Lady Gaga's Shoes

Not! No way could I walk in those, and no way would I want to. Seems we are playing out the dregs of the bubble life of our early century.

Today we finished up the sanding and painting of six wooden porch rocking chairs we have had for twenty years. It was time. For less than $15, they all look new again. I will recover the chair cushions that have faded in the sun over time. We could have just thrown them out and gotten new ones.

One of my most recurring and vivid nightmares is the one in which I have to clean out the space for a school. The smells of mold and roach fear are palpable, and I hate to have to move all that old and musty stuff to dumpsters. The dream always ends before the place is pristine.

The Lacoochee Boys and Girls Club, as it sits right now, could be the opening credits for my nightmare. But it is real and actual. I am thinking that if all the parents of the kids who go there, and all the community activists and neighbors could give a long weekend to the project, we could make this place really inviting. It would take a few  dollars and some energy and organizational skills to get new miniblinds, new tables, new paint, outside beautification, the floors cleaned, and whatever Michael Brittingham and crew think is needed. Anyone can clean windows! Really, all it takes is community will.

On Friday, I took five kids from the Boys and Girls Club on a field trip to visit St. Leo's University. Everything there was so spiffy! There were no sagging blinds and no junkyard dogs hanging around outside the admissions office. Everything was clean and pretty, no litter anywhere. The classrooms and physical education venues were awesome. Every single kid was charmed by it all and ready to sign up right then to be a student!

Afterward when we went to lunch at Pancho's Villa, the local Mexican restaurant, they couldn't stop talking about it. They all want to go to college!

We don't have to send our kids to such a grim place as our local B and G Club. We can make it inviting. We can do this with energy and a little money. We are not buying Lady Gaga's shoes!