Rick would be proud

So here's a funny story that Hayley Niad shared with me recently. I think Rick Bausman would be proud, and the rest of you might get a good chuckle too... so with her permission, I'm going to share.

First you need to know that Hayley is a freshman in college somewhere in St. Louis. And Camp once again makes the world a smaller place.... as Hayley proves in this part of an email to me:

I was watching a show called Frank's Place from the 1980s in a film class that I'm taking. It was the strangest thing... the episode had a bunch of african singers come to new orleans. they did one performance. i couldn't believe it: they were playing akiwowo! I was singing along and the rest of the class was looking at me like "how the heck you do know this song!?"

now, can i just take a little artistic liscence and try to set a scene here? :)

Hayley's experience was in a Freshman General Education film class. If i remember my college days correctly, Freshman Gen. Ed's are L-A-R-G-E classes. And film classes are more often than not spent actually *watching* films, so it's dark.

I can only picture that Hayley is now sitting in a large, dark room with - more likely than not - sleeping classmates. "Frank's Place" is droning along in the background of many peoples' dreams. And then! There's Akiwowo!

Remember that Rick taught us this song two summers ago in drumming class (though some of us already knew it). It is catchy, and the words are fun, so we did really well learning it.

I can only imagine Hayley's surprise when she started hearing the familiar song. And then the smile that comes to her face... and she can't help but sing... "jo wo bay me day lay, jo wo bay me day lay.... (i'm typing this out phonetically of course)..."

All i can say is, I'm half sorry that there weren't more of us in that room with Hayley. There would have been wheelies in the aisles for sure! And a whole chorus of voices. And Hayley's drooling, bed-headed classmates would have never known what hit them! :)

Then poor Hayley would have to spend the rest of the year trying to explain...

But, "the best way to explain it is to do it," right?

Hey, Hayley. Can i visit you at college sometime? :)

Until next time,
Stay strong and keep smilin'!