One night, while the little bugs were looking particularly cute (they were asleep) The Princess came plodding down the stairs. With bright eyes she declared, "I can't sleep."
This didn't surprise me. It never surprises me. The child finds sleep as elusive as the Scarlet Pimpernel. She has from day one.
This particular night I was sewing some bathroom curtains and was just getting ready to watch Hello Dolly.
I was nine when my parents invited me to watch it for the first time. Before the VHS tape started whirring in the machine, my dad said, "Watch this beginning." I did and when that train came chugging through the city scene and spread color and movement and rhythmic action, it spread into me too.
So here I was telling The Princess, "You can't sleep? OK. Come here. Watch this beginning."
She did and that train spread its magic once again. It was so magical that while my sewing machine busily hummed away The Princess was carried away and didn't come back to earth until the intermission. She started crying, mostly because it was late at night but also because she thought the movie was anti-climatically over. I explained what an intermission was and she settled right back in for the rest of the movie.
This isn't her first experience with Striesand. For years we've been listening to the Funny Lady soundtrack. The Princess likes to say, with a slight Jewish accent, "What an idiot" and "That's impossible." If you're alone right now try it...it's fun.
I thought maybe she wasn't getting the deeper meanings of the story. I explained that Dolly wanted to marry Horace Vandergelder the "well-known unmarried half-a-millionaire", but she also wanted to make sure her first husband, who was living in heaven, wanted her to too.
Dolly wanted a sign.
One hundred and thirty-nine minutes later The Princess watched as Horace Vandergelder declared, "Money, pardon the expression, is like manure. It's not worth a thing unless it's spread around helping little things grow."
At that moment Dolly gets her sign.
The Princess gasped. She giggled with delight. We looked at each other and grinned, and I've got to say...this moment was even more magical than the first time I saw it.
Yup, magic. Because as the credits rolled The Princess went straight to bed and fell asleep.
Magic, pardon the expression, is like manure. . .