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October 23, 2005

Sooooo, what did you do last week? As I look back I can hardly believe the stuff I did. First of all, last week was a fund-raising week at our local public broadcasting station, WITF. Since I never pass up a chance to answer the phone ( Yeah, right. I retired from a job where I answered the phone every day for over 11 years!) I volunteered to go down to the studio and take pledges. L:et's see: Tuesday, 9 to 1 p.m.; Wednesday, 6 am to 9 a.m.; Thursday, 9 to 12; and Friday (Yawp!), noon to 9:15 p.m. It's habit-forming! We were all exhausted and slightly punchy when we went to shut the phones down at 9:15, when my phone rang one last time. I was so tired, I blew the intro. I apologized, and asked the lady if I could take her pledge. She said she wanted to renew her membership, and I asked her how much she was pledging. She said:

$1000.

I was stunned and asked her to repeat it. She did: $1000. I repeated it, and the volunteers and staff in the room with me went up in smoke. It was a wonderful end to a campaign that at times seemed like we would never come near what seemed to be an insurmountable goal. We didn't make the goal; we were about $2,300 short, but what we did accomplish, over $31,000 in one day, was truly remarkable and had never been done in the 34-year history of the station. Wow!

I didn't have much energy for anything for most of Saturday, but we had tickets for the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra in the evening, and the program was movie music, so I was anxious to go. The soloist was Rich Ridenour; part virtuoso pianist, part Victor Borge, part Willy Wonka. One of these guys with a perpetual twinkle in his eye. The first half consisted of " Hurray for Hollwood," " Brazil," from " The Eddy Duchin Story," and the "Warsaw Concerto," from " Suicide Squadron," which hardly sounds like a movie which would have a memorable music score, but it was a wonderful performance.

Second half: It began with the theme from "Peter Gunn," which was actually a TV show, but who's quibbling. It turns out that Rich Ridenour wanted a theme song, and that was the one they selected. I should mention that during intermission, Rich was asking various members of the audience what piano-themed movie music they would like to hear in the second half. The only two I could think of were " The Entertainer," from "The Sting," and the theme from " Chariots of Fire." I made the error of telling Rich that that theme brought tears to my eyes when I heard it.

I should have known: when the orchestra played "Chariots of Fire," Rich called me to the stage so the audience could watch me cry! Now, if Rich thought that I would be shy in front of the audience, he was WRONG-O! Rich suggested we do a slow race to the tune of " Chariots of Fire." I remembered the slooowwww movements of the "Six-Million Dollar Man," and I emulated them as we raced off the stage and into the audience. The audience burst into laughter ( the desired effect, right?) and a great time was had by all. Hey! I got a chance to play the fool in front of the audience of the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra! Thanks, Rich, for a wonderful opportunity!!