Life in My World--Supper Table Conversation

In today's newsletter I talked about dinner-table conversations and gave seven conversation starters. Tonight I planned to ask Calvin those same questions. Oh ho, I should have known that you just don't spring some of these questions after 27 years of marriage and expect a serious and revealing conversation.

My first question to Calvin was "If you could be an Olympic athlete, what would you be?"

Calvin cocked an eyebrow and said, "Your poor students. Do you do ask them stuff like this every day?"

I assured him that indeed I do and then asked again, "Who would you be?"

"Jim Thorpe or Michael Johnson."

Thrilled to have a sentence to build on that we had never ever discussed before I said, "Jim Thorpe, wasn't he the Native American athlete?"

Calvin agreed.

I said, "Oh yes! I just heard on the country classics radio program last Saturday alllllll about him. Charlie Pride sang a song about him."

Calvin cocked his other eyebrow and said, "A song about Jim Thorpe?"

"Oh yes! And even though the radio announcer said that political activist sentiments don't do well in the music industry, the song about Jim Thorpe was wildly popular."

Calvin said, "I've never heard of a song about Jim Thorpe."

Calvin knows more genres and performers of music than anyone I know. Really. He knows all the oldies stuff. I said, "Oh. Well, maybe it was Johnny Cash that sang the song, but I think it was Charlie Pride. Yes, I'm just sure of it. Charlie Pride sings the song about Jim Thorpe."

Calvin just nodded his head and I continued to excitedly babble about what I'd heard and then he slowly said, "Do you mean Ira Hayes? Drunkin' Ira Hayes?"

I didn't miss a beat, "Oh yes! That's it. Ira Hayes not Jim Thorpe."

“Jane, Ira Hayes was a marine at Iwo Jima not an Olympian. And it was Johnny Cash that sang the song.”

Undeterred, "Yes, yes, that was it! Charlie Pride sang Kaw-Liga (the song about the totem pole that can’t love) right before the Ira Hayes song. That must be how I got them mixed up."

Clearly, the question had taken an unexpected turn and I tried to return to it: ask something seriously about Michael Johnson, why Calvin chose who he did, etc. Calvin just shook his head and started to laugh then razzed me for a bit longer about getting the two men mixed up. I decided it was time to move to a new question, but before I even got it all asked Calvin said, "How do you think of these? Do you just sit around and think these things up? Why are you asking all of these questions?"

I rattled something and asked a new question to which he said, "Nuh-uh. I'm not gonna answer that one.”

I think we'd best stick to safe table topics like politics from now on.