Rehearsals for the pirate play were at the Seattle Center, and since it was a warm June (not a given in Seattle by any means) we could regularly hear the sounds of the Center's amusement park rides through the open windows. The sound of screaming kids on a roller coaster or the occasional marching band were a normal part of the sonic backdrop to our play about life on a 1720 sailing ship in the Caribbean. Good practice of playing through distractions in case everybody's cellphone goes off at once some performance night.
Coming out from rehearsal one night, carrying my massive tube amp (I've since put wheels on it) and straining a bit under the weight, I saw a little nuclear family unit of Mom, Dad and Son go strolling by me on their way to the ice cream stand. Both father and son were carrying what appeared to be newly-purchased inflatable sledgehammers. The father's hammer had some sort of sports logo on it that I couldn't quite make out (NFL? Nascar?), and junior's version was covered with the stars and stripes of Old Glory. While I puffed along behind them I witnessed as Dad demonstrated to his son how much fun it could be to smack Mom on the rear end with an inflatable sledgehammer, and Junior immediately followed his lead till they were both gleefully whaling away. Mom seemed irritated by this but seemed to do little to discourage the spanking other than feebly trying to turn her buttocks away from the blows. This did nothing to discourage Junior, who at this point had discovered the most fun game in the world.
I'm not sure why the sight of that sweet-looking little tow-headed kid whooping his mama's ass with a star-spangled hammer should keep coming back to me, but there it is.
Posted by flamingbanjo at July 13, 2004 09:55 AM