Another Southern Tradition - Another Lucy Moment

     The day before New Year's, I was in the grocery store on a quest. When I told the clerk, "Hi, I'm a Yankee looking for a can of those good luck beans they eat down here in the South.  You know, those green-eyed peas."  She looked at me strangely, saying nothing.  "Oh, so you must be a Yankee, too! Where are you from?"
     "Savannah," she replied, volunteering nothing more. 
     Hmm, maybe it's a religious thing for her and she doesn't believe eating food will bring
prosperity, I thought.  Whatever, we found them on the next aisle and I thanked her for her help.
     Between you and me, I can't imagine why they're called green-eyed peas when there is nothing green about them. (Refer to the picture above.) Perhaps I will Google this question and be surprised at the answer. I just might wear out Google with all my questions, being the Question Meister I am.

P.S. All my Lucy Moments are true! It's silly in my world. That's why I share with you.

Another "Lucy" Moment- Where Are My ...?

     I confess.  I have always and am always misplacing two things.  Beginning in childhood,  I remember

asking my mother, "Where are my shoes?"  That continued into adulthood.  Now I ask my husband, "Where are my shoes?" plus "Where are my glasses?"  I wear cheaters/readers, whatever you may call them.

     One day I was alone in the house, scurrying about, as I usually do.  I don't walk.  Why?  I can't say for sure, but one advantage is you burn calories, another is you get to where you're going faster and, thereby, can accomplish more things. Win, win, right? 

     So there I am, asking Abby, the spokesdog for this blog and my writing companion,  and myself, mostly myself, "Where are my glasses."  I always keep a spare pair in every room, or try to.  I often manage to find several in a pile.  Case in point ... When I happened to pass a mirror, I caught a near blinding reflection of something glinting off the sun.  I figured out it was the four pairs of glasses I had hanging on the neck of the sweatshirt I was wearing. I had to laugh as this one.  I took a selfie to prove what a dumb bunny I can be. (Refer to the picture above.)  

     Hey, perhaps we can spin this to read how my powers of concentration are so great, I don't know everything I do while I'm doing it.  Naw.  That can't be right because I am a great multi-tasker.  Just ask me. 

    Save yourselves, my dear readers. Your hostess here is silly, screwie and leaning hard toward being nuts.  But as I tell people, it's happy in my world and that of our  fictitious and beloved Dunnigan family on Amelia Island in the late 1800s. It must be happy in yours, too, because you're right here with us. Happy is a better thing.  Let's keep it that way!

"I Love Lucy" Live on Stage

When I  found a TV station running consecutive episodes of I Love Lucy, one per day, I felt it my duty and pure pleasure to be versed in what is the most American of entertainment. I watched them all. With so many of my personal Lucy moments revealed here, you know I had to see "I Love Lucy" Live on Stage, when it came to Jacksonville, Florida.  It was too close to Amelia Island not to miss.

I hadn't read anything about it because I wanted to be surprised.  I guessed, since it was a television show, there might be those huge, rolling TV cameras on stage. I was right.  The show was a 1952 recreation of the filming of two episodes before a live audience with commercials throughout.  Complete with high hanging applause sign that flashed on and off, giving us our direction, the stage was divided in half by two sparkling gold curtains, which slid back like shower curtains to reveal Lucy and Ricky Ricardo's living room on the right and Ricky's club band on the left. 

Everybody knows how being in showbiz is a driving goal of Lucy's and it's included here.  From singing off-key with Fred, Ethel and Ricky to jitterbugging like  a loon due to having distorted vision from unexpected eye drops, you were transported to a time when entertainment was wholesome.  

An announcer wisecracked and stirred the audience throughout.  And the commercials were a favorite for me, with all the actors, except Lucy and Ricky, playing multiple parts, singing and dancing and gyrating in colorful clothes of the decade.  Brylcreem ( a little dab'll do ya), Chevrolet (see the USA in your Chevrolet) and Alka-Seltzer (with Speedy, himself) were pure nostalgic.

Cuban-born Euriamis Losada, who played Ricky, and Thea Brooks, who played Lucy,  were convincing actors. I feel disloyal saying this, but Losada was as good-looking as Desi Arnaz and a much better singer.  When he let go with Babalu and pounded on his conga drum, the audience went wild. Brooks, in her curly red wig had more than massive shoes to fill.  Her delivery, body language and crazy dancing mimicked Lucy's very well.  We all just wanted her to wear Lucy's face.  Impossible, but that would have made the show perfect.

If the "I Love Lucy" Live on Stage traveling company comes to your area, try and see it.  The long trailer outside the theater reads:  LIVE AND IN COLOR for the very first time!  - and is it ever.