Fred & Ginger

Fred Astaire died June 22, 1987. He was 88. People magazine featured him on the cover that week. It was also the week that our home was invaded by the chicken pox! Our five year old son caught it from a little boy the last week of kindergarten. He was followed, two weeks later by his seven year old sister. Two weeks after that, when we were at Vacation Bible School, I went to pick up our 17 month old in the nursery, and someone asked, “Does she have the chicken pox??” I said, “Oh, no, her siblings were just getting well from it”, as about 20 faces turned my way, sharing  a look of dread and disbelief that I still remember well.

What can you do to keep yourself sane indoors for six weeks with little ones? We discovered that the local Blockbuster had a plethora of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies. To this day, our family loves to watch the films that they memorized that summer.

My mother often played the piano at home. I remember that one of her pieces of sheet music was, “Cheek to Cheek”. She said that it was always one of their (my parents) favorite songs. They married in 1942 and are still together! I was thrilled to see it performed in “Top Hat” (1935).

My husband’s father did genealogical research for fun. We learned that Ginger Rogers, a McMath from north Texas, was related to us! When our fourth child was born in 1990, we gave her four names like her sister, and included “McMath”.  I’ll talk more about the wonderful dances we discovered in the Fred Astaire movies later. Suffice it to say, these were so dearly loved that the featured photo on this blog is “Fred and Ginger pointing their toes”!  Here is another favorite: “Swing Time” (1936).

“There is a time for everything , and a season for everything under heaven:..a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.”  Ecclesiastes 3:1,4