QUARANTINE BLOG # 134

August 11, 2020

Your favorite bloggers are in Arden, NC this week, in a cabin on the French Broad River.  Beautiful.  Quiet.  Relaxing.

We arrived Sunday afternoon around 3 and spent the rest of the day just hanging out.  The Welcome Book in our cabin recommended Marcos pizza as fast delivery and delicious and we got one loaded with pepperoni.  The rest of the evening we tried to find something to watch on Direct TV.  We ended up with a house hunters in the Caribbean show.

Monday our first stop was – wait for it – WalMart.  We started a list of things we didn’t bring and should have.  Back from shopping, we got everything on the list and one thing that wasn’t on the list – 2 skeins of yarn.  Yarn and books.  It’s our way.

I’m writing this while we watch people float down French Broad River.  I  found a place in Asheville that rents floats and has a pickup service, and we have booked that for today – Tuesday.  We may drive up to the Blue Ridge Parkway Thursday, go to Mt. Pisghah Inn and hike a while.   Wednesday we are going to Biltmore House and Gardens – haven’t been there since Kyle and Cathy took us for our anniversary a while back.  Maybe some antiquing Friday.  And all together we are going to spend a lot of time here on the porch.

👉  A group of federal prisoners classified as “most dangerous” arrived at Alcatraz Island, 1.5 miles offshore in San Francisco Bay, on this day in 1934.  Spanish explorer Juan Manuel de Ayala named it Isla de los Alcatraces, or “Island of the Pelicans.”  Spain sold Alcatraz to the United States in 1849.  In 1854, it had the distinction of housing the first lighthouse on the coast of California.

The convicts – the first civilian prisoners to be housed in the new high-security penitentiary – joined a few dozen military prisoners left over from the island’s days as a U.S. military prison.  Al Capone arrived that August, along with Machine Gun Kelly, and other criminals infamous from that era.

Although some three dozen attempted, no prisoner was known to have successfully escaped “The Rock.”  One prisoner, John Giles, caught a boat ride to the shore in 1945 dressed in an army uniform he had stolen piece by piece, but he was questioned by a suspicious officer after disembarking and sent back to Alcatraz.  Only one man, John Paul Scott, was recorded to have reached the mainland by swimming, but he came ashore exhausted and hypothermic at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge. Police found him lying unconscious and in a state of shock.

In 1963, U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy ordered Alcatraz closed, citing the high expense of its maintenance.

👉  The Music Man by Meredith Willson, concerns con man Harold Hill, who poses as a boys’ band organizer and leader and sells band instruments and uniforms to naïve Midwestern townsfolk, promising to train the members of the new band.   Harold is no musician and plans to skip town without giving any music lessons.  Prim librarian and piano teacher Marian sees through him, but when Harold helps her younger brother, Winthrop, overcome his lisp and social awkwardness, Marian begins to fall in love.  Harold risks being caught to win her.

In 1957, the show became a hit on Broadway, winning five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and running for 1,375 performances.  The show’s success led to a 1962 film adaptation.

Meredith Willson was inspired by his boyhood in Mason City, Iowa, to write and compose his first musical, The Music Man.  Willson wrote about his trials and tribulations in getting the show to Broadway in his book But He Doesn’t Know the Territory.  Here is the opening scene from the movie that inspired that book title https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLrsFhZQI24.

In the original production (and the film), the School Board was played by the 1950 International Quartet Champions of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America (SPEBSQSA), the Buffalo Bills.  The members were tenor Vern Reed, an executive for the Boys’ Club; lead Al Shea, was a City of Buffalo policeman; baritone Herschel Smith, was a corporate executive; and bass Bill Spangenberg, was a truck driver for a steel company.  Their musical career consisted of 1,510 performances on Broadway, 728 concerts, 675 radio shows, 672 night club and hotel appearances, 626 conventions, 218 television shows, 137 state fair performances, and 1 film.  The quartet disbanded in 1967.

Robert Preston got the role of Harold Hill not because of his singing ability, but because he was an accomplished actor, and the producers felt the song “Ya Got Trouble” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89Gv8x0VZ_g would be difficult sing, but with his acting background, Preston turned it into a patter song – a moderately fast tempo with rhythmic patterns that mimics singing.

A cute Music Man reference occurs in the TV show Happy Days when Marion  Cunningham says the little boy in the movie reminds her of their son, Richie.  Of course, Ron Howard played both parts.

Here’s the School Board singing “Lida Rose,” and Shirley Jones singing “Will I Ever Tell You.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1aky3nwwuM.

And the final number, “Seventy-Six Trombones” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0FpkVbnEgE.

👉  It was 1995 and in Russia’s Vnukovo Airport.  I was leading a group of volunteers from Augusta to minister to churches and orphans in Russia and Moldova.  From Vnukovo we were flying to Chisinau, the capital of Moldova.

Now let’s go back several months before that day.  I had a meeting with the group that would be traveling with our missions organization, MIR Children’s Foundation, to give them pointers and guidelines.  One thing I emphasized was the need to be self-sufficient.  “There are no luggage porters in Moscow,” I told them.  “And the public facilities, like airports, are not built for convenience – lots of stairs, no ramps to pull luggage along.  At most, take 2 suitcases because you will be carrying them yourselves.”  Everyone nodded in agreement.  Everyone understood.  But understanding and doing are two different things.

Back to Vnukovo.  One of the team, a young woman in her late 20s, was struggling up the seemingly unending stairs with FIVE suitcases, and a pillow!  A Russian man walking down the stairs said to her, “Doychka, oo vos yest sleeshkum manoga baggage!”  My understanding of Russian then was much better than today and not all that good then, but I understood what he said and started laughing.  In a voice filled with anger and frustration, she demanded, “What did he say!”  I answered, “Daughter, you have too much luggage!”  Moments later, two of the group who had already finished the stair climb, left their baggage and came back down to help her.

Moral of the story?  We carry too much baggage.  We need to leave behind those things that hold us back.  Or in the words of the writer to the Hebrews, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us” (Hebrews 12:1 NLT).

Once and for all, let’s give our luggage to Jesus.  Let’s take Him at His word! “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28 NLT).

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