Well, were you as shocked as I was to hear yesterday’s news about the untimely death of Prince? He was definitely my generation’s bad-dude of hot pop/rock/funk. There was a girl in my sorority who dropped out of school to follow Prince around to all of his concerts one semester. Although we all loved Prince, we still thought she had lost her mind.
I saw Prince in concert once, and was seated close enough to the catwalk that extended from the side of the stage, so as he strutted down, singing his heart out, he looked into the crowd and locked eyes with . . . ME!!! He even gave me a little point of his finger as if to say, “you, girl.” It was magical. There we were, Prince and the Princess (me – just in case you didn’t catch that), adrift in a moment that he would revisit time after time, I’m quite sure.
He looked at me like this . . .
shivers.
“Oh Mom!” said the skeptical child in my house. “He had lights in his eyes and couldn’t see you.”
“Oh, ye of little faith. I know when a hot looking rock star gives me the eye, and this was it. Now, go clean your room and let middle-aged mama sip some wine and watch more Prince news on the Fox Channel.”
And of course, when I wasn’t blasting Prince songs, I was busy all day — as were all of you, I’m sure — celebrating dear Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday. What a beautiful life she’s lived and a wonderful example of public servant, family matriarch and most importantly, wearer of the jewels!
Don’t you adore this recent photo of the Queen with her great-grandchildren? Look at the little one holding her granny’s pocketbook! And I could just pinch the cheeks off of that adorable little George! He’s almost as cute as my boys were — are — were.
Their outfits are precious. I don’t think they shop at Target.
And finally, some sad news in our local area. Artist Fred Marchman passed away earlier this week. He taught art at Faulkner State Community College and everyone would agree he was an all-around character.
Fred was the kind of person who made Fairhope so exceptionally unique. His personality was original and he saw the world differently than most, but we all adored him and loved him because of — and in spite of — his quirks. He didn’t believe in using microwave ovens, or computers and always gave me a goodnatured hard time about using my cell phone. I saw Fred just a few weeks ago and he excitedly showed me a mock-up of the book he’d been working on. Fred was one of my most loyal and kind readers of my newspaper columns and always listened when I was on WABF radio. Fairhope will be a blander sort of town without Fred and I will miss him.
Here’s a story by Thomas Harrison from 2011 about Fred Marchman. (HERE)