Saved Up Pictures, Words From May

I've been saving this picture for a day when I've not taken any photos to post and today appears to be that day. It's the picture Levon drew for my birthday and I just love it. That's Levon and MerMer there, under the rainbow. I adore the way children draw people and the way their drawings evolve as they get older although mine really haven't. I still basically draw humans as stick figures. If I'm feeling especially talented (haha!) I draw people that are more representational of the essence of actual human beings than realistically. 
Because I can't. As with the truck or bicycle or tractor, I honestly do not seem to have any idea what a person looks like. 

I have had zero energy today. The heat is back and perhaps that is the reason. I no more would have taken a walk this morning than I would have jumped off a hundred foot cliff into a shark-filled ocean. 
No way. 

So I did a bunch of laundry and went to town to pick up a few things. I purposely went at a time I could eat lunch because I was craving a turkey Rubin from a local restaurant so I took myself out for one. It was delicious and I read a short story as I ate, in one of the ten or so New Yorker's that I have stacked up, as pure and undefiled (meaning unread) as a Mormon teen bride getting sealed in the temple to her virgin twenty-one year old groom. 

So that was awesome. 

And then, you know- Costco and Publix, same as always. 

May and Michael are up in New Jersey, visiting family of Michael's and May sent us some group texts and a little video last night of the Stone Pony in Asbury Park that they got to step into for a few moments. For those of you whom the name "Stone Pony" means nothing, here's a little backstory. 
Anyone who's ever been a fan of Bruce Springsteen and the E. Street Band knows about this place and I suppose it is a sort of a stop on the pilgrimage of the Holy Church of Rock and Roll. My kids got raised on Bruce and the E. Street Band and that is some of the music that got me through some of the toughest times of my life, right up there with the Beatles and specifically George Harrison and John Lennon and also the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan, etc. 
Anyway, May, who I've always said is the best writer in the family, wrote these words after I asked her if she'd had a little quiver of excitement being there, and if she could feel Bruce?

"I did, even more so because the lady there was pissed off lol. It felt real, but just like a tourist destination. She was like, Yeah, you can come in but I"m not getting paid to help you. I love that. It smelled so good, obviously clean, but you could smell the wood and the memories of smoke and beer and a little bit dirty. I could've curled up and taken a nap. 
It was as if someone wrapped up my childhood memories and made them a place that everyone wants to be a part of. I'm glad, glad that even though the Stone Pony isn't my childhood, I can see it through those eyes, and see what it was when it was young. You gave us that. I could see you dancing on that floor so clearly."

Wow. Just, wow. 

Hank and May's daddy is a guitar player and they did spend some time in divey bars when they were kids when their dad was setting up equipment or breaking down equipment or rehearsing. Whatever. Bars are not a foreign country to them. And come to think of it, Mr. Moon and I used to take them every Friday afternoon to a local beer garden although that was outside. It was a well-patronized tradition, called "Hippie Hour" as so many of us there were of that ilk, and many of us had children who came along with us to enjoy the live music and Shirley Temples and friendly dogs. 

But the dancing part. Oh, the dancing part of May's words. What a dancer I used to be! I loved dancing more than anything, and nothing made me happier than a dance floor in front of a good band. And wouldn't I have loved dancing at the Stone Pony in front of a fledgling Bruce? And so would have May because she is every bit the dancer her mama is, and more. 

Well. There you go. That's my musings for the day, inspired by my daughter. 

I've saved another picture that I found, and I don't even remember where, for a day when I could use it and I think that today is the day. Here it is. 

In 2009 I wrote a blog post about Clarence and Bruce and you can find it HERE.  It is called "Holy Kisses" and I just reread it and it ain't bad. 

Clarence Clemons died in 2011 and now his nephew plays with the E. Street Band but there is no kissing going on between Bruce and him as far as I know. 

When Clarence died, it knocked me out. For whatever reason, it really did hit me hard and I cried a lot for a few days. Looking at that picture and remembering the concerts I'd been to and seen the Bruce-and-Clarence-love in person, I don't wonder any more. 

It's always about love, isn't it? 

Well, it's Friday. A holier day than Sunday if you do it right. 
I don't know if I do it right but I do have my rituals and they have been fulfilled once again- clean sheets and a martini. I'm not religious but I am faithful. 

Happy Friday, y'all. 

Love...Ms. Moon