My week started with
my strains of Joseph and the Amazing
Technicolor Dream Coat in my brain.
I would be thinking of something else completely but would suddenly
realize my thoughts were being accompanied in the background by “Jacob, Jacob,
and Sons” or “Poor, poor, Joseph…” or some other memorable melodic phrase. I don’t
remember experiencing this phenomenon so intensely before, but it was a
pleasant two-day aftermath of a quick one-day trip to Nashville to see and hear
granddaughter Leslie performing at the Larry Keeton Theater there.
Jeannie came in
slightly after midnight last Thursday on her way down to Nashville for the last weekend of the
show. I had just gone to bed when I
heard her quietly letting herself in the unlocked front door. I’d gone on to bed because I had begun to be
a bit nervous as she had texted me she was on her way down with stops along the
way. I knew that probably meant bike-riding
stops; and being a mother, I can easily start imagining someone being assaulted
or passing out on a bicycle trail somewhere. To not allow myself to worry, I
decided to go to sleep and when I woke up to go to the bathroom if Jeannie
wasn’t in the house, then I’d call Rick and start praying. (Actually I had
already said prayers for her safety just in case she needed divine help.) But
blessedly my motherly fretting was unfounded because soon she was here and in
bed, and without greeting her, I drifted into sleep.
As we breakfasted the
next morning, she offered to come back to take me to the closing night of Joseph as she knew I would like to go.
That seemed like a lot of driving to ask anyone, so I asked Gerald about the
possibility of his taking me to Paducah
to cut off a couple hours driving time for her.
He immediately sweetly assented, and that is what we did with a lovely
lunch at Olive Garden before Jeannie and I repeated her trip to Music City Paducah , and the spring
sights intensified the further south Jeannie and I traveled.
We arrived in time for
a leisurely visit with Leslie and Mike, and I was more than pleased with their
new home in the city. A large lot with a
big back yard, which they had fenced for their dogs Millie and Sidney was in a
neighborhood with well established beautiful trees. The one in their side yard with ivy climbing
it really took my eye. Inside a lovely
staircase and hardwood floors welcomed us.
Since they have not started work on the two upstairs bedrooms, I didn’t
accept the invitation to go up, but I loved all the hard work this young couple
and their friends have already accomplished on the first floor. Kitchen
counters that their two fathers helped Mike install one weekend were
beautiful. The new gray couch selected
for the family room with its gray tile flooring that Mike put down there and in
the kitchen was quite lovely and comfy. Newly painted walls and redone
furniture all spoke of hard work and good taste. Jeannie had an errand to do and I took a
little nap after Leslie calmly packed a small bag and took off for the
theater. She loves to sing and
entertain, and she does so without any show of nervousness or diva self
centeredness.
The Larry Keeton dinner
theater is just one of many activities located in FiftyForward Donelson Station, which as I
understand it was once a school building. I think the theater is in the former
gymnasium. Now guests at the many tables
are served dinner by various youth groups taking tips for their hard work.
Thus, these kids are given a theatrical experience while they fund raise. I
have never quite figured out the organizational structure of this Senior Center
Large white
dogwoods in full bloom lined the front of the building as we entered to settle
in for the upcoming show. We hadn’t come
for dinner, so we sat in back seats as the curtains opened for the sing-through
performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s kaleidoscopic styles of music ranging from
ballads to county to calypso and more. Tim
Rice’s lyrics retold the Genesis story of a boy who was Jacob’s favorite son of
his favorite wife Rachel. Flaunting his favored status and his beautiful coat
of many colors, Joseph so irritated his brothers that they sold him into
slavery and told Jacob a wild animal had killed him. The Ishmeelites sold him
down in Egypt Canaan to buy
grain only to find their brother was now as powerful as he had been in his
childhood dreams. Their repentance and
Joseph’s forgiveness brought a reunion with Jacob, played by Larry Keeton
himself. The musical ended with the
feel-good emotions reconciliation brings about.
Our feel-good
emotions came from hearing our Leslie in a role she had long had on her to-do
list. Narrating in song throughout the performance, she lived up to the critic
who had written, “Her vocal quality is pitch-perfect, strong and simply
lovely.” After all the ending hoopla and
recognitions, she and the rest of the cast were yer to strike the set and clean
things up for the next upcoming production.
After hugs and goodbyes, we left to fill up with gas at the station next
door to the theater, and Jeannie expertly maneuvered us through the city and
onto to Highway 24 back to Illinois. We were back at Woodsong shortly after
midnight, even earlier than I sometimes arrive from Katherine’s when I help out
there. When I woke up the next morning, Jeannie had just pulled out of the driveway
on her way up to visit Elijah and go to church with him.
Just as we had
Friday night when we watched Georgia
win 6-1, that afternoon Gerald and I ate in his office as we watched the Louisiana State University Nashville
.
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