Tomorrow Turned Out To Be Today

So, if the world wasn't so rotten, Anne Frank might well be celebrating her 81st birthday today. Pretty gloomy I've been lately, despite all the blessings there are to count.

1. It's a Saturday in June.

2. On my kitchen table is a trio of tomatoes from the farmers' market up at the Square.

3. A big whacking thunderstorm blew away the soupy air in which we'd all been marinating.

4. There's an Andy Griffith Show marathon on: the good, black & white ones. www.tvland.com

5. And I had the wherewithal to take myself to the fabric store this morning. (Melancholy? Make something.) I dug out an old Folkwear Pattern, [ folkwear.com ], my scissors, & pins. Between now and tomorrow my old Singer and I are going to turn 5.5 yards of printed cotton into a "Calico Day Dress, A Turn-of-the-Century Wrapper." Why? In the very near future I'll be talking to bunches of folks about the past. Stay tuned.

And remember Anne.

"Everyone," she wrote, "has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!"

Let her words be her birthday gift to me & you.

June

So, here are a few happy words written by long-gone poet, James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) “...There is no price set on the lavish summer/ And June may be had by the poorest comer./ And what is so rare as a day in June? Then, if ever, come perfect days”..

Let's hope so. And what qualifies as a day of perfection? What's the criteria? A hearty breakfast eaten, good deeds done? A list of tasks, all crossed off? Do your bills: check. Work a bit on your book: check. Meditation: check. Blogification, lest people forget you: check. Bit o' housework & exercise [take your happy pill], lest you end up like your mother: check. Weather, not too hot, not too cold, not too humid, too rainy/icy/snowy/foggy, but just right. Check your calendar so you don't forget to show up somewhere or call someone & tell him or her happy birthday. My niece and nephew, Amy and Zachary, for instance - twins from A to Z, 17 today. Both of 'em. Another niece, the glorious Sara, 23.

I'd call Andy Griffith, bless him forever for his Andy Griffith Show [just the black & white ones], thank him, honor him, tip my hat to him over the ph. for his scary-marvelous performances in A Face in the Crowd (1957) and his comic-brilliant performance in No Time For Sergeants (1958). Don Knotts (1924-2006) was in that, too, and oh baybee... Deee-lightful, smart screwiness. I'd sure tell Andy Griffith Happy Birthday if I could. He won't have too many more of them, if the actuarial tables are to be believed. It's not every day a person turns 84. That's how old Marilyn Monroe would be this very day, if only - a cavalcade of if onlies. Only imagine an 84-year-old Norma Jean. And Frank Morgan, by the way, that great old character actor, would be 120 today, if he hadn't corked off in 1949. Ah well, best of luck, happy June to the living and the dead. Pondering upon my fellow travelers: check.