Saturday 9

I'm participating in the Saturday 9 question meme.  You can find more details here.  

Saturday 9: Footloose (1984)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune. Hear it here.

1) In this week's song, Kenny Loggins encourages everyone to lose their blues by dancing. What reliably shakes you out of a funk?  A brisk walk; listening to classical, baroque, or one of my fave contemporary Christian singers; reading the Psalms or another fave Scripture. 

2) To cut footloose, he has to kick off his "Sunday shoes." What's on your feet as you answer these 9 questions? We don't wear shoes in the house.  I'm barefoot!

3) This is the title song of the popular 1984 movie of the same name. It's so well-identified with the film that the AFI named it #96 of the top 100 movie songs of the last 100 years. Have you seen Footloose? Of course!!  Several times as a young adult and a few times with my own daughters when they became pre-teens. 

4) The title of his 2022 memoir, Still Alright, was inspired by "I'm Alright," the song he wrote for the raucous golf comedy, Caddyshack. Do you play golf? (Yes, putt-putt miniature golf counts!) Do you watch it on TV? I have gone on dates with my husband years ago as newlyweds to play a bucket of balls....I was just ok. ....and mini golf is one of our fave things to do for a cheap, easy date night in the summer months. We go at least twice a summer  if not more. I absolutely do not watch golf on television.  We really don't watch TV other than the first half hour of The Today Show and local news sometimes in the early morning and Dave will watch the Red Sox if a local channel is actually showing them which is rare (we don't have cable anymore). 

5) Thinking of movies, Kenny says watching Yankee Doodle Dandy when he was just 7 years old made him think performing looked like fun and says, "I knew deep inside this is something I could do." Do you recall when you set off on your chosen career? Yes.  I first chose in college to major in Music Education/Piano and minor in Voice. After subbing in various music classes in the central part of NYS just after I graduated with my BS, I decided through the direction of God, to try to win a Full Fellowship with the Research Foundation at the Educational Pyschology Dept at University at Albany (NY).  I won it and so ended up with my MS in EdPsych/Special Ed and permanent certification in Special Education birth - geriatric.  I had a wonderful career of teaching inner city special needs preschoolers for many years and also taught children who were survivors of abuse. I had always wanted to be a teacher...God led me to teach special children. 

5) Kenny grew up in Everett, Washington, north of Seattle and 84 miles from the Canadian border. Have you ever visited Canada? If yes, where did you go? Oh I've been to Canada several times! The first time was with my parents when I was about 14 and htey took us to Niagara Falls for 2 nights in a motel stateside but we spent the bulk of our time on the Canadian side where you see a better view of both sets of falls. I also spent a week in Toronto as a senior in HS for a youth group retreat. that was such fun.  I also have been to Niagara Falls, CN many times in my college years as it wasn't from this place where I went to college.  And then we took the girls when our youngest was 3 and our oldest was 8 and we camped in the Niagara Falls Canada KOA and spent a week of doing all the touristy things including a day at Marineland. I've also been to Montreal for a day while waiting for our evening flight to Italy. OH and we've been across Canada from Buffalo NY to go visit a friend in Port Huron Michigan.  So yes, Canada is somewhere I've been to many times. 

6) In 1977 Kenny struck up a friendship with Stevie Nicks, who was a source of encouragement and would sing with him on one of his biggest hits, "Whenever I Call You Friend." Tell us about when you met one of your best friends. Oh boy. That's a tough one because I have 5 very close friends.  I guess I will tell you about my very first best friend.  We met in Kindergarten. Her mom and mine became good friends. They lived behind us with 2 houses between ours and so all I had to do was either go down the block, around the corner and up one long street and over to her house, or I could sneak through my next door neighbor's yard when he wasn't home (he was a crotchety old man and I was 6-12 when Donna and I were best buds) and go through the woods to her backyard. We remained best friends all the way to 7th grade and then her mom got remarried (her dad died when we were 7) and they moved across the river to a different school district.  Fast forward to just after college when we reconnected and she became a Christian like me and now  although we don't see each other often as we live about 2 hours from each other, we text all the time, chat on the phone and share prayer requests.  We get together about once a year. She is my oldest friend (friend I've had the longest). 

7) In 1984, when this song was a hit, Angela Lansbury premiered in Murder, She Wrote, a show still seen in reruns today. Were/are you a fan? I remember watching Murder She Wrote with my parents and then as a single woman and then with my husband. We really loved that show. We also love Angela's old classic movies.

8) Let's tweak your memory about something else that happened in 1984. Without looking it up, can you recall why Michael Jackson's Pepsi commercial made headlines the world over? YUP!!  I was a huge fan of his and it was when his hair caught on fire. 

9) Random question -- Think of your last professionally prepared meal. Did you dine in, carry out, or have it delivered? Dined out......we ate "al fresco" on the shores of Glen Lake (my oldest girl and I) last Sunday evening. She had some kind of chicken tomato pesto dish and I had roasted beet salad with grilled chicken. 

Now, if you've never watched Footloose....go watch it! It's iconic from the 1980s.