Giving and Rain, Paris Texas Style, plus a little Dirt

This time of year there is an even greater joy in being thankful and in giving, and Paris, Texas always knows how to do it right. For example, the PISD (Paris) middle school gathered up goodies and letters for soldiers and sent their care package. Shown here is one of their teachers, as well as family and friends of one of the soldiers who will receive and pass out the goodies.






 






And across the way, the NLISD (North Lamar) is wrapping up its production of Singing In The Rain with a canned food drive on Monday night (bring a non perishable item to the musical and get a ticket for $7.00 instead of for $10.00).



 

Fit as a Fiddle Capers

I went to the show for opening night (I'm not counting the Thursday in school production) and it was a great show, well worth your time even if you aren't in the giving spirit. And it is just such a perfect time for this uplifting story, sandwiched between the election and the holidays.



 







Or maybe it just felt like great timing, as I am slowly making my way through The Worst Hard Times, a Book Club pick that is about my old stomping grounds on the Llano Estacado: a time after the Spaniards, the buffalo, the Plains Indians, the great strides in farming, and the wet, money making years of the twenties. This is not a book that I can plow through because it is too real to me, it hits too close to home. I grew up in the plains with a farm family that still made use of every single thing, kept every single thing (I still fight that hording tendency), simply because everything has a use and we might need it someday. I knew those hard years were bad, but I didn't know the half of what this book is describing to me.  Listen, if you want a different vacation, what we cousins affectionately have dubbed "The Red Door Farmhouse Spa" would be a real different treat!  For the most part, you won't see the dust of the years past, due to the crop rotation programs that are still ongoing, BUT it has been very dry, as it was in those years, so some dust storms have rolled in, as shown by this video from last year's dust storm. 

 Dust Storm in Lubbock, 2011 

I doubt that Rain's Lina Lamont would have liked it.

 Go ahead, take a minute and watch that video showing what happened after the worst drought in my memory.  That was the summer that the grass was so dead it was crunchy and the wind break evergreens that had lived there all of my life were mostly dead.  The book says that this 2011 dust storm was nothing compared to what those people lived through (remember, these people did not escape to California like the Grapes of Wrath folks did) because that was just from a year and half of drought -- the families in the 30s lived through at least 5 years of it, and I am only half way through 
the book.  

(Note that Book Club had amazing timing with that book, as it coincided with  PBS Dust Bowl 
 special, which airs this week).

Celebrating first rainfall on Stage!!

So a little Rain at the North Lamar's theater this weekend was very refreshing, and the highest compliment that I heard over and over after the show was:  "They are so good I kept forgetting they are in highschool!"  I heard many belly laughs, from the young and old, and saw some outstanding tapping, not to mention the talented acting and singing.  









And now I can't get some of the songs out of my head -- besides the beloved title song, I have always loved Good Morning (and the couch trick!) as well as the tongue twisters, like: "Moses supposes his toeses are roses. But Moses supposes erroneously!"

Wonder How Many Times They Shot This Until They Got It?

So, I hope to go back for more on Monday night with my canned food gift. I invite you to go with me! 

Just Singing, in the Rain!

We can give and receive at the same time.  And Rain will refresh us, with the smiles and joy that only a musical can give.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad