Hair

Watching "Sunday Morning" is one of my favorite things to do on the weekend. I started watching it with my stepdad many years ago when my hero, Charles Kuralt, was the host. I wanted his job my whole life. Traveling, talking, reporting....those have always been some of my favorite activities.

On Today's show they reported that Hair is back on Broadway. Wow! When I was a teenager, I knew every word from every song of that musical and like many other young people, had NO idea of what half the lyrics meant. I auditioned for the spring concert at high school with "Black Boys" but the teacher found it to be too controversial and only did the songs that would be approved by our parents. Good thing they didn't have the record! My heart was broken when someone else got the lead - I was the one who knew the musical, knew the words, knew the story. The girl who sang "Aquarius" had no clue. Boy was I unhappy.

For many years, especially because I couldn't figure out the chords, I sang "Frank Mills" accapella. When Hair came back for a revival, my wonderful husband purchased a box at Music Hall. He and I invited four other friends and the six of us had seats right up near the stage. The cast came out to talk to the audience just before the show and I was able to say hello to the girl who sang Frank Mills in the show. It was a magical night. During the finale my daughter Chandra and our friend, Mary Ann, were up on stage with other brave souls. Believe it or not, in 1991 I was too shy to get up on the stage.

The song Frank Mills also has a lot to do with me performing now. When I joined the Queen City Balladeers and offered to write articles for the newsletters, I met John Giver. He did quirky songs and I asked if he knew Frank Mills. He did...we started performing together...formed a duo called Postage Due...and I fulfilled a crazy dream of being a singer/songwriter. Its these little things in life that built into big things.

I hope I can get to New York to see Hair on Broadways. What a Get Outta Here that would be!