By Jove, That Was Bully!

Once in a while, you are presented with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do a certain thing. When that happens, you need to do it, if it is a thing you want to do.

Last October 2, I had the opportunity to talk about American opera singer David Bispham while standing at his gravesite in Philadelphia’s Laurel Hill Cemetery on the 100th anniversary of Bispham’s death, which exactly coincided with would have been my mom’s 79th birthday. I did this moments after I completed a 5K – dressed as Willie Nelson, in Mom’s memory -- at Laurel Hill.

David Bispham is the star of nearly every tour I lead at LHC, but this was the only time I could do this on his death centennial / the 79th anniversary of Mom’s birth (weird to think that Bispham had only been dead for 21 years the day Mom was born). I could not let the opportunity slip through my hands, so I led a group of 5K participants to Bispham’s grave, and told them the story of how Bispham sang his hit song, “Danny Deever” for Teddy Roosevelt – much to First Lady Roosevelt’s chagrin -- in the White House.

By Jove, as Teddy himself said, it was bully.

On the Plate of Shrimp scale, this was a five-shrimp-out-of-five life experience.

~217~