The Party's Over, but the summer isn't

 

8-2-2024

The Party’s Over. As I started to write those words in reference to the Pizza Party for this year’s Summer Reading Program, I could not quite hear the lyrics to a song play in my head. It remained just elusive enough to fall into the 21^st century traps called Google, Wikipedia, and YouTube. There I learned it was originally written for the musical Bells Are Ringing and sung by Judy Holiday. Since then, it has been recorded over 100 times by singers such as Nat King Cole and Leslie Odom, Jr. The internet even kindly explained that the song meant something pleasurable has reached its end or the party’s over.

Perhaps the best find was the one selected to hear the lyrics. Bypassing Nat King Cole as an obviously smooth sound and going for Willie Nelson. Proving visual expectations and reality don’t always mesh, it wasn’t until his distinct voice started singing that I connected the short- haired all-around clean-cut male in the close-up with Willie Nelson. Who knew he had a career before pig-tails? I’ve never used that many hyphens in a sentence before.

Those revelations aside, back to the meaning. In this case it’s the literal definition: the party’s over that applies here. The pizza party with it’s 110 attendees, 30 prize giveaways, Walworth County Fair tickets, and 20 pizzas that is over; however, the fun or pleasure of summer at the library is not.

This year Monday programming continues through the first two weeks of August with three events. First off is the double feature beginning at 1:00 on August 5^th with the reschedule FFA Petting Zoo. They are coming a bit early as we already had Sensory Playtime for preschoolers schedule for Playmore Park at 1:30. This way they can start with the animals and then switch their attention to the sensory event. We know better than to compete directly with a pony.

The final Monday program on August 12^th, Music, Movement, and Story with Chet Celenza, brings in a friend of Miss Maria’s. Chet Celenza is a music teacher at Prairie Hill Waldorf School in Pewaukee who has also authored a children’s book. Students from Humble Oak may recognize his name as he has a relationship with that school as well. That event will be filled with, you guessed it, music and movement. Sounds like a party to me.

Now back to Google where I will either close tabs or be sucked into the vortex involving the Top 20 Songs with Harmonies that Give Us Chills.

 Reading Now: Trust by Hernan Diaz (2023 Pulitzer Prize winner shared with Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead), The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen (short stories), and Vanderbilt by Anderson Cooper (August Adult Book Club selection)

Listening to Now: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn