Steering Me Along a Better Path

Saturday 9: Theme from Peyton Place ("Wonderful Season of Love")

Unfamiliar with this week's song? Hear it here.

1) Spring, summer, fall or winter: which season do you consider most wonderful?

A. I am partial to Autumn. But I also like Spring. Both are rather glorious around here.

Spring 2013

Autumn 2012

 

2) Crazy Sam (the person who dreamed up these questions) learned this song when she played flute in the high school orchestra. Did you participate in many after-school activities?

A. I played flute too! But ours was a marching band, not an orchestra. I had to attend all the football games and occasionally basketball games, and we had summer camp to learn marching routines. It was quite intense. I alternated between first and second chair flute, which was important because first chair (meaning you were the best player) sometimes played the piccolo, and we all wanted to play the piccolo. I also played guitar and sang in a rock 'n roll band.

3) The flautist next to her in the orchestra was Jeanne Pepitone. After a little Facebook spying, Sam learned that Jeanne is now Jeanne Moran, a nurse with a husband and a daughter. Sam shot her a "friend request." Do you keep up with your high school classmates?

A. We had our 30th reunion a few years ago, and many of us caught up on Facebook at that time and have remained FB friends. Some people you're better off leaving alone, though.

4) When she performed with the school orchestra, Sam was required to wear gray slacks and a black sweater. What are you wearing right now, as you answer these questions?

A. I have on blue jeans and a blue sweater.

5) Sam was especially dedicated to the school orchestra because she had a crush on Mr. Hanley, the school's musical director. He was the dark/thin/sensitive type. Tell us about a teacher you remember, and why he or she stands out.

A. One of my favorite teachers was Dee Jones, now Dee Sheffer, and retired from teaching. She was a very caring person who paid attention to her students, and I was a bit of a teacher's pet. She taught English and that was my subject. I was fortunate to have several teachers who were caring people, and many influenced me in positive ways. I could list a number of caring mentors who steered me along to a better path.


6) Because Sam was so crazy about Mr. Hanley, she was desperate to attend his band camp. Her parents wouldn't allow it unless she could pay her own way, and so she didn't get to go. Were your parents strict or permissive? If you have children yourself, what's your parenting style?

A. My parents were strict until I turned 16, then they sort of lost track of me. I have no children so can't really answer the last part of the question. I'm pretty lenient with the cows. They have no bedtime and their only rule is to keep it in the fence.

7) Sam liked Fridays because her favorite food, fried rice, was served in the school cafeteria. When you eat Chinese food, do you use chopsticks or a fork?

A. I use a fork. I also ask for a knife.

8) When Sam was a little girl, a new box of Crayolas could get her pulse racing. Now she loves her Sharpies. Do you enjoy shopping for school/office supplies?

A. I LOVE shopping for office supplies. I have more office supplies stuffed in a closet than I do clothes. I adore the smell of a new notebook in the mornings.

9) Do you have any plush toys? Or did you give them all up when you left childhood? 

A. I have a few Christmas stuffies in the closet, and in the living room sits one stuffed black dog to remind me of my dog, Ginger, whom I had for 17 years. But I have none that I snuggle or anything. I gave that up before I became an adult because of my allergies.