VeggieTales®: Princess and the Pop Star

I used to want to be Wonder Woman.(Lynda Carter) I have been waiting for a remake of Wonder Woman. lol Thank gahome2mom/at/gmail/dot/com

As an young girl, I was tall…I mean, really tall. I had long legs, red hair, freckles, and I needed braces. Awkward would have been a kind word for me! My best friend, Jen had unruly, curly hair, was painfully skinny, and, as the last of ten children in her family, was ignored frequently by them. We were both rather shy, and shunned any attention whatsoever. But Jen and I always secretly dreamed of becoming pop stars. And every weekend, in my unbearably pink, little girl’s bedroom, we would choreograph and practice for our burgeoning careers as Divas. We used to put on shows for our families, singing along at the top of our lungs to my old 33 1/3 record player. I can’t recall that either of us wanted to “be” any particular singer, we just wanted to let our voices be heard, and for two socially awkward girls, singing in such a ‘safe’ environment was the perfect venue. I recall that there was one song that we used to perform all the time. I suppose it was our “theme song”. It was called “Open Up Your Heart and Let the Sun Shine In”. Singing that song together is still something that Jen and I fondly remember, even now, nearly 40 years later. (that, and the bedroom that looked as if it was “hosed down in Pepto Bismol”).

The funny thing is, Jen and I both went into music, although we never “hit the big time”. She works for NASA on the Space Shuttle program, but on nights and weekends she is a huge success on the local community theater scene, playing such roles as Marian the Librarian in the “Music Man”, Maria from “The Sound of Music”, and Mrs. Lovitt in “Sweeney Todd”, just to name a few. She married a man who also works for NASA, and, he too is an accomplished actor and vocalist. They met in the theater, when they were both the lead roles in “My Fair Lady”, and they have starred beside each other on many occasions ever since. It is amazing to me how the shy, awkward girl I once knew became the beautiful, confident woman she is today. But that is Jen. She is truly an amazing woman….period.

I went onto to become a professional concert bassoonist, and a woodwind specialist. Prior to becoming an engineer, I performed in several different orchestras and woodwind ensembles and was a contract musician at Walt DisneyWorld, I still perform in my local orchestra and community theater productions, and play nearly every weekend at my church. Neither of us became Divas…but I do think that we still carry that love of music which was kindled in our hearts behind the closed doors of a shockingly pink bedroom, oh so many years ago. And that is the most important thing of all, don’t you think??