Friday night, my fifteen year old daughter, Rose, and I went to a church pot luck dinner, after which we did a 45 minute show. Thes small town church functions are a favorite venue of ours: the ladies from the church proudly bringing in their pot luck contribution, the men talking sports and politics, the Mr. Coffee pots kept full, the coziness of a church basement. Unfortunately, my wife was sick Friday night, so she missed out this time, but Rose and I had a lot of fun.
It started with me turning the car keys over to Rose as,she is trying to get in her required hours so when she turns 16 she can take her license test. She handled the back roads of Western Maine just fine. After setting up in the sanctuary we went downstairs where the crowd was gathering for supper. We were pleasantly surprised to see Sherrill Kinney and her son, Andrew. They came to the dinner specifically because of an ad in the local paper saying we were the entertainment. Sherrill's three kids all went to the school where I used to work. Her daughter, Emily, was a good friend of my daughter, Jo, and Andrew was arguably our daughter Naomi's first crush. Andrew is a young man with special needs, and as kindergarteners, he and Naomi were classmates. She always loved,Andrew, and was so excited to here from me after the show,that we,had seen him and his mom. Sherrill also babysat Rose after school on days when I had to be at staff meetings after school. It was so nice to see them again.
The show was good, I think. I did my juggling versions on Psalm 150 and the Apostles Creed, two routines l really like but don't often get to do. Rose juggled machetes of course, and I closed the show,with my illusion / retelling of the woman washing Jesus feet,with her tears. I shared a few readings from my book "A Piece of Bosco" and sold three copies after we were done. Beyond that, we were invited back to several events they have coming up. I hope we can attend some of these, as it was a really warm and supportive congregation.
After loading the car, Rose took the keys and drove us home. She had to deal with a deer in the road for her first time ever (but not her last if she's going to be driving in Maine for a while longer) and handled being startled.by the does presence very very well.