A Rolling Stone Gathers no Moss and Neither do I
Posted: Tuesday, October 18, 2011
by Dianne Lehmann
Artisan Jewelry from SyZyGy
That has got to be the lamest title I have ever come up with. Really. But it's the best I can do at the moment. My brain is a little fried from spending the entire day in the sun (you should see the back of my neck) keeping all sorts of horses and riders organized, and warming up, and entering the show ring when they were supposed to. I had sponsors and tests to announce (MaryBeth Courageous is riding Massive Thunder Bolt and they will be performing Introductory Class Test B sponsored today by the Save the Fly Foundation) as well as the breaks and the lunch break. I got home just a bit ago and my mouth was going a mile a minute. Bernd, my husband, could barely keep up. No moss on this chickipoo. No siree.
It was the year that Bernd and I were to finally get married. He had finished his courses at a career college and entered upper management in a fine jewelry store. I still had some education left to acquire … the kind you get at a school … not the hard knocks kind. That came later.
When I finished my general education requirements at a community college (cheaper that way), I went to a state run university. They had all sorts of continuing education classes that were considerably more fun than the biology courses (along with chemistry, physics, calculus and the like) that I was taking. One of them was Kung Fu. I talked Bernd into taking the class with me. This was a couple of years before we were married and he did not yet have a job and had his evenings free. There was also a Saturday morning class which we attended more often than the weekday evening classes.
We attended the first Kung Fu class of my first semester at California State University at Fullerton. There must have been 200 people that first day. Over the course of the next few weeks, that number was eventually pared down to about 30 stalwart and dedicated individuals, half of whom were hold overs from the previous semester. Of those 30, perhaps six were female.
The club that put on these classes was called The Chinese Physical Culture Association and was the brainchild of Sifu (teacher) Lai Chunk (pronounced Chung because he was Cantonese) otherwise known as Ted Lai. He called it Gung Fu (again because he was Cantonese) and told us on the first day that it was not going to be at all like the television show which was in first-runs at the time. Ted was assisted by his number one student who had been with him for years, Tom Jonhston, also known as TJ.
It was hard work and required a lot of practice and I got into the best shape I had ever been in up to that point. Because there were so few of us females, we got a lot of attention and so for a while it seemed that we progressed at a greater pace than some of the males.
Because Ted Lai was a good friend of David Chow (the technical advisor on the Kung Fu television show) we were afforded opportunities that few clubs ever enjoyed. Even though we were mostly all white, we ran the Golden Dragon in the Chinese New Year Parade in China Town in downtown Los Angeles, California. David treated us all to a free dinner at his restaurant afterward.
We also performed at the Orange County Fair and were part of the live televised promo for the fair. We were on the NBC affiliate's Sunday morning show with Kelly Lang. We gave demonstrations at all levels of schools and performed at countless Chinese weddings. We were in the Hollywood Christmas Parade and countless others for which I can no longer remember the names. The thing I remember most vividly was getting a phone call from Ted late one Sunday afternoon telling me to get my butt (literally, that's what he said) down to the L.A. Forum (actually in Inglewood) because we were going to be the opening act for the Rolling Stones. That was a bit of a misnomer as it turned out, but thrilling all the same.
Once we had all arrived along with all our gear (it had to be sprayed with fire retardant chemicals), we got our orientation and were told what was expected of us. We did a dry run to get the feel of it while crews were hurriedly making changes to the stage and the decorations hanging from the ceiling. Seems Mick Jagger had, at the last minute, decided to go with a Chinese theme and so our association with David Chow once again got us a plumb assignment. He was the go-to guy at the time for anything like that.
The actual opening act was a Colombian-style music band that worked the audience as everyone was filing in and getting seated. Then just before the Rolling Stones were lifted onto the center of the stage from below with strobe lights flashing and smoke billowing everywhere, our two teams came out from both sides of the stage and crossed in the middle in front of it.
We did the Lion Dance with drums and cymbals. There were two lions, two drum and cymbal crews and two monks to tease the lions. I was one of the monks. I wore a silk robe over my usual uniform and carried a silk fan that I used to tease the lion. I had to leap and twist in the air and slap the lion on the nose with the fan. I had to do all of this wearing a paper mache monk's head. I could barely see out of it and it had this little bar inside of it that I had to clamp between my teeth to keep the head steady. Nasty business, that! I wasn't the first person ever to wear that head. But all in all it was so exciting; I could hardly believe my good fortune.
That first night, Sunday, we also got to meet the band. My hair was very long at the time (down almost to my ankles) and because I had received the phone call from Ted just shortly after washing it, I did not do it up (still wet) in my usual coronet braid (distributed the weight evenly on my head). I left it loose to dry and by the time we got to meet the Rolling Stones it was pretty impressive looking. Mick Jagger actually very politely asked me … me … if he could touch it. Do you think I said no?
We all talked for a while (us and the band), which was too cool for words, and then we went home feeling rather full of ourselves. The next few days did not disappoint in any way. We were free each night to stay and watch the entire concert if we wanted. We could eat all the food back stage that we could fit into our stomachs. It was an amazing experience.
I've only been to a few concerts in my life. But even though the number is small, that Rolling Stones concert experience would still stand out. I'll remember it all my life.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)I always secretly thought in my heart that you were always a lion's tease.
A ,"SYZYGY", an astronomical term, often an evil portent, a time of volcano and earthquake eruptions and monumental floods, because of the phenomenal extra gravitational pull exerted upon the Earth, as a "syzygy", is a straight line configuration of three celestial bodies.
I once had a very fat friend say that he'd gained so much weight recently, that he's had a 'threesome', last week, and he was all by himself!...
Your amazingly busy life with people and horses is a sure blessing of positive karma.
I do sometimes wonder what the horses are privately thinking, about all this, however........
Much affection,
Paul
Hi Paul.
I think the horses wonder why we humans make such a fuss when we could just be enjoying the beautiful weather and munching on a few tasty weeds. :)
On my website I give a personal definition (as well as the astronomical one) for syzygy that is a little more positive. I say that it portends wonderful things to come ... meaning the jewelry we make. But your definition can not be denied ... no matter what the scientist say. We laypeople know better sometimes. :)
Thanks for dropping by and for your (as always) interesting comment.
Hugs,
Dianne
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