Thriller in Seattle

They made Yahoo's world headlines this morning. I opened up the link with the video from KING 5 and looked for my daughter, but the participants' costumes looked too much alike for me to zero in on her.

But I have my own documentation with the photo above.

Annie and her friends Miriam and Mihae practiced and dressed for success. Then, they joined hundreds of other costumed souls of all ages and sizes at Pioneer Square in Seattle yesterday.

Seems there was a worldwide simultaneous effort to set a record for the most people ever to dance Michael Jackson's "Thriller." This was all part of the 25th anniversary celebration for the song which will put the beat into even the most klutzy of souls.

All I have is the pictures and the assurance that it was fun and well photographed.

Dressing up for fun has been a family sport for as long as I remember. I was asking Bill this morning if it was I or if it was Jeralyn who dressed as the pregnant nun about a quarter century ago when Jeralyn hosted a Halloween party at her house.

I'm sure my friend Bigfoot from down there in the South country will help me out in this because it seems like he may have donned one of his father's priestly robes for the celebration. I do remember a trip to the hospital maternity ward where, of course, the nurses were impressed with the possibilities of a nun giving birth in their midst on Halloween night.

My mother started us out at a young age with the dressing-up-ridiculously stunts. I think I've mentioned before when she thought it would be cool if us three kids from Batch One would march through the Fourth of July parade as a cow. I don't know if we ever pulled it off, but I do remember practicing at home, with one kid standing upright and the other two leaning forward to form the body. I also remember the polish sausages she brought home for the cow's teats.

Our Schweitzer Valley Dwellers 4-H Club used to win the mounted group trophy every year when we'd don costumes from different countries. I was a Russian cossack once; my brother Jim was an Arab. I still have part of his homemade Arabian costume stuffed away somewhere. Jim always liked the part where he could take the family's ancient sword from the Franco-Prussian War.

Willie dressed as Santa Claus once for a school fundraiser, and he tried out for the Senior Ironman, dressed in a long green gown. Seems like he may have crooned the "Gilligan's Island" theme while gliding across the stage.

My most favorite costume ever was my Ratfink get-up, which earned me a nickname in high school. I was a junior and the senior girls nabbed me one day, telling me I was gonna wear this costume for comic relief. It had an ugly rat head with great big whiskers. I remember wearing a gunnysack top and black leotards.

Whenever they needed a space filler, I stumbled clumsily across the stage doing stupid things---one of my few talents. I did one smart thing during the performance, however, when Marilynn McKenney lost her contact on the stage. During one of my run-throughs, I looked down and saw the contact. Everyone was happy with that and with my performances.

I also can't leave out the day I wore Travis Chapin's pink pig outfit at school---as a teacher. I particularly liked its baby bottle nipples down the front. But one of my teaching colleagues, Dave Cooke, wasn't too impressed when I came into his math class on all fours, moved down the rows between his classroom desks and oinked at his students. I guess Dave was too in to logorrhythms to take time out to acknowledge my performance. The kids liked it though.

So, to see Annie participating in a worldwide dancing/dress-up event? Ah, it does my heart good, and I'm just "thrilled" to death, knowing that the family tradition for being a little crazy every now and then continues on.


Happy Sunday.