...even more wonderful memories

Okay, there on the right is the list of the blog’s popular posts.  The number one right now, at the time of this writing, is “...more wonderful memories."

I don’t know why, though I’m glad that it is, because this post has a lot to do with the gist of that one. In fact if any post can be the perfect sequel to “...more wonderful memories,” it has to be this very post, hence its name “...even more wonderful memories”.  That most popular post talks about our (Dearie and I) younger days in Samoa when Donny and Marie were our teen idols and how their music was such a memorable influence in our lives then and now - still.  The timing of this post therefore - together with the most popular one at this point - could not be more fitting because of a gig and show* we attended two weeks ago.

Well, let’s see. How and where shall I begin?  Hmmm ... I know. Ok, here ...

There was a girl.  There was a boy. They never met until they were in their teens while attending different high schools in town, far from the villages on the other side of the "mountain" (island) where they lived.  Their villages were about two miles apart and so their love was just a kiss away. The boy noticed her as she was getting on the bus back to the village after school on a Friday when the student boarders (from the villages) went home for the weekend. It was love (puppy love) at first sight for him.  So he wrote her a letter and she wrote back. And they “dated” and truly fell in love.  He would go over to her house where she had a record player and vinyl records of Donny and Marie. Oh yes, the girl was Mormon, the boy was not.  They would talk and listen to hits like“Puppy Love,” “Paper Roses,” “Twelfth of Never,” and of course their all time favorite “Morning Side of the Mountain”. He bought a notepad with romantic colored watermarks and would write his love letters to her, often quoting some of the words of the songs.  Like these ones:

You ask me how much I need you, must I explain
I need you, oh my darling, like roses need rain
You ask how long I'll love you, I'll tell you true
Until the twelfth of never, I'll still be loving you

They got married, had a family of their own and then moved to America, and now closer to their idols.  Recently, some forty years later, they met Donny and had their pictures taken with him.

And then the “twelfth” came, not “of never” but of July 2017, when the girl and the boy (now woman and man)  finally got the chance to see their teen idols in concert!  It was truly a dream come true, albeit one that has been a long time coming. July “twelfth”, 2017 was added to their treasured memories.

They sat in their seats awed and excited, their hands clasped and pressed tighter each time one of their old time favorites was sung and performed.  The songs reminded them of their romance and specific times and places in their budding love story. It’s like they were re-living their whole romance and their young lives all over again.  Deja vu moments! The nostalgia conjured and recalled that night morphed them emotionally back to being the girl and the boy of their teenage years, while the music kept summoning their sweet memories.

But there was one song they were waiting for. They weren’t quite sure if it was part of their idols’ repertoire for the night.  So they sat ... and waited ... and hoped.

About the middle of the show, Donny and Marie went into an extended repartee; they paced back and forth on stage with their funny and witty sibling dissing of each other. At the end of the humorous chit chat, they went back to their seats (bar stools). A short silence followed. A beat. Then a low background intro. A pause. Then Marie in her still youthful voice blurted: “There was a girl!” and Donny echoed: “There was a boy”.  The boy and girl looked at each other, their hands clasped and pressed ever so hard.  Through their teared smiles, they reminisced through their gaze, recalling the endless times they played and listened to “their song” in the now distant shores of their paradisal birthplaces. It seemed so long ago, yet the story was so current and up-to-the minute at the concert.

For the girl and the boy, the evening was beautiful and sentimental, the concert was spectacular and the memories were indelible.  The whole experience was like another chapter of the love story that continues to be told and to unfold.

... on the way to the concert

...stage set 

Donny (Osmond Entertainment)

Donny & Marie (Osmond Entertainment)

... after the concert

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*This show (Donny & Marie), now on the road this Summer, is the same one they have in Las Vegas at the Flamingo. And, it has been rated the #1 show three years in a row on the Vegas Strip.