carousel music and tears of joy

May 17, 2004

Yesterday on the Loof Carousel at Crescent Park in East Providence, it finally hit me. The carousel music started as a patriotic medley of Yankee Doodle and It's a Grand Old Flag then segued into show tunes. As soon as I heard Get Me to the Church on Time my eyes teared up as I thought of all the people who would in fact be getting married in the morning... who never thought they'd be able to. I started singing along substituting names of friends who are getting married: "[Name]'s getting married in the morning. Ding dong the bells are gonna chime. Kick up a rumpus...," then the flood gates opened. I was bawling tears of joy and amazement. Looking out the windows at Narragansett Bay gleaming in the afternoon sun on one side and boys playing a pickup game of baseball on the other, listening to the music of Tin Pan Alley (somehow all the more American for being written by immigrants) and knowing that morning in Massachusetts would be even more special, I was just totally overcome with loving everybody and everything. America. Massachusetts. Nancy. My friends. The brant riding the waves in the bay. I don't get that way often.

When someone says "It's possible" I usually answer "A plain yellow pear can become a golden carriage." (I know it's a pumpkin but in Andrea's elementary school production it was a pear). Well, last night Nancy said "It's possible." I don't even remember what about. Unconsciously, I said "A plain yellow pair can become a golden marriage". We had a great laugh over it. Whether we ever decide to marry or not, it's possible.

Today's Reading
Jinriksha Days in Japan by Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore, The Geese of Beaver Bog by Bernd Heinrich

This Year's Reading
2004 Booklist