Saturday 9

Saturday 9: Touch Me in the Morning (1973)

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

1) In this song, Diana Ross sings that nothing good lasts forever. Do you agree? I believe that none of us stays the same, so maybe it's true. Back in 2017, my movie group watched Apartment for Peggy, a 1948 movie about newlyweds who take a room in the home of a retired college professor. The unconventional multi-generational household enhances the lives of everyone involved. Anyway, six years ago, I related to Peggy. I wondered what it would be like to set up housekeeping in someone else's home. In 2023, now a retiree myself, I felt a great kinship to the professor. Certainly the movie hasn't changed, so I must have.

But then again, some things truly are a joy forever: the crack of a baseball bat, time alone with a good book, a cat's purr, Paul McCartney's voice ... So I guess my answer is a solid, "I don't know."

2) She sings about a happy past with her lover, and the strength she'll need to face tomorrow alone. Do you find yourself more often remembering the past or anticipating the future? I spend way too much time doing both. I'm trying to stay more in the moment. As former Cub manager Joe Maddon used to advise my guys,* "Take care of the minutes and the hours will take care of themselves."

3) In the 1970s, Diana Ross had young daughters. To spend maximum time with her girls, she would sleep all day when they were in school. That way she could have dinner with them, bathe them and put them to bed before going to the studio and recording all night. Have you ever worked the night shift? Nope

4) Diana has five children altogether. There's a 16-year age difference between her oldest daughter, Rhonda, and her youngest son, Evan. Studies have shown that when there's a big gap between siblings, parents consider the older kids "built-in babysitters." In your family, were the older kids ever in charge of the younger ones? Yes. Sometimes I felt stuck with my kid sister. Sometimes I enjoyed her. But I spent a shit-ton of time caring for her. We're 8 years apart.

5) She says her favorite sweet treat is Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookies. Do you have a favorite cookie?

I'm a simple gal with simple tastes

 
6) Around the time she recorded this song, Diana Ross considered making a movie called The Bodyguard. She was to play a singer who received death threats, and Steve McQueen would portray the man hired to protect her. Scheduling conflicts prevented the movie from being made. It wasn't filmed until 1992, and then with different stars. Without looking it up, can you name stars of The Bodyguard? 

I didn't have to look it up; this movie was insanely popular in 92

7) In 1973, when this song was #1, Norman Mailer was atop the best-seller list with his controversial biography of Marilyn Monroe. Do you often read biographies and memoirs? Yes. I'm currently reading one about Aristotle Onassis and it's fascinating. He had a truly abysmal childhood, witnessing atrocities when the Turkish military took over his hometown of Smyrna. His family lost everything, his grandmother was murdered in the street, his uncle hanged and his father imprisoned. I think this totally messed him up and left him a few quarts low of empathy. (I had no idea. I just always thought of him as Jackie's second husband.)

8) Also in 1973, another Motown singer, Stevie Wonder, was injured in an automobile crash and still has a scar on his nose to show for it. Have you ever been in a car accident? Nothing more serious than a fender bender. (Knock wood.)

9) Random Question: What's the last thing you borrowed or lent? I borrowed the Onassis book from the library.

 

 

*Joe attributes it to Lord Chesterfield.