Thursday, August 19, 2021 In Which We Attend a Consert

In a marvelous bit of serendipity, my husband and I took a different route on our walk recently and had the pleasure of encountering a couple of enterprising young ladies (in the 8-10 age range) with a table out in their driveway by the street. We assumed it was a lemonade stand, but oh no, nothing so plebeian and ordinary for these two. They were selling items to benefit their “Fun Club.” We informed them that we hadn’t a penny on us to spend, but this was no problem for them. “We have free cups of water for you if you want!” said one of them brightly. We looked over their wares, which included a somewhat rickety book about sharks, some sticker sheets (with some of the stickers missing) and a few other items no doubt dredged from the household. As we stood chatting with them, one of them asked, “Would you like a ticket for our concert?” Just when we thought this little tableau couldn’t get any better, it rose to new heights. When we enquired about the cost of the concert, it turned out to be free. What a country! I got my ticket, which charmingly said, “Consert ticket,” on it.

“The concert is at 6:30 tonight,” the other girl said with a certain amount of pomp. Then she looked at her watch and exclaimed, “Oh, it’s 6:30 right now!” I asked what kind of concert it was going to be and she informed me that she’d be singing. It seemed like a win-win situation to stick around for the event, so we said we’d stay for it. “Well,” the singer started out confidently, “Do you have any songs you’d like to hear? I might not know it, but you can ask.” At this point, I was completely smitten with these girls and the whole experience. “How about ‘My Country ‘Tis of Thee?” I suggested. Her face brightened. “We sang that in school,” she said. And the “Consert” began.

“My country ‘tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty
Of thee I sing.”

So far so good. She had a very nice voice, but the tune was sort of random and unrecognizable.

“Land of the pilgrim’s pride
Land of sweet liberty,
Of thee I sing.”

She finished it there, having forgotten the rest of the lyrics, but she did a fine job on the spot of cobbling together a second verse from the bits that she knew. We clapped enthusiastically.

They introduced their huge dog to us – a big black mastiff Great Dane mix named “Sully.” “He’s the sweetest dog – he would never hurt you,” they both reassured us, when the dog came over to greet us. He was indeed a very friendly and laid back dog.

I asked if they wanted their concert ticket back, now that the concert was over, but they said I could keep it. “We’ll be here again tomorrow night,” they promised. As we were leaving, one of the girls called out about something else they had that cost $5.00, perhaps noticing that they hadn’t actually made any money during their encounter with us. We didn’t have any money, so we said our farewells and walked on, greatly encouraged by this old-fashioned display of ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit.

I’ll probably delete this during the next morning “consert.”