I was looking out the front window late yesterday afternoon and Hazel asked me what I was looking for. Not what I was looking at or what’s out there.
“What are you looking for?”
Boy, that’s a loaded question that a ten year old doesn’t need to know the answers.
I was actually watching a car stop to pick someone up from across the street. An older lady walked through the courtyard of the apartment building with a big smile on her face.
I couldn’t see who was in the car, but whoever it was brought joy to my neighbor. The scene was only missing Louis Armstrong singing “What a Wonderful World.”
So to answer Hazel’s question I turned around and told her, “I see trees of green…Red roses too!
I see them bloom for me and you.”
My kids aren’t cute anymore, which means I’m not cute anymore. Now I’m just embarrassing. So like Donald Joseph Shepley I go all out in embarrassing the Shepkids.
“Please dad…. Just stop!”
Which to me says keep on singing and start twirling around like Gene Kelly just for reinforcement.
“I see skies of blue and clouds of white. The bright blessed day and the dark sacred night.”
Hazel is now telling me she needs to bleach her ears, soooo…..
“The colors of the rainbow, So pretty in the sky….Are also on the faces of people going by. I see friends shaking hands saying, ‘How do you do?’ They're really saying
I love you.”
Fritz chimes in, “you might as well let him butcher the rest of the song Hazel!”
So…….
“I hear MY babies cry, I watch them COMPLAIN. They'll NEVER learn more than I'll ever know….
And I think to myself will they ever leave me alone? Yes, I think to myself, What a wonderful world
Ooooooooooooooh Yeah!”
Make sure to let tears stream down your face today when you here “Taps.” I can hear my dad asking me if I like the song playing (usually “Rhapsody in Blue). If my bratwurst tastes good. Asking if I need more potato salad. Typical Memorial Day with the Oldman. Always ending with, “you better enjoy everything here today son! The American Soldier died for all of this.” if my dad had a crowd he’d alway add the next line to this speech.
“Only two beings have sacrificed their lives for us. Jesus Christ and the American Soldier. Don’t ever forget that!”
I miss that annual Don Shepleyism. Just like someday the Shepkids will miss me singing jazz standards and old Broadway hits!
So I leave you with this, “May all your futures be pleasant ones
Not like our present ones
Drink, l'chaim, to life,
To life, l'chaim
L'chaim, l'chaim, to life. Be happy, be healthy….long life!”
Tomorrow I can tell you how Don Shepley always sang “Fiddler on the Roof” tunes when we drove past the Jewish cemetery. I was never embarrassed, but Schlomo Rubenstein, born 1883-died 1951 probably wasn’t too thrilled.
