Industrial Musicals

 Recently, I have been reading at "Broadway North: The Dream of a Canadian Musical Theatre" by Mel Atkey. Eventually, I will finish, but I am just going slowly through it. This morning, and again this evening, I read (and re-read) chapter 14, which is titled "Industrial Strength."

And--epiphany! This is the term--industrial musical--that might help me in my search for the Tupperware songs of 1973 or 1974. I think it was the the summer of 1973 when I spent about 6 weeks or so in Utah being a mother's helper to my cousin Mary. The summer Myron was born. Maybe 1974? Mary had a friend who was a Tupperware Lady, and she invited Mary to a Tupperware Convention, and somehow it was decided that it would be so much fun that I needed to go, too. A not to be missed adventure!!

It was huge. At least 1000 people, judging from the size of the room and figuring how many chairs were in a row. Besides door prizes and games and things like that, there was a program. I would not call what we experienced as a musical, but musical sketches for sure. Like when MTV came out and a song was picturized, only on stage. So there were (really good) singers on stage interpreting the song with props (mostly Tupperware) and then the audience had little song books and would sing along on the choruses. It was bizarre. Totally bizarro.

I looked around hoping to catch the eye of another person, like me, who was thinking "What the heck? Is this not the most bizarre thing ever?" But all I saw were beaming faces like "Oh, this is so wonderful, and yet again wonderful..." (As You Like It quote) and nobody seemed ready to burst out laughing, which was how I was feeling.

Like, it reminded me of a religious revival--they were singing out so lustily, with all their hearts. About PLASTIC. I had been to church in Utah, and trust me "There is sunshine in my soul today" would be sung mumbling and dirge-like, and here we are at a Tupperware Convention, and a thousand people are singing mightily about plastic? It was a surreal experience.

And now I have a name for it. Industrial Musical. This was a thing from the 1950s through early 1980s. Everyone was doing it. But not for all ears, only for the ears of whoever was at whichever convention for whatever industry, from cars to bathrooms to pieces of plastic.

And the music and lyrics were not always stupid and insipid--some were inspired and inspiring and by names you might know like Kander and Ebb (Cabaret) or Harnick and Bock (Fiddler on the Roof) and performers like Wayne and Schuster, Florence Henderson, Loretta Swit, Valerie Harper, Dinah Christie, whose names are better linked to television, movie or Broadway careers. Than to industry!

This was an opportunity for performers--like, who knew? When I was a teen, I wanted a performing career--but I didn't ever look at Canada (despite opportunities in Winnipeg, Toronto and Vancouver) and both Broadway and Hollywood seemed uber-competitive. And yet--there were industry musicals or industry sketches, such as I saw with Tupperware! People liked to do these because they were very well paid.

And so, for your viewing pleasure, here is a link to "My Bathroom." Everyone's favorite part of musical theatre, am I right? Or perhaps you prefer tractors, that other great musical theatre thing. But Ford also had Industrial Musicals for cars and trucks, too, in case tractors aren't your thing. 

I just ordered, for the library, the LPs (the only format available except streaming) for the soundtrack of the documentary film "Bathtubs over Broadway." Many thanks to Steve Young, for gathering all the information--although nowhere can I find Tupperware in his book or on his website. The book is called "Everything's coming up profits" and the companion website has some of the songs. You can also find them on Amazon, ITunes and other streaming platforms. A nice flashback to what once was a thing.

For a nice introduction to Industrial Musicals, here is this Late Night with Letterman clip to enjoy.

Several years ago, I was trying to research the Tupperware angle and found some information about Singer Sewing Machine company doing similar things, but I did not find out the term "Industrial Musical" until today. Maybe that will help, because I find it fascinating. Although, Steve Young's book is pretty comprehensive.

In other news, my former student Carrie visited me today!

Fun to have fully vaccinated visitors!

It was a good day

 The Peggy Lee song--Well it's a good day--is playing in my head, although I learned it in a choral version. Wednesday was a good day. It was my granddaughter Rachel's 14th birthday, and also my parents' 72nd wedding anniversary, had they lived long enough to celebrate that many years together. (Which meant mom would have had to live to age 93, and dad to 106. And they did not.)

