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Sunday, January 20, 2008

I'm a Little Bit Country...

... And I'm a little bit Rock-n-Roll.

Yes, I'm channeling the Osmonds. And why is that? Yesterday I was watching some clips of various Donny and Marie shows on YouTube. Pippi started watching with me. She was really enjoying them - and wanted more more more - but we needed to make dinner.

And that got me thinking. When Marie Osmond started doing the show she was sixteen and Donny was eighteen. Truly teen stars. It's sad to look at some of the young stars that are around these days. Though I'm sure the seventies had its share of messed-up young people too. They certainly had funny hair dos (as pointed out by my daughter - after watching clips from Donny and Marie, the Brady Bunch, Welcome Back Kotter and All in the Family. "What's with the hair?" she kept asking. I just answered "It was the seventies") But Donny and Marie were people that could safely admired and looked up to. Any foibles they might have had were kept safely hidden from the public.

When the Donny and Marie show was on I was quite the fan. In fact I even have Donny and Marie dolls. Yes, I do. (Go ahead and mock me, Kris, I know you want to.) I have a record album too. I even have the novelization of the movie they did: "Goin' Coconuts."

Kids often want to "be" the pop star. And I was no exception. Luckily there was a kid down the street who felt the same way. We would play Donny and Marie and put on shows. We sang along to pop music (there are still some songs I can't hear without thinking of our performances) and put on skits. Occasionally we'd try to perform for people - but mainly it was for ourselves. I was Marie, of course, he was Donny and his younger sister took the role of Jimmy Osmond and we had a grand time.

Thank you for indulging me this bizarre trip down memory lane. As I'm thinking about it all, I'm trying to decide if it's too bad that video cameras weren't common yet when we put on those shows, or glad that there is no recorded proof of our attempts.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Do you have any Brady Bunch dolls because I came up with a great idea? Since Donny and Marie are basically c-list stars now you could play your own make-up version of dancing with the stars. You could team up Marie with Greg and obviously Donny with Jan....thought I was going to say Marcia didn't you. Then, all you have to do is make sure Marie faints and gets the pity vote and you can have hours of fun coming up with dance routines. You could have a competition and everything. If I wasn't busy house hunting right now, I would even come up and help you. Gee, it is a shame I am moving out of state. Think of all the fun we could have.

christine M said...

unfortunately, we don't have any Brady Bunch dolls. But you're idea is .... well, actually kind of scary...
and you're not moving all that far away - we still hope to see you.

Vivian Mahoney said...

Too funny! I loved the Donny and Marie show. Now I'll have to find their clips on YouTube and show my kids. It'll be interesting to see what they think when Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers are all that.

kristen said...

It isn't scary....in some ways it is just re-enacting real life things. Marie was in Dancing with the Stars, and she did pass out after the one performance. The rest just follows the shows format. At least I think, I have never really watched Dancing with the Stars.