i was going to write this yesterday but caught up in a whirlwind of cleaning, because we’re having a cast party tonight.
yesterday morning bev, a delightful, funny, and incredibly multi-talented woman, who also plays multiple roles in “li’l abner” including a dogpatcher, an acapella-singing secretary, and a Scragg, a seedy character missing teeth with a unibrow, was ON THE TV.
she was on the sunrise news show because she made a BLUE RIBBON recipe at the fair, some kind of bars made with EAGLE BRAND MILK. that was the contest, and eagle brand milk contest, and she made up a recipe involving devil’s food cake mix, butter, chocolate chips, and nuts. who could go wrong with that? because she won the blue ribbon, she got to be on tv…at six o’clock in the morning.
first, here’s a photo of the mighty bev.
that’s her with my mighty kevin.
so, thursday morning she got up at five in order to bake her award-winning bars PLUS an apple pie. she took the pie to the fair, then she went to work. on her lunch hour she raced to the fair to take the bars for judging, and found out that she’d won third place for her pie, in the fruit pie category. not bad, third place.
she dropped off the bars, collected her ribbon, got her photo taken with the other winners, and dashed back to work. (by the way, last year she won “best secretary of the year” here in springfield, but i truly think she needs to do something where she makes a lot more money and has a lot more responsibility!) at 5:15 she roared back to the fair, thinking she’d pick up her reject bars but instead she WON THE CONTEST. more photo ops, ribbons, a cash prize. she got a call from EAGLE BRAND MILK HEADQUARTERS, and the lady said bev needed to send in a tape of her on TV.
ok, this was thursday, she’d been up since five. because she had to bake the bars again on friday morning, after the show thursday night she went to the grocery store to buy more ingredients. she then had to bake some other thing for some other culinary fair contest (i think she said she entered 17 things this year. last year she only entered some muffins, but they won FIRST PRIZE, so she figured she’d expand her entries this year), plus she had to find something to wear to be on tv early in the morning. i know she had to do many other things but i can’t remember what, all i know is that she said she only slept an HOUR AND A HALF on thursday night.
we taped the morning show and she looked very cute and good, even though the woman interviewing her seemed a little lame and bev didn’t get to actually do much baking on tv. but it was very fun to see her, and we taped it and are going to play the tape at the party tonight.
after she was on tv yesterday morning she stopped by the fair to take in her other entry, then back to work, back to the fair…
i felt like i’d done a lot in the last couple of days, getting ready for the party. but bev makes me feel like a BIG LAZY SLACKER. i don’t know how she has that much energy. she says she drinks a pot of coffee in the morning. maybe she laces it with speed.
last night she wanted to leave the party at about one, because of course she was READY TO DROP WITH EXHAUSTION. except we noticed that even though she had to be amazingly tired, she still talked a mile-a-minute.
only two more shows left. i’ll be glad to never have to zip up this dress anymore.
i’m wearing all my own dresses in the show. i’d forgotten about this one; i bought it so long ago that i can’t remember exactly where i got it, or when i ever wore it. it’s very tight, but at least i can zip it up. but they have to shove a big microphone battery down the back of it, and then i can’t breathe much. kevin is again looking like a cute sailor; in the play he gets transformed by mammy yokum’s yokumberry tonic, and turns into a total stud.
here’s his regular dogpatch costume. and me in my gold dress, the one i wore as a bridesmaid in ricky dunham’s wedding, and then wore to a couple of other things. this dress gets a lot of use.
here’s kevin (who is HUSBAND #1 in the show) with substitute husband, scott. scott is a great guy – they had a horrible time trying to find four husbands for the show, and when we got one, then we’d lose him. finally they had all four, but then a couple of them said they couldn’t be at the performances every night. i don’t know how linda found scott, but he’s great – a nice guy, very funny, and a quick study. plus, he brought every woman in the cast a rose one night!
here’s me with my longtime friend tim roseberry. i’ve known tim for years and years, and we actually did a little improv together many years ago. we also briefly worked together. he’s a great guy, and VERY funny in the play. he hasn’t been in a show since he was in high school, i believe.
in li’l abner, he’s senator phogbound, a blustery blowhard politician.
and this is evil eye fleagle, doug mcdonald, another great guy who i just met in the show. his wife kim is one of the wives in the show, and their two kids are in it too.
doug is hysterically funny, with this funny little prancing walk he does; i tell him he reminds me of a pony. he’s very cartoon-like, which is the goal of this show based on a comic strip.
and here are joyce, karen and bev, the three singing secretaries.
one final photo for now…this is the other dress i wear, yet another dress i’ve worn out and about. randy bought me this one for christmas.
i have to get ready to go FENCING right now. FENCING?! i have many things to do to get ready for tonight. but first, i fence. en garde.
ok then,
grace Von Climax