Victory Polka #Monday Musical Memories

While I was working as a registered music therapist with nursing home residents, someone requested the song I’m featuring today. Sung by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters, it offered hope during the desperate times of World War Ii. Although times today aren’t nearly as bad, they’re still bleak, with the numbers of coronavirus infections and deaths being reported on the news every day. So, I hope this song also offers you hope.

As you listen, think of what will happen once social distancing restrictions are lifted, allowing public places to open again. Here in Sheridan, I’ll be able to go to my water exercise classes at the Y, eat lunch at the senior center, meet face to face with my writing groups, and practice with my choir. I’ll have easier access to toilet paper and other items. As I walk by the creek, I’ll hear the happy cries of children from the nearby park. Last, but not least, I won’t have to worry about getting sick. Then, I’ll dance my own victory polka.

By the way, for the next month, My Ideal Partner and The Red Dress are available on Smashwords as part of its sale to support those isolated as a result of the coronavirus situation. Please click here to visit my Smashwords author page and download these books. Thank you for reading today.

 

New! The Red Dress

Copyright July 2019 by DLD Books

Front cover contains: young, dark-haired woman in red dress holding flowers

When Eve went to her high school senior prom, she wore a red dress that her mother had made for her. That night, after dancing with the boy of her dreams, she caught him in the act with her best friend. Months later, Eve, a freshman in college, is bullied into giving the dress to her roommate. After her mother finds out, their relationship is never the same again.

Twenty-five years later, Eve, a bestselling author, is happily married with three children. Although her mother suffers from dementia, she still remembers, and Eve still harbors the guilt for giving the dress away. When she receives a Facebook friend request from her old college roommate and an invitation to her twenty-five-year high school class reunion, then meets her former best friend by chance, she must confront the past in order to face the future.

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Monday Musical Memories: Apple Tree/Apple Blossom

Image contains: Abbie, smiling.

In 1976 when I was in eighth grade, and my family was living in Sheridan, Wyoming, where I’m still living, we moved into a three-story red brick house with an apple tree in the back yard. I’ve never liked the taste of fresh apples, but my parents and younger brother may have picked and eaten them. I don’t remember. Since I didn’t grow up during war time, I didn’t have a sweetheart to tell me not to sit under the apple tree with anyone else until he came marching home.

According to Wikipedia, the song, “Apple Blossom Time,” was published in 1920 and made popular by The Andrews Sisters and other artists. It was one of many songs I sang while working as a registered music therapist in nursing homes and other facilities for senior citizens. Here’s my rendition of a medley of this song and “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree,” also made popular by The  Andrews Sisters.

 

 

How about you? Did you have an apple tree while you were growing up? Did you sit under the apple tree with a lover or by yourself? Did you make pie, jam, or cider with the apples from your tree?

Happy Memorial Day!

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My Ideal Partner: How I Met, Married, and Cared for the Man I Loved Despite Debilitating Odds

That’s Life: New and Selected Poems

How to Build a better Mousetrap: Recollections and Reflections of a Family Caregiver

We Shall Overcome

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