Old Folks Back Home ...

March 5, 2010

When I came into the living room/hospital room area at 3:00AM, something good was on TV. I could tell it was good by the rapt expression on Phillip's face. A line of beautiful chorus girls in scanty costumes were kicking long perfect legs high, high and higher.

"What're you watching here, Phillip?" I asked.

He assumed his most innocent expression. He didn't know for sure what it was. (elaborate yawn). He hadn't really been paying attention.

Uh huh.

"What's the name of this movie, Phillip?" I asked, as I settled in to watch it with him.

"In God We Trust."

"Phillip! What kind of name is that for a sexy movie like this?"

I was reminded of an old country song that caused quite a stir back in the forties. I couldn't remember the singer. Phillip and I finally decided it must have been Jim Reeves. The lyrics went something like this:

The Gods were angry with me
for loving you.
The Gods were angry with me
because they knew.
I stood at heaven's portals,
but they were too high
for any mortal such as I.

When that little tune played on battery radios throughout my home town, good Christian God-fearing people gasped and clutched their hearts. Well-scrubbed kitchen floors were soon littered with semi-conscious bodies. What was this world coming to? The dear souls could hardly breathe! Lightening was gonna strike somebody stone cold dead over that song. Wait and see.

I waited a few years and what I saw was Elvis bursting on the scene. Old folks went back to gasping and clutching.

Teenagers learned to rock and roll.

I wonder what those old folks would think if they were alive today ... Wait! I'm "old folks" now, and I think it's downright scandalous for God's holy name to be used in a movie title about half-clad, not-to-be-trusted-for-one-minute, high-kicking girls. Lightning's gonna strike somebody stone cold dead.

Meanwhile, my grandchildren are dancing.





(MelindaGerner@yahoo.com.)