Seventy-fifth Wedding Anniversary Today!

Today’s entry is dedicated to Doc and Pauline Truelove, who celebrate their seventy-fifth wedding anniversary TODAY!!!! They are on different sides of the great veil right now. Like Scot, Doc Truelove crossed over early, but observing things in Pauline’s day-to-day, it’s pretty clear that at least Pauline’s love has not diminished, and I suspect that neither has Doc’s. As Pauline cautioned me about the suitors who are likely to congregate, “What if you pick the wrong one?” “What, indeed?” Like Pauline, I feel like I’ve already made my choice, and now it’s just a short wait. I’m hopin’ so hard too.

Scot and John came up with this song, after doing a couple of gigs at the nursing home where Pauline lives, which has recently gotten a bad rap and shouldn’t. The people there are wonderful. I’m there a lot, and so I see the devotion to care (for the most part) going on there. Pauline is 96 now. She’s a lovely, spry lady, who gives comfort to the afflicted and is fodder for the jealous, because she moves about the world in this breezy, upbeat, practical, consistent and compassionate way. She’s bright and funny, and so very alive. I think this is sometimes perceived as a challenge to the people living around her.

This song, “Hopin’ So Hard,” was co-written by Scot Halpin and John Williams, and was inspired by Doc and Pauline’s story, but also by Scot and my own. You might notice that there is no bass part on this track. This is one of the “new songs” that John and Scot did not get to record before… I think there is one track with Scot on it somewhere, but I couldn’t find it today. This is a cut from “Gravity,” the album that John recorded a couple weeks after Scot passed. He went on to release it and once again, it is available at CD Baby (can't find it right now, will get).

About the artwork, just heard an interesting comparison between blue-ray and cellulose analog—meaning, viewing a film like Casa Blanca on hi-def blue-ray is CLOSE to the experience viewing a fresh print of a black and white movie, projected in 32mm. I didn’t like blue ray. I kept seeing too many pores. Scot could have done a lot with this, but in today’s search, this B& W image told the story best.