road trip!

So... yesterday I worked for the afternoon at The Hillsboro Antique Mall. It was fun! I “fluffed” my space a little bit... it needs A LOT of work (I’m thinking major over-haul again) – but that’s okay! Having to move and shift and pile in new fun junk goodies is ALWAYS a good thing, right?

On my way home – a trip that is normally 52 minutes from point A to point B – I hit traffic and more traffic and more traffic...

And I watched the new(ish) Smurf movie through my windshield and the back window of a big SUV while sitting completely still on the interstate.



Completely.
Still.



At first I thought nothing of it since I’m a die-hard Smurf fan (do you remember the Smurfberry cereal? Turned your tongue blue!).

Then I started laughing and my mind just kind of wandered off on its own little road trip:

When I was little and “the Mama” would load us up for a road trip – we didn’t watch movies!

Heck – when I was little I don’t think the VCR was even invented yet! Or iPods and iPhones and idontknowwhatelse... or the internet...

For entertainment my brothers and I would beat the living daylights out of each other, and...




Wait, that sounds so harsh.




Let me re-phrase: For entertainment my brothers and I would concentrate very very very very hard on spotting slug bugs (actual slug bugs or imaginary slug bugs that go so fast no-one but you can see them... we weren't picky) so that we could slug each other...  there – now you know that “the Mama” didn't condone random brutality – we beat the living daylights out of each other with purpose...

and we would sing!

Music was always front and center in our house – didn’t matter if it was the piano – stereo – clarinet or bass clarinet – trumpet – drums – guitar - very large speakers that my brother built just so he could torture us with The Beach Boys or Chopin (he used to conduct the orchestra inside the speakers while standing on his bed – my little brother and I used to watch and laugh as his arms flapped wildly shushing the timpani and trying to get the woodwind section to build more volume in to their crescendo - more power)  – a flute  - a banjo – I think one or 3 of us had a harmonica and bells - an accordion – an organ... a tuba or two...

But mainly – our voices.

We would pile in to the car and just start singing... “I’ll Fly Away” or “Lil’ Bunny FuFu” or “You Are My Sunshine”... rounds of “Alleluia” and whatever other songs we could make rounds of (proll’y some that weren’t intended to be rounds)... “Rocky Top” and “You Can’t Get to Heaven in a Rocking Chair”, "B.I.N.G.O"...

if we even THOUGHT we knew the words to it – we sang it!

I think we even sang the Smurf song!!!

Yeah... I know... now YOU will be singing the Smurf song the rest of today.

You.
Are.
WELCOME!

Anyway – the moral of my story is – I can’t decide how I feel about movies in a car! What happened to searching for slug bugs and chit chat and music and fun?

On the flip side of that DVD...

I would have LOVED having a movie to listen to and watch when one time my Dad took us to Denver, CO from Crawford, TX and not toooooooo far out of Crawford, TX my little brother made up a song about an ant.

The Ant Song  - that was completely made up by a 4yr old (he might have even been 3...) - was the continuous theme song - our SOUNDTRACK - for our cross-a-few-states journey. Hours long... miles long... seemed like DAYS long... verse after verse after verse...

stupid ant.

I still step on ants given half a chance and then I start giggling... and then I sing "dead ant, dead ant, dead ant dead ant dead ant dead ant dead annnnnnnt... dadadadummmmm" (read that again and think: "Pink Panther theme song").

Do you have a movie theater in your back seat or do you have a mini-choir that watches for Volkswagens?  If you have a theater – and if I’m behind you – can we watch “Princess Bride” next time?

OH! And can I have some popcorn? With extra butter? are we there yet?

comin’ to you LIVE from a single-wide where while I was watching the Smurfs I had my stereo on full-blast and was jamming to some Bill Withers followed up by Pink... then I popped in some Debussy to confuse the people next to me that were staring at me as I sang really loud (and a few times whipped out my air guitar and percussion section)... and then I parked on an ant pile.