You don’t have to look hard in our house (or very far into my Facebook feed) to figure out our family loves Disney.
Cookie jars on my counters salute Mickey Mouse and Captain Hook. A painting of Cinderella’s castle hangs in our living room. A favorite picture of my girls, in front of that castle, is on prominent display in the kitchen.
So naturally we gathered around the TV as ABC broadcast a Disney sing-along last Thursday.
Pocahontas is Lily’s current favorite princess so she loved the performance of “Colors of the Wind.” Abby Kate enjoys a more upbeat existence; “All in this Together” was her jam.
My sentimental favorite was “Spoonful of Sugar.”
Devotion to Disney runs deep. I come by it honest. I’m named after Mary Poppins. (Hence the sentimental favorite song.)
I guess a more accurate explanation of my moniker is that I am named for Julie Andrews.
Believe it or not, the runner-up for my first name was also Disney-borne: Wendy from Peter Pan. But my parents picked Julie. Mom hoped I would sing like Dame Andrews.
I don’t.
I very much enjoy Mary Poppins, both the movie and its music, but my preferred Julie Andrews flick is The Sound of Music.
“My Favorite Things” prompts a memory from a previous blog I kept, so I’ve decided to make this Monday morning a memory post.
There isn’t depth today, just a story about sweet tea and my sweet daddy.
(Originally written Tuesday, July 29, 2008. Irrelevant observation: Lily was born 3 years later.)
My namesake is Julie Andrews, star of The Sound of Music. My mom truly hoped by naming me after Ms. Andrews I would somehow acquire her dulcet tones. I didn’t.
But this post isn’t about my musical inability. It is about 2 of my favorite things. Don’t worry – I’m not going to sing about them.
Sweet tea is one of my favorite things. I drink it A LOT. My friend Toni knows this and often surprises me with a big ol’ glass to start the morning when she joins me at the Kids to Love warehouse. (She also showers me with Milky Way candy bars but that is not one of the favorite things I’m referring to now so we’ll save that story for later.) Whenever I see Toni toting my tea, I am reminded of one of my other favorite things: my daddy.
I was in the marching band in high school and it was custom after the half-time performance to start the 3rd quarter with something to drink. As the band boosters passed out soft drinks to quench the summer thirst, my daddy would climb the concrete bleachers bringing me a Big Squeeze – is that what they’re still called? – filled with sweet tea. He would even wrap it in aluminum foil to try to keep it cold. During the cool autumn nights when the band boosters handed out hot chocolate, my daddy climbed the concrete bleachers with my Big Squeeze in hand and yes, it was brimming with my favorite beverage.
I always looked forward to that plastic bottle filled with sweet tea. But even sweeter, I think, was the joyful heart with which it was provided. My daddy always made sure I had all of what I needed and most of what I wanted. I miss him a lot.
I try not to think of daddy as I knew him in the year before he died because Alzheimer’s Disease had turned him into someone he wasn’t. I prefer to remember the man who climbed those concrete stairs every Friday night of football season to bring my Big Squeeze filled with sweet tea; one of my favorite things carrying one of my favorite things.
“Taste and see that the Lord is good. How happy is the man who takes refuge in Him.”
(Psalm 34:8)