Music

The collage above is of my granddaughter Erin when she was about two and a half years old. Her mother had taken her to a festival and the band was setting up. They were walking toward the band stand when Erin heard the music and she took off to center stage and danced to everyone's delight. She is still dancing as you can see. She is that tall dark beauty on the left of the group of her salsa dancers.

Right now, I am listening to "Ruby"and the singer's voice is familiar, yet I cannot bring his name to mind. It is slow, melancholy, listless, yet beautiful and haunting. I have a station on the radio playing the old tunes which bring back so many memories, some sweet and others sad. I recently wrote a musing about dancing which I read to the Chetco Writer's Group who vary in age from teenage to octogenarian. It was well received because it brought back other eras from the early thirties to the current day starting with the Virginia Reel, the waltz, the fox trot, a lively polka and even the Hokey-Pokey.

The voices of the ballad singers took you to a warm and haunting place with a promise of romance . . . and off key singing has never hurt anyone as far as I know. We all need a symphony in our lives which takes us to a completely different world. The wonderful golden voice tenors, the baritone and the lilting soprano all contribute in making our moods change. Lucky for all of us, it takes all kinds of music to make our world go around. I hope you have a radio on, or one of those new fandangled I Pods with thousands of songs to play, hopefully an old tune or two.

We all hear a different drummer. Listen to the beat. Sing . . . Dance . . . and smile a lot, chuckle or give out with a good old belly laugh and change your mood to open your heart and mind to enjoy today.