Saturday 9: A New Day

Saturday 9: A New Day Has Come (2002)

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

Welcome to the first Saturday 9 of 2017!

1) This song is about a new day. Here we are celebrating a new year. What do you hope for in 2017?

A. I hope for better health, more tolerance from myself and by others, and a winning lottery ticket.

2) Ms. Dion has said this song was influenced by the events of 9/11, and how a new day dawned after tragedy. Looking back on 2016, did something happen that you're glad to leave behind and move away from?

A. Oy vey. There was this election that happened that crushed my soul. I would like to think I am leaving behind despair and moving toward hope of some kind.

3) In the video, Celine serenades us from billowy white clouds. Describe the sky where you are as you answer these 9 questions.

A. We have a sky as gray as a mermaid's eyes when she is angry with the sea. We are expecting light snow.

4) This video was shot in West Palm Beach, FL. When settlers arrived in the late 1870s, the town was called Lake Worth County. OK, your turn. Tell us something about your hometown.

A. The city nearest me, Roanoke, VA,  was originally called Big Lick. The town was established in 1852 and became chartered under state law in 1874. (The reason it was called Big Lick was because there was a large salt deposit near the Roanoke River, and wild animals came to the salt lick.) In 1882, the town changed its name to Roanoke, and it became a city two years later.

The area lay along The Great Wagon Road, which history buffs will know was the main route for settlement from Philadelphia into the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and on into the Carolinas. The road branched near Big Lick, taking people toward Tennessee and to the west.

Roanoke was until this century a railroad town. At one time it was the headquarters for Norfolk & Western, which became Norfolk-Southern. The railroad executives have since moved much of the work out of the area, and the city is reinventing itself as some kind of medical/outdoor tourism hub. Apparently much of this reinvention is sponsored by the local alcoholic community, as we have numerous microbreweries and recently economic developers scored two large breweries that will be moving into the area in the next 18 months.

5) Celine Dion's native tongue is French. Dites-nous quelque chose en Français.

A. Um. Cheese?

6) Celine's mother, Therese, is known in her Quebec neighborhood as a terrific cook. Think about your own domestic talents. Where do you excel? (Food prep, house cleaning, laundry, scheduling, etc.)

A. I am good at laundry, I guess, if I have to pick something. Before I started having health problems I would have said I was a good general overall homemaker, though cooking is not a strong suit.

7) Growing up, Celine and her siblings often performed in her family's piano bar. Where did you most recently enjoy an adult beverage?

A. I think it was in 2012 near the time of my graduation from Hollins University, when I received my masters' degree, in my creative writing class.

8) In 2002, when this song was popular, Kmart was in the news because the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. What department store to you shop at most often?

A. Kmart is in the news this week because it closing two stores in Roanoke. How coincidental. I tend to shop at J C Penny more than anywhere else, unless you are counting Walmart. I don't consider Walmart a department store, personally. And frankly, the Kmarts here should close. I haven't spent money in either of them in years, and when I have stopped in, they were filthy and poorly stocked. However, they are the only place where my husband can find my Cheer Free laundry detergent, which he picks up on his way home from work on occasion. So that might be a problem since I can't seem to find it anywhere else.

9) Random question: It's time for a midnight snack and you have your choice of one of these three -- a slice of sausage pizza, a bagel with lox and cream cheese, or a piece of carrot cake. Which will you have? And what shall we bring you to drink?

A. I will have the carrot cake, and a glass of water. Mostly, though, I want the fine and most excellent company of my Saturday 9 friends, so that we may sit down and discuss the remains of the day.

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I encourage you to visit other participants in Saturday 9 posts and leave a comment. Because there are no rules, it is your choice. Saturday 9 players hate rules. We love memes, however.