First good thing up was that, though I was waiting for my sister Arlene to call and meet up with her family and also my brother, I was super glad to know that it would be later in the day, because I really wanted to go to the devotional. It was comedian Lisa Valentine Clark (who was talking about serious things but not without humor!) and it was so very good! Happy to attend with my friends Janice and Janet! (I think this is the correct link for it: https://www.byutv.org/player/19777a85-410a-4fbe-9ae0-4a230d701e7a?fbclid=IwAR380aY6FJDLlorVrje7YcIMM6cBN-0DVvS_OK-wK2xzcveV9F5CgnQqepM)

In the afternoon, I was working away in my office, when I saw two heads peaking in at me through the glass window in my door, trying to see in around the sign (that I did not put up) that says "Yes! Myrna Layton is meeting with patrons!" and I twigged that the heads belonged to Kevin and Barbara (Wilde) Layton, old friends from Taber!

Kevin is a month younger than me. Our mothers were pregnant together back in the day, my mom with her last baby, Darlene with her first. So I have literally known Kevin my entire life. He is memorable to me for that one time, driving back from BYU at American Thanksgiving, when my roommate Sharon Peigan couldn't take her wedding dress home on her flight because it was too big for the overhead bins so Kevin and I took it. Kevin wanted to do the drive in ten hours or less--had a reason to be there that evening--so we only stopped for gas once and didn't go to the bathroom because there was a line and we had no time to wait, and by the time we got to my parent's house, we were both ready to burst, and my parents only had one bathroom. So that was a fun memory!

Barbara and Kevin both went to Central School, while I went to Dr. Hamman, and they were a grade behind me. So they were both friends with my cousin Marie at school, but they were in my ward. Barbara had a foster sister on the Indian Placement Program, Debbie Baptiste. Debbie was so blessed to have such an awesome foster family. She came to the Wilde's every school year for probably about six years. I loved Barbara's parents--they were very kind and good. Debbie was my age and grade, so the four of us--Marie and I, and Barbara and Debbie, were sometimes a team of having fun. (It should be noted that Kevin attended Dr. Hamman School for one week in Grade One. When he got to school on that last day, Friday, his desk was gone. Like, there was no desk that had the little "Kevin Layton" sign on it. They had transferred him to Central, but did not tell him (or presumably, his parents!) so he got off the bus at Dr. Hamman per usual. His cousins the Jensens, whose farm was super close to his family farm, attended Dr. Hamman, so he just got off the bus with them. I guess that the principal must have driven him over to Central!! Like, what?!! If that happened today, that would be very bad press. Back then, everyone just sucked it up.)

But my own closeness to Barbara developed when she and I were both young adults, surrounding her marriage to her first husband. (Kevin was on a mission when this happened.) Melanie Gough and I gave Barbara a bridal shower, I made drives to Sweet Grass with Barbara to mail wedding invitations and pick stuff up from the post office and stuff like that. I was a worker bee at her wedding reception, helping to keep things running smoothly. I was there for her when her marriage broke up, listening to her sorrows, being her friend during her pregnancy with cute little chubby-cheeked Brandon...and to watch her developing relationship with Kevin when he got home from his mission. 

In recent years, I became Facebook friends with their daughter Stephanie, who was a flute student at BYU and friends with many of my gamelan friends--she was in the Gavin Ryan, Mat Foley, Peter Shirts, Tedjamulia sisters era of BYU students. 

So it was super fun to catch up with them!

We ended up meeting up with Arlene and crew at 6. This was good timing--it allowed me time to pick Josie up from work, drive home and drop her off so she could change and check cats and stuff, and I could run to my office and pick up my brother's gift for Lexi to give to Arlene. I had hauled that gift home with me when I thought I might get to Lexi's wedding, and then hauled it back to work when I thought we might be meeting up with Arlene, and then FORGOT IT when it mattered! Typical!!

My brother was very nice and treated us all to a meal at Golden Corral, closely accessible to the freeway, so an easy place for Arlene and her family to get to.

Here are three of us siblings, without Colleen, since she is in Sweden:

And here is the bunch of us, Sara taking the picture.

And last of all, here is a picture of Lexi as a bride. Just because I can post it here.

Click on the pictures to enlarge them. I do not like the way pictures are dealt with on the blog. I am sure that, from the software developers' point of view, the changes made to blogger are "better" but I just happened to like it the way it was!

