July 19...Turns Out It's Been An Artistic Day For Me

If you're familiar with Facebook, you may get one of those notices telling you that you have memories from the day to look back on. This morning, I got just such a reminder, and it showed an adorable picture I took of my cousin's family seven years ago.

Of course, I ignored it.

But then, I remember that picture and some comments I received on it, so tonight I clicked on the reminder tab and checked out all the things I've posted on July 19th for the past eleven years. Turns out, a lot of my memories have an artistic side to them.

In 2009 I was in a Rodger's Memorial Theatre production of, Joseph and the Amazing Techincolor Dreamcoat. I loved that show. I got to do the show with my then nine-year old daughter and I made many life-long friends. I even posted a video of the brother's pre-show warm-up ritual. I've included it below.

Then, nine years ago, on this very date, it appears I took the kids to a movie. I have no idea what movie it was, but it looks like we were the only ones in the theater, sort of like movie theaters nowadays.

Fast forward to 2018 and I added another picture of another cast in another show in another theater. Rodger's went the way of all the earth and became Centerpoint Legacy Theatre. The show we did in 2018--The Pirates of Penzance. Me and some of the other pirates congregated at the local Dairy Queen for dessert and story swapping. Once again, I did the show with my daughter and I met a new group of good friends.

I have no idea what I will find if I choose to check out the July 20 memories. It'll probably include artistic memories. When you choose to do artistic things, you get artistic memories.

A Poster Of Memories...

I found the poster while digging around in the basement looking for Christmas decorations. It is a Christmas decoration, of sorts. It was meant as a promotional poster. It ended up being a memento, complete with signatures and well wishes.

It's a poster for Rodger's Memorial Theatre's production of Scrooge from December, 2000.

And it's amazing.

The theatre passed out these posters for us to place them around town, at our work, at home, basically anywhere people would see them. I had one hanging up in my cubicle and I received more than a few comments about how great it looked. Ebenezer practically jumped off the poster with rage. You, as a viewer, knew the pain of that man.

When the show ended, I took my poster to the theatre and I had the cast members sign it for my son. He was my oldest and he was only five-years old at the time. I thought it would be a cool thing for him to have, maybe frame it and put it up on his wall. I didn't know if he'd ever do another show--turns out, he caught the bug. In the next few years, he did other shows--he was even Chip in the theatre's production of Beauty and the Beast a few years later.

I snapped a picture of the poster and thought it would be a good Pic Of The Day. That's what I did, and I got many comments on the poster on social media. I wonder if any of them saw the words and memories around the edges.

I took out my phone and videoed the poster, including the signatures and thoughts the cast members left for a child. 

The show took place before the advent of social media, before Facebook, before Instagram. In the almost twenty years since those sentiments were written, many have moved away, some have passed away, children grown to adulthood, adults grown older still. In a word, it's been a lifetime since we met on stage and performed a classic story. And for me and my son, a good lifetime.