The Long-Awaited Funky Tree Man, Part 2

On the day of the big interview, Miss M was a little nervous.

Miss M: "I don't remember all of the questions I wanted to ask."

Mom: "That's okay, honey.  I can print them out from the blog."

Miss M: "But I can't read."

Mom: "Don't worry, I can read them to you."

Miss M: (With a trace of whine creeping in) "But I'm supposed to be asking the questions!"

Mom: "I'll whisper them in your ear."

At Funky's house, his owner/creator greeted us at the door and introduced herself as Miss Nancy (with no prompting from me on the cutesy courtesy title).  I think she had intended to walk us around the side of the house to visit the tree man, but Miss M sort of pushed her way in (she's one of those reporters). 

Miss M noticed right away that there were two–possibly antique–teddy bears sitting on a bench in the foyer.  "Do children live here?" she asked eagerly.

"No," said Miss Nancy.  "But my niece and nephew come to visit sometimes."

We made our way out to the backyard, where Miss M spotted more evidence pointing to the presence of children: two plastic balls on the lawn.  "Who plays with these?" she asked, hoping to find out that there were actually some children living there that Miss Nancy had forgotten about before.  Again, Miss Nancy said her neice and nephew often play in the yard when they visit. 

But Miss M didn't seem satisfied that she had fully explored this angle.  She asked if she could look around inside the house some more.  I gently reminded her of the reason we were there: to find out more about Funky Tree Man.  It took Miss M a few seconds to realize that, from where we stood on the deck, we were looking not at the tree man but the tree woman.

"Mommy, look!  It's the girl!" she shouted.

Tickled by Miss M's enthusiasm, Miss Nancy started a discussion about what was female about this side of the tree: fuller lips, longer eyelashes, the flower boa she was wearing that day.  Miss M remembered to ask about the nail polish.  Miss Nancy thought that would be a good idea. 

Miss M was thrilled to learn that Miss Nancy's family had started referring to their tree man as "Funky Tree Man" after they found out she was calling him that.  It is now his official name!! 

And then Miss Nancy asked Miss M to name the girl. 

Without hestitation, she said "Marissa." 

 "Marissa or Melissa?" asked Miss Nancy. 

"Melissa," said Miss M.  I was just so proud that she didn't say something like "Mrs. Funky Tree Man." 

I am, however, ashamed to admit that this interview took place on the day before Easter (and I'm not going to bore you with excuses for not posting it sooner).  So, there was a lot of discussion about the Easter Bunny and his baby and why they might want to hide inside of Funky/Marissa/Melissa. 

You will also notice (once I post a picure) that Funky was holding an Easter basket filled with eggs.  Miss Nancy says she plans to dress him up for holidays as often as possible.  The red turban and white gloves he currently sports are left over from Christmas.  Seems it is more difficult to undress him.

There will be periodic updates on Funky–and what he is wearing–in the future.  And, coming soon: The True Story of Funky Tree Man and his Friend Marissa/Melissa.

We’ll Play ‘Candyland’

We said good-bye to Dale on Saturday.  At the funeral, Nan Sweet and I read Romantic Period Literary Basketball together, which was so perfect since it had been inspired by her class. Two people asked me for my autogragh.  Dale would have loved that!

The minister did a great job of summing up Dale’s life.  It was one of the few times I’ve been to a funeral where I felt the minister was right on.  He really got Dale.

My sister says that I must have been channeling Dale’s spirit when I found myself making up alternative lyrics to the hymns that were sung during the service.  I honestly thought I heard the soloist sing the words “We’ll Play Candyland” instead of “We Shall Overcome” at one point.  And now I can’t get it out of my head. When I was alone in the car this morning, I actually sang it out loud.

We’ll play Can-dy-la-a-and
We’ll play Can-dy-la-a-and
We’ll play Can-dy-land
One day-ay-ay

O, deep in my heart,
I do believe
We’ll play Can-dy-land
One day….”

I’m not certain that Heaven exists. But I think that’s where Dale was heading when he left us on Tuesday. And I have to admit that I’ve wondered whether Dale was looking down on his funeral and orchestrating a few things: bringing Nan & I together for that reading, getting people to ask for my autograph, and whispering that silly, silly song in my ear. If there is a Heaven, and I get to go there, I do hope that Dale and I will play Candyland one day.

Top ten things I loved about Dale

I just couldn't resist posting more thoughts about my friend Dale, since he's so much on my mind today.

The top ten things I loved about Dale:

10. He was curious.

9. He was playful.

8. He was humble.

7. He cracked himself up (and me, too).

6. He coined the term "mini-day" to describe that period of time when you wake up in the middle of the night and can't fall back asleep so you decide to do something productive before you go back to sleep for a few hours.

5. He stayed up all night with me, my mother, and my future husband waiting for my nephew to be born–and writing a song for the occasion.

4. He was excited to share his birthday with Mr. J (the big payoff for staying up all night at the hospital)!

3. He was one of the few people to visit me when I lived in New York.  That really meant a lot to me.

2. That when we visited NYC tourist attractions together, he brought along a friend's stuffed animal to photograph at each place because she was compiling such photographs of her stuffed animal for some reason.

1. Dale was someone I could talk to about anything, with no judgements. He was a good listener. He was a good friend.

If Dale Denny were a blogger

My friend Dale Denny died yesterday after a long illness.  He spent the last couple of years in a nursing home, not quite connected to the world.  But if he had been his regular self and had heard about blogging, he would have had one of the funniest, most creative blogs around.

Dale was always writing.  I think that's why he stayed with the graduate school job at UMSL's Writing Lab for so long, and eventually became the director of it.  When he was not helping students find their inner writer, he was sitting at one of the computers snickering and writing short stories about quirky people and their odd lives.

His blog definitely would have focused on people–real and ficticious, or some combination of the two.  Dale had a talent for discovering what was interesting about a person.  And I think flaws were what interested him most.  But he had a real appreciation of all kinds of people.  If he would poke fun at someone, it was always with affection.  

Dale's incredibly fertile mind was always coming up with fun ideas and crazy notions.  It was such a blast to work with him in the writing lab because during slow times he would get whoever was there to collaborate with him on a story, a silly song, or making up an elaborate game. 

Here's a game we made up over the course of about a week, inspired by a summer session of Nan Sweet's Romantic Period Literature class (it's long–and elaborate):  http://www.umsl.edu/~sweet/swetball.htm

If Dale Denny were a blogger, there might have been a lot of silly posts on his blog.  But he probably would have come out with some pretty profound observations as well.  He probably would have posted several entries a day.  He would have given his dedicated following of readers goofy writing assignments to post in the comments. 

He would have made a lot of people laugh.  I'm still laughing, even through the tears.