Lovely to see my sister, her husband and their son! Lovely to spend time, three siblings together. It was a lovely way to finish the day before going home and getting into my nightgown and curling up with a good book.

Oh! I should contextualize the Layton part for my children. Best done through a graphic.

You can see that my husband is third cousins with Richard, who is Kevin's dad. If Family Search would let us see more than one connection at a time, but it won't, we could also see that Calvin's wife was Iola Harding, and she was my Auntie Beulah's cousin--their fathers were brothers. So Kevin and Marie are second cousins once removed. Marie is second cousins with Richard. 

Interesting. Iola (Harding) Layton comes from the branch of the Harding tree to which our family has so many connections! Her father was John James Harding, older brother to Auntie Beulah's father, Earl Noble Harding. His children were Bill, who is the father of Glen Harding, for whom I used to babysit, and Blaine Harding, who was in the Grassy Lake Ward with Colleen for years. Then Iola, who married into the Layton line, and then Helen, who married an Atwood, and is the mother of Wren Atwood, who married into the Taber Litchfields, long time friends of my parents. (Also whose oldest daughter, Lonna, made my brother realize he was getting old in his 30s when he taught her at the U of L.) John Harding's wife died in childbirth when Helen was born. He remarried and they had four children together, one who died young, but all of my siblings and I know Norman (my piano teacher's husband), Vera (Bennett--my friend Joan married their son; her husband was my bishop when I was young; her son Lloyd and my cousin Harold (second cousins to each other) married sisters from Peru) and Phyllis (who never married, and was often with her sister Vera, so a very familiar face.)

Wait! There is more! Barbara's oldest sister Kathy married Bill Harding's youngest son!! Oh what a tangled web we Taberites weave!

At the end of a trying week

 Well. This week was harder. Possibly harder than that last week of May, which was one hard week.

July 13 was not a Friday, but it had three hard things in it. We learned of my cousin Rita's cancer diagnosis, we learned of our daughter's actions that would land her in hospital on July 14, and my cousin Martha's husband Rod died.

There have been other hard things, too. Nancy and Rosie BOTH had bathroom issues. For Rosie, it was a water problem in her part of the city, and bad pipes in her bathroom. Nancy's was a lot more extensive.

My niece Lexi got married today--we were supposed to go, but I had such a hard week that I could not even imagine driving four or five hours to be somewhere for an hour or two and drive four or five hours back. The spirit was willing (and wanting) but oh my goodness, the flesh and the emotional stamina were very weak!!

Today, Josie and I were supposed to go to one of her best friend's wedding shower. We literally made it into the car and started backing out of the garage when we went back in the house and had naps instead. Emotional trials are exhausting!

BUT we did do this:

We visited our new baby doll, Ireland Rose, and her mama RoseMarie! It was so good to be together, to hold and to hug these much loved family members. I talk with Rosie a lot, but had not seen her for too long. We are all vaccinated (except the baby) and it was great to spend a few hours together.

The Changing of the Cats

 Sometimes I am the one who switches which cat is in cat prison. This morning was one such morning. I had gone around the house opening the sliding doors to let in more cool air at about 5:20 this morning. Sometimes when I do that--if it is a work day--I also switch cats at that hour. But since today is Sunday, I didn't do it then. I just opened the sliding door downstairs and that was all.

I always watch the hour-by-hour temperature on my phone to decide when to SHUT the sliding doors--as well as windows. This morning, with the interior temperature at 73 upstairs, and 72 downstairs (which is amazing!! We have been lucky to be at 75 recently!) I wanted to shut the windows before it got to 75 outside, so when it was 73 at 8:15, I went around closing the place up.

When I went in through the downstairs slider, and first shut it, and then the other window in that room, I noticed the whereabouts of Maisy. I shut the bathroom window, and was saving the cat prison window for last. I saw Cleo curled up in the cat bed in prison. She lifted her head and looked at me. I checked once more that Maisy was still in the same spot--she was.

So I took off the bottom pet gate, and ducked under the upper pet gate, passing Cleo, who just looked at me. I climbed up on the stool to take care of window and window coverings. While my back was turned, Cleo quietly slipped out of prison. When I turned around for a second, I noted this. Turned back around, finished up, turned around again--and there was Maisy, starting to curl up in the cat bed that Cleo had vacated a minute or so earlier. I walked past her to the doorway, and she just looked at me.

