Our Adventures: Let the Sun Shine!
I'm soooooooo far behind on our adventures (and SotW posts, and Charcoal blogs, and...)... but if'n y'don't start somewhere, you never get back to things, right? So... I'm starting last weekend. Not this past weekend - we went to the GR Public museum yesterday, but we're backing up before that and doing the weekend previous. Because it was kind of a very fun, very kewl thing that we went to.
A concert! The small community college where we used to live has an alumni choir, and their director is a fellow actress from my ex-theatre group. ((This is also where we go to see my friend/fellow actress' drama productions - the art/theatre professor there is also from my ex-theatre group.)) Long story short, I got notification on Facebook that the concert was Sunday and free, and all about SUNSHINE... so I thought it would be fun to take the kids.
First thing that happened is that we drove the S-curve thru Grand Rapids, and it was just as the Grand River was peaking (from the flood). It was PACKED - with people who wanted to see how high things were, with people volunteering to fill sandbags... and with museum goers. April 21st was also 'Museums4Free' day... where you can get in the GR Children's Museum, the G.R. Ford Presidential Museum, the GR Art Museum, and the GR Public Museum for free (excluding the Titantic exhibit). So it. was. packed! We avoid people, so we just drove by (on the way to our own free event) and marveled at the water. It. Was. HIGH.
Photo of the museum that will be in the NEXT
adventure post. Okay, it's photoshopped (luv FB)... but just the shark.
We really, really, REALLY flooded, here, though!
Then we drove up to our old town, had pizza (they have one of the only two decent Pizza Huts around), and then went forth to the concert... and the first thing we noticed as we went inside was that the woman handing out programs (my thespie friend Larry's wife) was dressed in 70s hippie style. There was a streamer-like entrance, supposed to look like a 70s beaded curtain... and there was one of those things you can put your face in to get your picture taken... the caricature being that of flower children. An enormous peace sign hung over the risers. Ooooh. That kind of sunshine. How fun!!
So we found some seats over a little further, and as we sat down, we noticed that... well, there weren't very many younger people there. In fact, I'd say by the time the room filled, it was a good 90% snow caps (white/silver haired people). That's kind of a sad thing - when there's a FREE concert, to encourage the next generation to appreciate the arts, and nobody comes to it except the previous generations. On the other hand, my kids quickly made friends with the elderly people around us, who always like to play with little ones. I was also (not really) surprised that other than Larry/his wife, and the choir director (and her husband), not a SINGLE person from my ex-theatre group was there to support the arts. It's kind of the way they were, up there, though... another reason I got very frustrated with the theatre group, even before the 'Midsummer Night's Dream' debacle. They should've been there - showing comraderie. But that's just me. OTOH, I didn't have to run into any of them, a true blessing. And it just means WE can enjoy the concerts!! ((grins))
The concert was a blast... from the past, AND otherwise. They did ALL songs with the word 'sun' in them. Good day, Sunshine and a few other Beatles' songs, Aquarius from 'Hair', Sunshine on my Shoulders, Let the sun shine in (that we all got to sing), Sunrise, Sunset from 'Fiddler on the Roof', I Got the Sun in the Morning from 'Annie Get your Gun' (both of which my kids knew, so they were singing along, and the old folks were delighted to see them singing... we had a glorious time! They had a guy get up out of the audience and swing dance with one of the singers, they had a girl play a blue guitar to a Matisyahu song (we <3 Matisyahu!), they had balls bouncing over our heads, and they came down and passed out daisies thru the audience. It was fun... very free and inhibited and happy. I like happy!
The costumes were perfect. No kidding - everyone was tie-dyed, hippyfied, be-wigged... it was kind of cheesy, but hey - so were the 70s (and I lived thru most of them, so I know, firsthand!). The people singing were genuinely having a wonderful time, and it showed. And more, everyone else caught that enthusiasm, and had a great time, too. There was a 20-something guy in the front row, and he leaned over and was singing oldies to his girlfriend. Is it possible to fall in love with a stranger? Because he KNEW the songs... and it was so cute... so heart-melting, to watch him croon to his sweetheart.
Meanwhile, the man in front of Brian turned around, saw Owen, and wanted to make friends. Baby O was having NOTHING to do with it. The man kept trying to get him to give him five, and each attempt won him a bigger and bigger scowl - Owen has one heckuva stink-eye, and it had the whole row in front of us cracking up. The man's (grown) son made a ring out of a dollar bill for Owen, for enduring their teasing/cajoling, and they gave each of the other kids a quarter! The kids thought that was... far out, man.
When the concert was over, we said hello to our friend Larry (but not director Val or Greg, they were swamped)... and as we were leaving the kids had ants in their pants from sitting (for the ride, then lunch, then the concert), so before getting back in the car to go home, we decided to check out Heritage Village. See, the kewl thing about this community college is that it has an old-tyme village right on the campus. The blacksmith, the train depot, a schoolhouse and town hall and livery and barbershop... it has a mercantile, church, and even a cemetery with some interesting headstones in it. Of course it was all closed up and we just got to peek in windows, but it was still fun, and the kids could run on the grass and stretch their legs, some. There was even a pump-merry-go-round (?!) that they got to try!
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