Yesterday was the 5th of September and the birthday of my dear friend Patty;
(also affectionately known as Peep!) My first real encounter with Patty was at BYU when she was trying to teach me to drive a stick-shift. I was REALLY nervous about this because I knew NOTHING about driving a stick AND it was HER olive green Datsun that was the "Learner Vehicle" of the day. Things were progressing nicely as I jerkily and apologetically drove us down University Ave. in Provo.
She was subjecting herself and her car to all of this torture because we had both been "hired"--( oh I use that term hired SO loosely it should really fall off this page!) for the Summer of 1979 at The Playmill Theatre in the big ol' town of West Yellowstone, MONTANA!
Patty had grown up in Arcadia, CA and I had been raised in Dallas. So there we were, 2 City Girls that were going to just HEAD-OFF to the Playmill Theatre, sight unseen and make it Big with the Bears of West Yellowstone! The Plan was for her to fly home to Arcadia for Spring break at the end of that semester and leave the prized olive green Datsun with me in Provo since I had no car and wasn't returning to Dallas for Break. I could practice and get comfortable driving a Stick, and then on the day we were expected in West she would fly into SLC and I would just "breeze" into the airport behind the wheel of the olive green Datsun, pick up Patty, throw her Ralph Lauren luggage into the back--(did I mention this was an olive green Datsun Hatchback?) and off we would soar down the highway towards nothing but Adventure & Fame as we anxiously awaited our NEW LIVES as HIRED actresses of THE Playmill Theatre in West Yellowstone, Montana! But I digress...
As I said I was holding my own with very clenched teeth as I hiccuped us down University. (I recall Peep and I BOTH had clenched teeth, but for very different reasons!) We had just about reached the ORIGINAL Location of Losee's Jewelers when Patty informed me there was a bee in the car.
Now for you to TRULY appreciate this moment I have to fill you in on just a couple' things...First of all our body types--and how they were alike: we were both female. AND how they were different, along with our Voice types. Patty was Gorgeous; 5'8" with a very beautiful build, brunette hair, with large hazel eyes and a singing voice that was EPIC--a la Barbara Streisand and Celine Dion with a little Ethel Merman thrown in for good measure. I was 5'2" , with somewhat of a more delicate build, brown hair, blue eyes and a singing voice that was described as "Coloratura"; I kinda floated my notes in the upper stratosphere. Think of Disney's Snow White without all the animals. Basically to sum it up, Patty was tall-I was short; she had the lungs and I had the tonsils.
So when Peep announced the arrival of The Bee, I instantly panicked, as did she since we were both terrified of flying, stinging, Things. And...we both started screaming. She at the top of her lungs and me at the top of my tonsils! It was like two musical speakers, both on different channels, turned up to HIGH.
A cross between Aretha Franklin's
R-E-S-P-E-C-T and MOZART's QUEEN OF THE NIGHT! To this day I don't know what kept us from blowing out the windshield of that olive green Datsun!
Suddenly I was veering and accelerating all over University Ave.; plus the windows were rolled down--(how else did you think the Flying Stinging Thing got in?)
So there were two shades of beautiful brown hair billowing out the front windows, anywhere from two to four arms flailing madly out of those same windows at any give time, and both car doors opening and shutting, opening and shutting wildly as we desperately tried to extract the thirty-four foot Bee from the nine foot Datsun.
I will leave to your imagination how Peep, still serenading, finally grabbed hold of the steering wheel and despite my ONE foot bearing down on the gas, clutch, and brake all at the same time, expertly turned the car off the road so we could eject ourselves from the olive green Datsun and certain death--(we didn't even land on the sidewalk--or upside down!)
So why this extremely LONG post about an incident that occurred over 30 years ago that involved me and someone you only know as Peep? Memories! Happy, happy memories! My friend Maggie that told me to start this journal, explained that as I wrote I would suddenly "be back in the moment" and could remember the feelings and emotions. She said these past memories could still re-fill my emotional bucket and keep me going. She was right. Nothing can take away your happy memories!
So today I am so grateful for BIG Flying Stinging Things, an olive green Datsun, and Patricia Tiffany Keller, aka --Peep!