Dominoes and Disney Duets

I've found myself more at home in some of the homeless camps than most places I've ever been. There's a sense of freedom out on the streets and it's easy to see the draw.




It is an illusion, however, and I won't glamorize it. Everyone out there struggles at some point, especially in extreme temperatures.


But every now and then we actually have fun.


I learned early on that Mema's domino rules aren't exactly the same as prison rules. But the game is the same and hours on end in a jail cell or homeless camp does not give one the advantage over a very competitive girl who grew up playing the game at the kitchen table of her grandparents' home for summers on end.


I can still glance at the board and tell you what's in the draw pile in about three seconds.


Sitting around, trash-talking a mean game of dominoes is fun, but my favorite homeless camp pastime is Disney Duets.


Until my son graduated and went off to Marine basic training, it was his job to do three things: take out the trash, cut the grass, and sing the male parts of every soundtrack we owned.


Despite the fact that he was tone-deaf, he sang Danny to my Sandy, Will to my Laurie, Aladdin to my Jasmine, and Beast to my Belle.


After years of making my little sister "be the boy" or performing sisters-only songs like "Let Me Entertain You" and "If Momma Was Married," I was thrilled to have a boy to sing my beloved duets with.


Then  he left home.


And I was back to singing alone.


"There are Worse Things I Could Do" (Grease), "Something Good" (The Sound of Music), "Maybe" (Annie), and "'Madame Gaston"/ "That Belle (reprise)" (Beauty and the Beast) were a few of my favorites.


But then Frozen captivated the nation.


And I didn't have a sister or a son to sing with.


But I did have a hot commodity: the front seat of my van.


Any time we went somewhere, there was the usual clamor over who got to sit in the front. I remembered this well from my child-rearing days, the word "Shotgun!" leaving their lips an hour before we left home.


So I made a rule: You sit in the front; you have to sing Disney with me.


Many retreated to the far back seats. But some remained front and center.


I sang with Sven on "Love is an Open Door" and Elsa on "For the First Time in Forever." In true diva form, I vacillate between Elsa and Anna depending on whose part is most prominent in the song.


I taught everyone the lyrics to "A Whole New World" (Aladdin) and "Be Our Guest" (Beauty and the Beast). We had rousing group performances of "Let It Go," the Disney anthem of summer.


I pulled up one day to give someone a ride to a doctor's appointment and was greeted by a newcomer to one of the bigger homeless camps.


"Hey, are you doing karaoke today? I love karaoke. Can we? Can we? Can we?"


It was as if I were teaching elementary school again and looking at an eager eight-year old student instead of a forty-year-old homeless man.


But, that's okay. We all need a dose of that healthy innocence in our lives.