EVOLUTION OF THE SUPERSPARKLE

It’s a good thing I’m in here all by myself tonight because I can’t stop. It’s not bad crying, but good crying. I’m extremely nostalgic and I’ve been trying to figure out where this story really came from and who this opening figure is…the old woman/man and all of a sudden it hit me.

Well before I tell you, let me start out by telling you how this came about…it was kind of like a revelation, but I’ve been thinking about the meaning of this story I’m telling and it’s all about preserving stories and experiences and passing them on to people in your life so that they will live on. And I was thinking back to my own childhood and I had my grandma around a lot to tell me stories at night, but I also had a great great aunt that my grandma helped take care of and she lived on the top floor of the duplex we lived in when I was a child in Brooklyn. Well when my sister got to a certain age I moved into a little room upstairs down the hall from my grandma and great great aunt’s house. And always as small child I would go visit my aunt and play monopoly and make believe and play the piano and she would sit and listen and look out the window. And I was thinking about my aunt and how kind she was to me. She left me that piano and these crystal candelabras that sat on top among other things. Well I’d been collecting music boxes here and there over the past few years and there was a music box my aunt had and my mom said I could have it and it is wonderful. It doesn’t play anything exceptionally unusual, just home on the range and auld lang syne and 2 more, but I’ve always loved the sound they make and the watching the little keys play the melody.

Well I was thinking about all this and I realized I wanted to dedicate my piece to her…and that’s when it hit me. I had a sketch of the old figure sitting under the tree with the wishing flowers and the music box and it was her. The whole thing is about my childhood in a sense, but also about me now and my obsession with holding onto the past and figuring out how to remember it always and preserving those memories.

So this is a little long still but I was trying to think how the dedication would sound and this is what came out…but it will be edited please note.

This film is in loving memory of my great great aunt Hannah. She lived to the age of 108 and always had great stories to tell, especially one about me trying to eat a fake banana as a young child. She always was cheerful and singing. I remember she would sit by the window and listen to me play the piano. She had music boxes, she played make believe with me, we watched the sound of music, she was generous and loving and her spirit will always live on in me. She also had quite a spark for adventure. She lived in Brooklyn most of her life, but when my family moved to NC and we asked her if she wanted to come, she said yes. So at the age of 103 I think, she flew on a plane for the first time and moved for the first time to another state to be near her family. It was always soo nice goign to visit. We would sit and listen to her stories about her father who always turned off the lights when she left the room and that he painted the Brooklyn Bride. She would also always break into song, especially this one that went, ‘I love coffee, I love tea, I love the boys and the boys love me, tell your mother to hold her tongue she had a fella when she was young, tell your father to do the same he was the one who changed her name.’

Some of these things I haven’t thought about in such a long time. But they definitely left an impact on me. My goodness I can’t stop crying…this is ridiculous!

Family is definitely one of the most important parts of my life. They have always been greatly supportive of me and for that I will always be greatly appreciative.

So the old figure is my great great aunt, the supersparkle is her through me, i’m also the child, but one day I’ll also be the grandma, but for now that part will be played by my grandma. The music box and wishing flowers represent the stories that are passed on from generation to generation. The magic that happens when words form images in your head of magical places or funny experiences…like the one of me trying to chew on the fake banana…as I hear my aunt’s laugh trail off in my head.