SWEET HOME ALABAMA

BYE, Y'ALL, FOR NOW. I'M GOING BACK TO :

THE STAR THAT FELL ON ALABAMA

Red Dirt Girl

In April of 1947 a star fell on Alabama. Before the star found her glitter she travelled a long and difficult road. The world knows her now as Emmylou Harris and her ethereal voice has crossed genres for the past four decades. And did I say that she's one of my all-time favorites ?

She was in Chicago last evening at Ravinia, a public venue, and is debuting her new album SONGBIRD ,with highlights of her career, today. I can't wait to get it.

In addition to being a singer she's also a talented songwriter and guitarist. She could also be the poster child for the baby boomers : What 60 should look like. What beautiful silver hair she has and the face of an angel .

True to her Alabama roots, she wrote and recorded " Red Dirt Girl ," one of my favorites that I can really relate to :

Me and my best friend Lillian
and her blue tick hound dog Gideon,
Sittin' on the frontporch cooling in the shade
Singing every song the radio played
Waiting for the Alabama sun to go down
two red dirt girls in a red dirt town
Me and Lillian
Just across the line and a little southeast of Meridian.

She loved her brother I remember back when
He was fixin' up a '49 Indian
He told her " Little sister, gonna ride the wind
Up around the moon and back again "
He never got farther than Vietnam,
I was standin' there with her when the telegram come
For Lillian.
Now he's lyin' somewhere about a million miles from Meridian.

She said there's not much hope for a red dirt girl
Somewhere out there is a great big world
That's where I'm bound
And the stars might fall on Alabama
But one of these days I'm gonna swing
Away from this red dirt town
I'm gonna make a joyful sound

She grew up tall and she grew up thin
Buried that old dog Gideon
By a crepe myrtle bush in the back of the yard,
Her daddy turned mean and her mama leaned hard
Got in trouble with a boy from town
Figured that she might as well settle down
So she dug right in
Across a red dirt line just a little south east from Meridian.

She tried hard to love him but it never did take
It was just another way for the heart to break
So she dug right in.
But one thing they don't tell you about the blues
When you got 'em
You keep on falling cause there ain't no bottom
There ain't no end.
At least not for Lillian.

Nobody knows when she started her skid,
She was only 27 and had five kids.
Coulda' been the whiskey,
Coulda' been the pills,
Coulda' been the dream she was trying to kill,
But there won't be a mention in the news of the world
About the life and death of a red dirt girl
Named Lillian
Who never got any farther across the line than Meridian.

Now the stars still fall on Alabama
Tonight she finally laid
That hammer down
Without a sound
In the red dirt ground

( Note : Meridian , Mississippi is a 2 hr. drive from Birmingham )

There but for the grace of God, go I.

3 EASY PIECES

Since I don't work on Michigan Avenue anymore my wardrobe is very casual, especially during the summer when I do landscaping jobs. Some neighbors do not recognize me at all when I'm all gussied up.

This past week I went shopping for some clothes to wear to my 45th high school reunion. I am not one to run out and buy the latest trends and my style is what my daughter might call " artsy fartsy " when I can afford it. Unique things tend to cost more.

So this is what I picked for the evening gathering :

Top : Silk Blouse by Ann Taylor
Below : Black Silk Capris by Silk Road

Then I found the most beautiful shoes I've ever seen. They were expensive, but.....

Comfortable, AND, have hand tooled flowers on them . Those black spaces are holes where the flowers have been carved out.

To top off the above pieces and in case the evening is chilly, I went "artsy fartsy " on my velvet jacket :

This is all hand sewn. You can't see them but it has some sequins and beads and , did I say, another flower ?

In high school I was always the one with the "hand-me-downs" from my Sister Wilma and I worked all summer to buy a coat and a pair of shoes that had to last until it was warm enough to kick them off.

This time I am arriving in style. I hope I'm not over doing it. Watch everyone show up in jeans.

AEROBICS KING SUGGESTS STRENGTH

Lake Michigan Shoreline in Early Spring

I've got friends my age that still pound the pavement. They're addicted to running and cardio. I've tried to tell them that it's bad for their joints. These same people can't do the lifting and digging I do on a daily basis and wear out faster than a pair of cheap shoes from Wal-Mart. No endurance or strength.

Now Dr. Kenneth Cooper, a Texan who coined the term " aerobics " and inspired a whole generation to take it up has suggested that shifting to even more strength work as you age is good for the joints. Don't get me wrong, running is good for the heart, but bad for the joints, and I don't care how old you are. Forty year olds get knee and foot problems from it.

Jim Karas, a Chicagoan, who wrote " The Cardio-Free Diet " thinks that cardio overstrees the body and works against those trying to lose weight. He's the one who worked with Diane Sawyer to give her that beautiful bod. He was converted in the 80's as an aerobic instructor who witnessed a huge number of dedicated students that despite the exercise didn't loose the weight. One day he peeped into the weight room which had few participants and noticed that all of them were very lean. He switched to strength training and discovered that he and his clients were able to keep the weight off.

How much strength training is effective ? Karas says that 60 minutes a week is sufficient. Heck I get that much on a daily basis.

So, once again, gardening which involves a lot of lifting ( 40 to 50 lb. bags of manure, peat, etc. ) digging , bending and stretching is beneficial.

Moral of story : Grab the dumbells and walk, don't run.

SWEET AUTUMN IS HERE

Each year I look forward to the arrival of Sweet Autumn clematis that I have planted on my fence and pergola. It's sweet scent is carried to all corners of the garden by the breeze.

It's not the same as the sweet smell of my childhood - Camelia, but close. It's also gorgeous with it's pure clouds of white.

Strange thing - my neighbor hates the vine because it seeds itself all over her yard, but I've never found a single seedling in mine. I wonder why ? I don't think there's a male/female thing going on is there ?