Saturday, July 25, 2009

The Ballad of Firecracker Pearl


Last night Paul and I went to a little birthday dinner party at the home of some good friends in town. At the request of our hostess, Paul brought his guitar and after dinner we sat around the living room talking (too hot for the front porch) while Paul played. At one point he broke into a bluesy riff and our friend Ramona asked him to sing some blues (which he’s famous for making up as he goes along).

“But I don’t feel blue,” he replied, all the while continuing the bluesy riff on the guitar.

So Ramona spontaneously broke out into a blues ballad which she made up as she went along (kind of talk-singing along with Paul’s playing) about her recent minor auto accident in which her beloved long-time vehicle was totaled. Her bright red Honda Accord, aka “Firecracker Pearl.”

A car “so red it made you lose your mind.”

By the end of the song, where she told about calling her husband to tell him the car was totaled:

“No ... she’s not driveable ... you better come pick me up, Hon --
Firecracker Pearl ... well, ... she’s made her last run.”

... the rest of us were all in tears -- not because it was so sad, but because we were laughing so hard.

Good times.

2 comments:

Kelley Carey MacDonald said...

Sounds like a GREAT evening! Do you sing, too? Play?

Karen M Schmidt said...

Yep, I sing, too. Paul and I are both choir members at our church. And I play piano. I tried guitar some years ago, but I didn't stick with it. The piano is much easier on my fingertips!