to emerge evolving into miles and miles of citrus tree orchards and finally sandy beaches reaching out into the Pacific Ocean. Long periods of steady trade-off relief driving kept them on the road a lot. Still, he could never quite understand how one buddy could be content to sleep so much between departure points and destinations with so much new and different to be experienced.

Two of these travelers were musicians but all were well-acquainted and appreciative of a tune written in 1947 by Bobby Troup and first recorded that year by Nat King Cole. Here's a later YouTube video performance of Nat and his quartet:



Years later The Manhattan Transfer popular vocal quartet's recording became one of their signature tunes as in this YouTube video:



When we met and wed years later, even before and after we moved West, we took extensive driving trips that included some side jaunts on still existing segments of the original Route 66. Freeways and new highways have long since bypassed some of the old road's communities. Many landmark motels and businesses have long since closed. Some establishments have survived. There is a resurgence of old and new businesses along existing Route 66 with new travelers joining those who come to reminisce. Signs are increasing in number announcing the location's recognition of this significant highway in the historical lore of our country from another time.