Gay's Days, January 19, 2015

Good morning friends,

Last Saturday, hubby and I drove over to the University of Houston to see the musical entitled, "In the Mood."

The singers and swing dancers were fantastic! If you have the opportunity, you should see it.

The decade for this production is the big band era of the 1940's.  Yes, that was before my time, but my mom and dad dated during part of that era.

We had trouble finding the Cullen building. U of H is huge, over six hundred acres. You can't believe how many people were as lost as we were. We parked, found someone with a map and ended up walking over a mile to get to this place, and then a mile back. Not an easy thing to do in heels, believe me!

So many people who came were old enough to be my mother or father. Some were in wheel chairs, others on walkers or with canes. They'd come to remember their early years and fun days. Of course those were the war years, and some of those memories evoked pain. I hated that many of them had that distance to walk.

As I stood outside the building while hubby bought tickets, it seemed that people thought I could answer their questions about location, tickets, if the auditorium was cool and if they needed jackets inside, etc.

Me? I'm always as lost as the little angel in my Sarah Series. I knew nothing more than they did, but I tried to help. I love telling people where to go, even if I'm wrong. Ha, ha, ho, ho, chuckle, chuckle.

Toward the end of the performance, the band and singers sang the theme songs for each of the military U.S. branches. The veterans and current service men stood as they heard their song. Wow! I cried my mascara off.

We had no Marines there that I could see, several Navy men, one Coast Guard, and a few Air Force. The overwhelming majority were Army. It was patriotic and heartwarming.

I wanted to go for several reasons. As I said, the era belonged to my parents. The costumes and hairstyles the women wore reminded me of pictures I'd seen of my mom.

I'm also writing a Sarah book. The main female human character is named Carolyn, and she attends the University of Houston. Seeing the campus gave me a better idea of how to write Carolyn's story.

Look for it. Even if you are too young to have a connection, it will do your heart good.