Ok, some have expressed their opinion that many of these discussions have nothing to do with Kid Rock or the band. I promise a tie in at the end of this story. My mother had a birthday this week. My father visited her in the rehab facility she is in. Both are frail in different ways. As I was pushing my mom in her wheelchair to meet my dad in a private meeting room, I passed a woman in the hall. She was there to visit her own relative in the facility. I said to this woman, "Here comes the birthday girl," and pointed down to my mom. The woman smiled and asked me how old mom was. I replied, "She was born 81 years ago, an at-home birth in Pennsylvania, and she weighed only 4 pounds and 4 ounces" (that fact amazes me). What the woman said to me next struck me and got me thinking. She said, "Just imagine all the people who were so excited about the new baby on that day." I never thought of that before. We see the elderly and forget they had parents who were anticipating their child's birth, their child's first step, along with all the other milestones of that child's life. I can imagine my grandmother (whom I never met since she died before I was born) worrying about that little 4 pound bundle.
So where's the tie in? Well, my mother's roommate is a sweet elderly woman who is cousins with one of the band members. I won't say who to protect her privacy. We were chatting one day and I said I was going to Kid's DSO concert that night. She told me her cousin was in the band and I was floored. What are the odds of that? What a small world! I brought her a program from the concert and she was so proud that her cousin used his talent to help raise one million dollars for the DSO. She leafed through that program over and over, fascinated with this guy called "Kid Rock"and his band.
I'll tell you what, those
I'll tell you what, those folks that make a career servicing the elderly/disabled properly deserve a rose lined path in Heaven to call their own.
Just watched another ambulance come screaming down the main road, and many here at this complex are hospice....just longer term. We watch the ambulance turn the other way, and sigh with relief, and take a big deep breath.
Not sure I'd advise younger handicapped/disabled kids to make the same decision I did and move to Federally-subsidized housing. At first it's AOK. Then you get to know these people.
Since I have been here, 26 residents have passed. Five here in the complex. Three years ago, I lost my heart...my "Mom", and then last year two beloved tenants on either of side of me passed back to back. One expected, due to prostate cancer, one totally not. Their units were emptied by relatives, refitted, and rerented. The new two gals on either side are troopers, still garden!
I love the surroundings here and would love to be carried out in a body bag, but, that fate is guaranteed to none of us. It can get much worse.
Just tuned up my first rolling walker, it's an old classic that looks like my old bike as a kid. Folds out into a V, lol.
Enjoy your lives, party and dance.
BTW-the Canton Liberty Fest
BTW-the Canton Liberty Fest had a Made In Detroit booth.
You write well, Ajay. How's
You write well, Ajay. How's school going?
Margo: they will play on July
Margo: they will play on July 12 and 13 at the Wyandotte Street Fair which is always a great fair and the Detroit River is right behind the buildings on Biddle.
A friend of ours told us
A friend of ours told us about 50 Amp Fuse band, they see them in Chelsea during their music festival & think they're great! I was gonna try to see them this year at the festival, but they're not on the schedule to play there :(
It's always fun at church
It's always fun at church festivals or weddings to watch the old couples dance with each other, doing the polka dance. Many times, old ladies dance with each other.
lol to Val's comment to Angel.
I'm not a polka person either but there's just something about kicking back at those festivals...
Speaking of festivals, Our Lady of Angels (formerly St. Cyril's) in Taylor will have their festival starting tonight with 50 Amp Fuse taking the stage at 7. I watched the band last night at the Canton Liberty Fest. I went up to Remy (the guitarist) and asked him if he were in a band called the Vidiots back in the early 80s and he laughed when he told me it was his first band. My husband (then boyfriend), his sister, her future husband, and I used to go to a bar called the Skylight Lounge in Allen Park to watch the band. I was in high school but my future bro-in-law knew the bouncers and they'd let us in. I think he invited us so we could drive them home. Remy laughed when I told him this story since he grew up with my bro-in-law. Everyone knows everyone else in AP, by the way. I followed the band when it became the Raisin Band and they played at Simon's in Allen Park. I lost track of them when I was out of the country but now follow them as 50 Amp Fuse. They play all over the place and have a website. They are a great cover band.
I like a wide range of
I like a wide range of different types of music...Polka ain't one of them, that's for damn sure!
There's a place called German Park in Ann Arbor it's a summer festival, there's a live Polka band. I meet my old friends from school there we eat German food & drink way too many buckets of beer...on my way home from that place I crank up the radio loud trying to get that oompah, oompah sound outta my head!
MsB potluck parties are the
MsB potluck parties are the best!!!
I have my Aunt's old accordion that I need to learn how to play..I am German so polkas are popular with us too..
especially the 'Beer Barrel Polka'
Angel I bet if we got enough beer in ya you'd be polka-ing ;)
LOL :-) I grew up with Polka
LOL :-) I grew up with Polka music too---my Dad and Grandpa both had Accordians and would fire 'em up in the living room :-)
And thru the years of attending different people's Wedding's in the Upper Peninsula-----I discovered that Polka ALWAYS gets played---and it's usually "Potluck" for the food---someone needs to get married!!!!!!-lol :-) Those are the funnest wedding's EVER!!!!!!!!!! :-)
My husband's family is VERY
My husband's family is VERY Polish. For his sisters' weddings, each had the musical group called the POLKA TELLS (I think that's how they spelled it) serenade them on their front porch as they left the family home for each of their weddings.
I can't polka for my life but my husband can. He likes to sing to me, "I don't want her, you can have her, she's too fat for me," polka song. I am a bit offended. LOL
Always an exception to the
Always an exception to the rule, lol. Angel you are it. I've served at some of the nicest most formal weddings and where I come from, everyone dances. It's a weird phenomen. Polka?
very cool. and ps I HATE
very cool. and ps I HATE POLKA MUSIC.. It makes me cringe lol
RSMS...... thanks for sharing
RSMS...... thanks for sharing! After my cancer last Summer I now truly apprecite the simpler things in life. The priceless things, really don't have a money value associated with them! Thank God I learned this while I am still young enough to appreciate it. Too bad it took such a serious issue to bring it to my attention. Happy wonderful birthday to your Mom!!
Polka makes people dance, Bex
Polka makes people dance, Bex. Dunno why but it does. LOL! Must send good chemicals to the feel good section of the brain. And feet.
So glad to hear Mom is doing well. Miss mine so much.....
update: I took some photos
update: I took some photos from the cruise and gave them to the "cousin." She loved the pictures of the band at the sail away concert.
lol.. blue ~scary~ I've
lol.. blue ~scary~ I've recently walked in on my mom in her kitchen with her lil am station radio going.. doing dishes. Guess what was playing ~polka~ arrgghhh !!! I was like... Ma, what happened to singing songs like "We fired our guns and the British kept a-coming. There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago. We fired once more and they began to running, On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico." Well... she still knows every lyric to that song.. and can still do one hell of dance to "Runaround Sue"... but the polka scared me...lol. She agreed and told me to find another station for her. She's one of a kind. Poor dear can't even figure out how to work a cellphone let alone change the station on her kitchen radio...lol But, I love her just the way she is : )
Great story, Laurie! Bless
Great story, Laurie! Bless your Mom.
Every decade (30's 40's 50's lol), I am reminded that 'old' people are just young'uns with more experience..I absolutely cannot be old!! Because there is a big kid still in this body!
Sweet. The elderly here
Sweet. The elderly here track birthdays with radar, and everyone gets a homemade cake and coffee at the community center. Honestly, I think they enjoy it more than little kids' birthdays. The music is crazy, a lot of polka.....
That is an awesome story :-)
That is an awesome story :-) Thanks for sharing!
Aww that's so true, ya never
Aww that's so true, ya never think about them as kids. I like looking at their old photos though, it's like a part of their life you never knew. My Grandma turned 95 in April, had a big party for her, it was during the KR cruise...I didn't feel so bad not going on the cruise, if I had I would've missed her milestone b-day :)
cute story, thanks
cute story, thanks