A trip to see the (City) Rockettes

This week I am sipping tea out of my new souvenir mug I got after seeing the Rockettes at the Cobb Energy Centre in Atlanta last week. The Radio City Christmas Spectacular was indeed *quite* spectacular, and I loved this mug they had at the souvenir stand, especially since it showed the classic dance line we all think of when we hear the word "Rockettes."

This side of the mug recalls one of the memorable production numbers in the show, and they were many! I happened to sit next to a woman who was attending the show with her 92-year-old mother, a fun woman who said she had seen the Rockettes once before—back in the 1940s! (When she told this to the young man who sold her a program, he warned her it probably wouldn't be the same girls dancing this time.) The woman's daughter told me her mom came to New York from Czechoslovakia and lived in Little Italy, where the mob took care of her family. You just never know what interesting folks you'll meet, do you?

To be honest with you, though, seeing the Rockettes had never been a big item on my Bucket List, but it was absolutely at the top of the Bucket List for my Aunt Jane, my mother's younger sister, who is mildly mentally retarded. She is very dear to our family, and living life with Aunt Jane has been, well, an experience! When I was younger, I was worried my friends would think bad of me for having an aunt who was "different." Fortunately, I had parents who demonstrated that that kind of thinking was not acceptable, and besides, my mom always said the people in her family were such oddballs anyway you'd have had a hard time picking Aunt Jane out in a crowd of them. (True, that!) Frankly, I think her "difference" has been a blessing to us in many ways, because it's certainly taught us to be accepting of all kinds of people. When I take her shopping these days, I have to be sure she gives the salesclerk the right amount of money and gets back the correct change. Again, when I was younger that embarrassed me, and I asked my mom once why that no longer bothered us as the years went by. My mom said most of the young salesclerks today can't make change themselves without a computer to do it for them, so they don't think anything of Aunt Jane asking for help. Ha! Well, I didn't mean to ramble on about that, but just to let you know that when I surprised Aunt Jane with a trip to see the Rockettes (whom she always calls "The City Rockettes"), I thought she was going to have a heart attack. I knew better than to tell her before we pulled up to the center, and I'm glad I didn't because she is *still* talking about it. Oh, if you could have seen her clapping and smiling her way through that show … at one point, I heard some off-key singing and realized she was joining along in "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," just singing and clapping her heart out.

As we left the theatre, I got a surprise myself when Aunt Jane grabbed me in a bear hug and said, "God bless you, Angela!", a phrase I've heard her say just a couple of times in my whole life. God blessed me, indeed. (And hey, God bless the City Rockettes!) Before we left I asked the 92-year-old, who at one point actually kicked up a leg in imitation of the Rockettes, which dancers were better, those of the 1940s or those of today. She jerked a thumb toward the stage and said, "Today!" I definitely recommend seeing the show if you get a chance!