Teacher: Boys and girls, we have a special visitor in our classroom today.
3rd grade students: He looks funny! Like he's diseased or something!
Teacher: That's because Mr. Geo. is visiting from a long time ago --a hundred years-- when people actually aged physically. In fact, it was Mr. Geo. who invented the interpretive dance that your parents do in reply to questions from Human Resources panels when they apply for their jobs.
Students: Show us! Show us!
Teacher: Very well, watch and learn.
16-second gravel dance
When the clip closed there was silence in the room, except one little girl sobbing.
Teacher: Violet, why are you crying?
Violet: Because Butch@**** told me I was the only kid without a @ in my name.
Butch: That's 'cause her family's in that little religion.
Geo.: Butch, perhaps you could name the big religions of the world.
Butch: Sure! Regular, Premium and Unleaded.
Teacher: Presidents are always Regular or Premium and Vice Presidents are Unleaded.
Geo.: And how do you feel about this?
Teacher: I took no part in the discussions, not having been born yet. But I hope you don't feel averse to our system.
Geo.: Madam, if you were allowed to age, you would understand I no longer have emotions --I have symptoms.
Violet: Mr. Geo., there are many of us who feel victimized by people like Butch@****. He's a clone and there's a copy of him in every classroom, every grade and age, and they make everybody feel funny about who they are.
Geo.: Thank you all for having me in your classroom a century in my future. Best of luck. Best mainly to you Violet for the strength to create a politically equitable system for everyone.
Teacher: You're going back? But...but...
Butch: Hey! Wait a minute! Who the hell said anything about politics?
Geo. (fading and sparkling into the past): Indeed, who the hell did?
The gravel dance looks like a weird offshoot of the Freddie.
ReplyDeleteFrom Freddie And The Dreamers, Oh my! Thanks for the memory and the compliment!
DeleteThat Gravel Dance looks like no easy exercise regimen. Your comment that you no longer have emotions, you have symptoms deserves high praise from those of us of a certain age.
ReplyDeleteTom, we dance as best we can, explain ourselves minimally, stand on our dignity and sometimes trip over it.
DeleteOh Geo., I have the distinct feeling that I saw this dance before - but in the past, not in the future :-)
ReplyDeleteThis time I have to guess the underlying themes - guess that you call gasoline with those 3 catagories? Otherwise I'm sorry that I can't take part in the discussion.
Dear Brigitta, you are most perceptive. I HAVE used the 16-second gravel dance clip in some prior posts. I still do the dance but Norma won't film it unless she has protective headgear and body armor.
Delete" You’ve got to sing like you don’t need the money
ReplyDeleteLove like you’ll never get hurt
You’ve got to dance like nobody’s watchin’
It’s gotta come from the heart if you want it to work."
Lyrics from "Come From the Heart"
I know your dance came from the heart. Too bad the future may not know that joy.
Arleen, Guy Clark is a national treasure and his prescription for workable happiness will work its cure in the future too.
DeleteTom has taken the words right out of my mouth...I have the greatest admiration for (and empathy with) your symptoms...and I am attempting to learn the Gravel Dance right now!
ReplyDeleteYep...definitely brings to mind Freddie and the Dreamers for me too...;))
Thanks, Ygraine! But be careful with the dance --sometimes when I do the trouser-hitch steps, I pull myself right over backwards.
DeleteThere certainly is a lot of worship at the altars of fuel and politics. I think we should be paying more attention to joy and gravel dancing.
ReplyDeleteOff to google Freddie and the Dreamers now!
O Jenny, it is strange how the "promised lands" are increasingly the ones with the most oil on them.
DeleteFound them, and Emma was right on! I recognize the song I found (I'm Telling You Now) but never saw them perform. Well done, Geo. (and Norma!)!
ReplyDeleteGlad you found Freddies! I recall seeing them on tv for the 1st time in the '60s and laughing because they were so fun to watch --and their songs were easy to remember and fun to sing.
Delete"Dance like nobody's watching." I can do that, but YOU had the chutzpah to dance for all of us! Cool, dude. Very very cool. I think you should call that dance Joy. (Looks like you've licked the vertigo, huh? Awesome!)
ReplyDeleteI loved that line about having symptoms instead of emotions. And who the hell's talking about politics, indeed. I think we'd all like to pretend what's happening is just one big sick joke... so let's not talk or think about it just now...
Susan, vertigo's gone but it looks like tinnitus is forever. Ah well, we can still dance. If we think back on the Freddie years, we see just as many world affairs hitting the fan but we could move to the music and forget a little while. Hope we never lose that buoyant ability.
DeleteWell, that was a fun dance to watch, Geo, especially the trouser hitching part! Gosh, I haven't thought of Freddie and the Dreamers in forever! I used to really enjoy them on the radio. As for the current state of our politics, Susan nailed it when she said it was "one big sick joke." The nice thing about being in Honolulu right now is that we're so far behind everyone time wise. It all becomes meaningless blather drowned out by the sound of the waves and palm trees! My third graders would have loved to have you come and demonstrate the Gravel Dance ~ heck they would have jumped up and done it with you. We had "Shake Breaks" occasionally when I felt my third graders were a little sluggish after lunch and recess. We shake and jump around to Otis Redding singing "Shake." Glad your vertigo is gone. Sorry about the tinnitus; it's irritating stuff.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Louise! Even though California is only a couple hours ahead, I sometimes wake up with the feeling that the rest of the mainland has been confounding political progress since the middle of the night. A perfect world would rotate the other way sometimes and give the west a chance to kick things off. Hawaii must feel this even more keenly. Is anybody working rotation reversal?
Delete