Sunday, Aug. 18

Up at 7 a.m. to get ready to go to a dinner theater in the capital city. We arrived just before 11:30 a.m., too late to snag a handicap space, but the space we did get was close enough to the door anyway.

The theater is very old, so it was not originally constructed to accommodate handicapped folks. But they do have a portable metal ramp to use when needed. While Hubbie bought an extra ticket for Mother (we had two already...ones I'd won at the arts council summer celebration silent auction) a staff member and I got mother up the ramp and to her place at a table near the entrance.

Then I went through the buffet line to get her lunch and mine. Today's choices were spaghetti and sauce, Chinese fare, pork slices in sauce, beef with potatoes and gravy, or ham, along with a variety of sides and salad. I chose pork slices in a sauce for both of us, and rice and Chinese veggies, including stuffed pepper pods. Turned out the sauce on the pork was a bit spicy, so Mother couldn't eat it. The stuffed pepper pods were really good, though.

There was a choice of desserts, too, and we all got peanut butter mousse topped with chocolate. That wasn't enough chocolate for me, though, so Hubbie went back and got us each chocolate cake.

The show, "South Pacific," was really well done, and we enjoyed it. The cast played to a nearly packed house of mainly senior citizens. Matinees attract mostly the gray-haired bunch, including us. I don't think Mother would be able to bear up under a two-hour trip to the theater, a three-hour evening performance, and a two-hour trip back.

There was an intermission, of course, during which every woman in the place trooped off to the ladies' room. We waited for a few minutes before I asked a staff member to get the ramp ready for Mother.

Even after waiting to get in line, the line was still long. When we finally did get to the front, we still had to wait, because some woman in the handicap stall seemed to have taken up residence there. We allowed other women to go around us to other stalls as they became available. Finally, the lady vacated the handicap stall, and it was our turn.

I wondered if we'd be late getting back to our table, but outside the bathroom, a staff member said the curtain wouldn't go up until we were seated.

The play ended around 3:15, and staff brought the ramp out again, so we could be on our way. They couldn't leave the ramp up all the time, because cast members entered and exited through that doorway....sometimes dancing, sometimes singing. The first cast member who did that sort of startled us, particularly Mother, who was nearest to his path.

We were seated at a corner table, on the upper level of the three-quarter round theater. It wasn't the best placement. Mother and I could see the stage just fine, but Hubbie's chair seemed to be in a direct line with a big-haired lady seated on the level below us. He maneuvered his chair closer to mine and had a better view. The only part of the stage we couldn't see was the recessed area that had a painted scrim in the background...we finally gathered that it was a picture of an island across the way.

Note one: as is the case with most events like this, an announcement was made beforehand that we should turn off our cell phones. And is usually the case, someone's phone rang.during the performance, anyway. Very disruptive.

Note two: even though it was a mostly senior citizen audience, I think there were very few, if any, who were involved in WWII. Most would have been children during that time. I was a baby. Mother is of an age to clearly remember the war, of course. There is so much literature, and so many movies, plays, and music featuring the era, though, that I almost feel as if I remember it.  

We were back home around 5:30, and Mother was ready to go to her house shortly afterward. Hubbie and I spent the rest of the evening watching TV. Nothing very exciting, just a Hallmark romance movie.

It was a good day, and beautiful weather for the trip.