It's the New Zoo Review.........

At least, it was new back in the 70's...  Twas "The 196-episode musical comedy-forrmat show conveyed the concepts of cooperation and guidance for living in contemporary society. Each episode dealt with a topic such as moving away, courtesy, bragging, or patience."

Well, this ain't about that. Damnit Victor, I/we hate when you do that. Sorry, kinda. Damnit Victor, I/we hate when you do that too.. Sorry, I guess, but, I doubt it.

Contemporary society - mebbe that 's what this is about.  Bing.  Bing is prolly onea my least favorite search engines, but, it's what came up when I looked for the definition of 'contemporary society', so, we'll run with that:

"Contemporary society refers to the present time period, the current social, political, and cultural landscape in which we live."

Of course - PEOPLE WATCHING.  Next to my, and everyone's favorite thing (pushmowing the backyard ain't it?), people watching is a very close #2.

Band camp.  Kinda.  Sunday Afternoon.. EVERY Sunday afternoon.  Knuckleheads Saloon.  Sure, they sell beer.  But mostly, they sell music. FOUR stages.  A HUGE garage for big ole stars when they come to town.  A tiny, hidden gem for eclectic kinda bands.. a bigger indoor stage/room for when the weather is incliment - AND, the outdoor stage, seating area - my personal favorite.

Victor, you've written 6 paragraphs so far, we finally learn this is about people watching, and you ain't written one GoshDarn thing about a person.  Correct you are grumpy old person, and, HEY, don't take that personal.. if you're here, reading, WE'RE ALL grumpy, old people.

Not Ernie though.  At least on this Sunday.  Victor? Where?  Knuckleheads. What?  FREE, Sunday Blue's Jam.  What's that?  It's where folks from all walks (contemporary society I think they call it) gather... some fetch guitar cases, some, sax, horn, harmonicas, big ole drums...

They gather, sign up on  a white board... head organizer guy calls out "Charlie on bass... Steve on guitar... Mike on the drums.. Ron, guitar too, Ira on the horn."  They come up to the stage, unpack their music 'weapons', plug 'em in... say "Hi, nice to meetya" and in three minutes, they're playing a dadgum cohesive sounding blues song.

Victor? Huh?  You said Ernie, what about Ernie?   Oh yeah.. .So, I'm sitting there watching Charlie, Steve, Mike, Ron, Ira intro, unpack, 'check 1, 2', that stuff. I people watch, note, there ain't one thing in common with 'em all.  Age, hair, dress, size, you name it, except, there love of music.

VICTOR! ERNIE!  Oh yeah, sorry......... so........... I was seated with buddies in the shade. It's hot here in KC.  About 25' ahead of us, tween us and the 'New Zoo Review' band..  was Ernie.  Ernie looked, and dressed, like he just got off work at Smitty's Garage... when straight from stall to dance floor.  Music started.  So did Ernie.  A little foot shuffle. Then he wiggled his butt.  Then he twisted. Then his arms got all in it.  Soon, he was off in his little happy world, you know, the "Go to hell life, I'm happy and their ain't one dadgum thing you can do to stop me.":

Yeah, and what else Victor?  Well... I then pictured Ernie there at the Smitty's Garage, in his familiar Stall #2, head up under the hood of a 2017 Ford Escape....... and all of a sudden Smitty himself brought in a Big Screen.... showed the guys tape of Ernie getting his jig on. LAUGHTER, teasing, prodding, "so unlike you buddy" and........ I ab so lute ly love that. You be you Ernie.  Suck up every millisecond of life. He was. (Never make fun of a mek-a-nick with a pry bar in his grasp.)

Lost. Getting lost in life.

I too, in people watching, get lost in life.

Sure sure sure, we four buddies (usually four, sometimes only two or three) old geezer male piggies do the Jed Clampett "WEEEEEEEEE DOGGIEEEEESSS DID YOU SEE THAT ONE?" when a perty one strolls by... but.. mainly, I/my buddies, are perked by observation of all, and, of course, the music.

It's quite obvious, it's a gathering of Leawood, MidTown, Liberty, Kearney, Archie, etc.  For those of you that wonder 'whointhehell, whatinthehell' those are... it's your upper social economic, urban economic.. adjoining suburb, a suburb, but, with a grass 'moat' around it...... and, a tad country, 'out there' smalltown, no city blocks, just acres, and more acres.

Contemporary society. Parts is parts. 43 motorcycles parked almost agin' one another (I ALWAYS stay at least 6 feet away for fear of falling, then, accidentally pushing the bikes over in domino fashion.. , surrounded by SUV's, Caddy's, BMW's, 2002 Buick Century's, like mine..  All... different..   unique... gathered.  Contemporary parking lot.

Most eyeballs go to the dance floor...  but some too, aimed at the folks around us. Linda Leawood was closest to the dance floor, but, under a big ole eve, thus, in the shade. As the sun made it's way Westward, it shone down on her..  seated behind her (still in the shade), hubby Ian, got up, told Linda to swap chairs with him. He then sat in sweatty sun.  She sunk deeply into the chair behind, ahhhhhhhhhhh shade. She love patted him on the shoulder.  I figure that right there... seeing that... is a hella more important lesson on life than onomatopoeia, State Capitols, long division.

Guy who happened to be black, seeing buddy, happened to be white, probably longtime friend, across the dancefloor, met in the middle, hugged. Trite you call it?  I call it huge. Lovely. Yes. S'more. 

There too is a connection, between how fast one strums a guitar.... how high pitched he/she can get it........ and facial expression. You know those (stupid - my take anyways) filters you see on pictures on FB... these guitar faces make them look normal.  I ain't makin' fun, I'm telling you I love that.  Folks getting lost in life. A full dive off of the high dive of life. Kersplash, kerhellyes.

I am off to the races, sorry, cut short.......or, you're welcome, whichever fits. I got 57 minutes to shower, dress, drive 10 miles, warm up, play golf with fellow old geezers.  We draw straws for teams, that, in and of itself, also a people watching gold mine.  Mebbe one day we'll tippy toe there.

Meantime.  Have a wunnerful day, get lost in life.

Love, Victurd