I exited the room, put the bottom pet gate in place--and noted that I had completed the most effortless changing of the cats ever!! 

Little stories to remember

I spent my 4th of July in Canada--at least for a few hours. My cousins Ellen and Chad both shared the Zoom links to attend their sacrament meetings, so I spent a virtual visit in first Taber and then Calgary.

I loved this story that a sister I didn't know told about when her kids were little, one day in the car they were talking about missionary work. One little boy said "I want to go on a mission! I want to go to Calgary!" Another little boy said, "I want to go to Lethbridge!" And the smallest little boy piped up from his car seat, "I want to go to Walmart!"

Fast forward to now, and that little boy is on a mission in Ontario. He and his companion needed to run some errands on P-Day, and they went to Walmart. There was a young man there who had been thinking about his spiritual life. He noticed those two guys in their white shirts wearing name tags, and observed them. When he got home, he googled to try to find out who they were, contacted the missionaries, was taught by those two Walmart guys, and has now joined the church. So that little boy did go on a mission to Walmart.

I want to "keep" this story Nancy told on Facebook. I am a newsletter editor for a little rag that music librarians read, and I sometimes need fillers. I might like to use this!

Alexander: You have organs in your tummy.
Zoë: I know!
Alexander: And you have plianos in your tummy!
Zoë: No. We just have organs, not pianos!
Alexander: If we have organs we can have plianos, too!!

Oh yes, we've got trouble...right here in Kitty City...

 Who knew that three pretty quiet, obedient female felines could be such a bucket of trouble?

Well, ever since April 21, when we had that first cat fight, we just can't get Cleo and Maisy to settle down! It kind of came to a head a few weeks ago, when there was a huge kerfuffle downstairs, and Cleo chasing Maisy hither, thither and yon so fast that my head was spinning. 

Ever since then, we have been trying to keep the cats separate. We have tried all sorts of things. Cleo in the upstairs spare room; Cleo and Maisy taking turns in cat prison downstairs. Cinnamon is usually not a part of things--she is just shaking in her boots wondering what the heck is going on.

Unfortunately, the door upstairs is jiggly, so that is an invitation to jiggle, is it not? So, it became a problem to keep a cat in the upstairs room at night because that jiggling is no joke when it wakes you up from a sound sleep.

This evening, Josie tried this: 

because that room was kind of hot, so she thought this would keep Cinnamon (who is currently in heat, adding to the joy of this kitty trial) from jumping in and bothering Cleo, who is currently in kitty prison, but nope. Cinnamon can jump that. (At least Cleo's nemesis, Maisy, cannot jump that high. She is kind of a clutz.)

So then Josie did this:

That at least LOOKS intimidating. Then we found the taller pet gate, so we are on the third trial of the night. 

If someone is home, then that person switches who is in cat prison, so that the same cat isn't always the prisoner. Last night, Josie also put Cinnamon in cat prison, because she can be annoying when in heat (we need to get her fixed soon!) and then when she went to work in the morning, she let the two prisoners out and Cleo was incarcerated for the day.

The other night, Cleo had a freak-out when the other cats were already imprisoned! Apparently there was a cat outside the bathroom window.

When this whole debacle began, in April, it started with a cat at the window. I think there is a black cat who comes to the window, and freaks Cleo out. Then she sees Maisy, who is also a black cat, and thinks that Maisy is the evil outside cat. So she attacks Maisy. Now Maisy thinks that Cleo hates her and is out to get her, so she sometimes attacks Cleo. And it is all just a huge catmisunderstanding! 

But it is terribly stressful! Like, we don't dare leave them, all three, alone in the house together for fear we will come home to fur and blood and carnage all over the place. We have tried sprays that are supposed to calm cats down. We have tried not letting Cleo and Maisy see each other for nearly two weeks! 

This is when the farmer in me wants to put them all down and start over. I know, that is considered heartless and I am a terrible person for even thinking such things. But...I don't know what to do. My dad always said not to have livestock because they tie you down. He meant more than cows! 

I remember the days when we used to just leave the cats, even when Cinnamon was a baby boo, and they were always JUST FINE. How I long for those days!!!