Flowers from Japan

A big part of Saturday echoed with the roar of football crowds cheering hometown teams. Around here the roars were for the guys in purple and gold. Not an easy victory, but LSU managed to somehow squeak by with a winning touchdown. A good win, no doubt, but a performance that left many fans wondering how the team they watched today will fare next Saturday against an Arkansas team that looks mighty strong, at least on color TV.

Today I am trading in football for drama. Once upon a time I played football, and like many of my young teammates dreamt of later glory on the scrimmage line in LSU’s Tiger Stadium. But that all got bumped aside when I discovered the fun of playacting in school plays. Suddenly the interest turned from floodlights on the playing field to spotlights stage right. After the school plays came community theatre and involvement with the Baton Rouge Little Theatre. There has always been a warm spot in my memories of the time spent doing plays and musicals there. The last production I saw there was West Side Story, directed by my lifelong friend (and current host), Dee. That was about ten years ago. On the boards now is that old Frederick Knott chestnut, Dial M for Murder. I will be in the audience for a performance later today.

Raymond’s lagniappe…

‘Forty or forty-five years ago, the Beatles at City Park in New Orleans.

Sitting high in the small stadium makes everything small in the photographs taken. Small people dashing toward the stage in the end zone, some avoiding tackles by the police, one policeman’s hand high on the thigh of a young girl he tackles, her dress gathering in folds at her waist.

Later, after the concert, walking French Quarter streets, watching couples, avoiding bums on dark corners with their hands extended, glancing in store windows at the reflection, exhilaration now a sense of loss, old buildings and smelly streets of uneven brick better than the drive back to nighttime marsh.’ —excerpt from Southern Snapshots

Note on the top photograph: An autumn flower arrangement by a good friend in Japan. The three components are kaki (persimmon), kiku (chrysanthemum) and the tiny purple umonodoki flowers, a name I do not know in English.