This is our fifth anniversary. And some of you have been around since the beginning. Thank you for that. Since it is the fifth anniversary, I checked the podcast counter for the top five most downloaded podcasts of the past five years, and put them in the current podcast. And here’s how they came out:
Number five was called Underwear or Lingerie…from April of 2008. It was about how what’s between the ears makes a big difference to what a lady is wearing…below the ears.
Number four was the Wonder Wench Ski Fantasy from October of 2007…in which I fantasized about landing my small plane in the parking lot of a fancy ski lodge, and rescuing my Lady Wonder Wench from the clutches of a guy named Bill.
Number three is from August 2008. It’s about great opening lines…like the one the frog tried on the princess that got him to kiss him, and turn him into a prince.
Number two was a surprise from August of 2007. It was recorded as you sat with me on my back deck during a very quiet late summer rainy night.
The most downloaded podcast of the first five years is from August of 2009. It was partially about Manhattan’s Midnight Maidens. It’s called, the Memory Movie.
If you’d like to hear them just click www.dicksummer.com/podcast/latest
Long before the next Good Night podcast anniversary, I’m hoping there will be a new Night Connections album. Night Connections 4. One of the stories that will be in it is about an anniversary. It’s called “The Perfect Stranger.” If you like it, I’ll send you a free download as kind of a fifth anniversary present…just to say thanks for listening. No strings attached. Just send your email address to dick@dicksummer.com .
Next week on the podcast, we’ll run down the top five cuts from the Personal Audio Cds.
My favorite blog from the past five years went like this:
The public address announcer at Tradition Field in Pt. St. Lucie, Florida asked everyone to “Stand and honor America as 8 year old Raquel (Somebody) sings our national anthem.” I don’t remember her last name. I wish I did. She walked out behind home plate and stood in front of 6,000 people in all her 4 foot something, maybe 90 pounds worth of little girl splendor. She was probably the only person in the stadium wearing a dress. Pink, I think, with a little bow on top. She took a deep breath, and started to sing…
“Oh say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,” It was a little girl’s voice…with just a hint that in a few years, it might sound a bit like Whitney Houston…but not yet.
“What so proudly we hail, at the twilight’s last gleaming.” I started thinking about how proud my Lady Wonder Wench and I are of our two little girls…grown up women now.
“Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight, were so gallantly streaming”… The old guy in the row in front of me had one arm around his wife, and his other hand was holding a very ancient baseball cap over his heart. “U.S. ARMY” were the letters on the cap…probably circa World War 2. He stood as straight and tall and proud as my dad used to stand.
“And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air”… The old guy began singing along with Raquel…very quietly and a little off key…but singing. And Wonder Wench started singing along with him…singing and crying…and I knew she was thinking about her brother Bob. His simple white cross stands in the sand behind Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod.
“Gave proof through the night, that our flag was still there”…More and more of the people around us started singing…very quietly and a little off key…but singing…together.
“Oh say does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave”… All of us were singing now. Very quietly and a little off key…but singing. All of us. All around the field.
“O’er the land of the free”…Even I was singing. Quietly. Off key, I guess. But singing…and thinking about my Uncle Joe the B-17 navigator, and my brother Geoff who did a second tour in Vietnam because he knew the experience he got the first time around would save a couple of buddies. He was right. It cost him a chunk of his leg…but it doesn’t seem to matter to him at all. He’s another guy who stands very straight and proud.
“And the home of the brave.” We all sang it together…quietly…a little off key…. Little Raquel, my Lady Wonder Wench, me with my jacket that says BROOKLYN across the front, and about 6,000 other people who just came to enjoy a nice spring training baseball game together.
It wasn’t a huge majestic sound. It was really kind of quiet…and a little off key. But it was…all of us…together. I don’t think any of us expected that.
There was an almost embarrassed moment of stunned silence. Then someone in the bleachers cut loose with one of those long, loud, two fingers between the teeth whistles, and the place exploded with applause, and laughs… more than a few tears…and so much pride. So much pride we felt at that moment…together. You sometimes get a lot more than you expect when you go to a spring training baseball game.
It has been good five years. A little rough at times. But it has been good.
Thank you.
I do believe that I might have been in the first group of folks that came across your blog and podcasts 5 years ago. (I think I have all of the podcasts on my iPod too) That was a time in my life I would rather not remember but the physical scars on my body are a constant reminder.
I digress, it is US that should be thanking you Dick for this oh so important place in cyber space that brings us back to your huddles of time past. I am so thankful that after losing track of you after your voice went silent from the main stream radio world I was able to find you again. We are so much better for this.
Thank you Dick and here’s to 5 more and borrowing a line from a pretty good movie…”To infinity and beyond!”
I’m in the process of arranging a niche for my Dad out in Calverton National Cemetery. He served on the west coast during the Korean Conflict. I tend to think back to my own service in the Navy in the early 80’s.
I was invited to an Eagle Scout Court of Honor in my old scout troop, while I was home on leave. So I put on my dress blues (which were the old cracker jack uniform), and went to the function. We were asked to identify ourselves and what we were doing at the time. Came my turn and I gave the information and both my parents sat up a little taller in their seats.
I’ve visited Pinelawn National Cemetery here on the Ilse of Long in N.Y along with my Lady Wonder Lass. But this will be a whole different feeling, but he did earn it, as did all the others who he’ll share eternity with.
To all those who served in past wars, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, and other conflicts in the Middle East, I would like to take the time to say something to you all. I as a vet would like to THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SERVICE.
I am so looking forward to Night Connections 4. I am still sort of new to all this, been listening for about a year now, but I have ALL the podcast that iTunes has made available, as well as all the personal audio CD’s…. I listen to a new podcast each night, and tracks from all the CD’s and I know without a doubt, that I would not be where I am right now if it were not for your encouragement. I also have been able to define more of what I want in a man, to share my second half century. So.. Dick.. I thank you!