For me, allowing myself to do that usually involves entertaining someone trying to make them laugh. Usually, it's my wife or my granddaughter. I really don't mind acting a fool to make someone I care about smile or, best of all, laugh out loud.
In this post I'm going to laugh at myself by showing you, a few videos that shows me at some of my most whimsical moments.
I'm going to start with a recent video of the most spontaneous moment I've had in a while. But, first a bit of background. This will take a while but trust me it will put the video in context and, hopefully, enhance your laugh.
While I was growing up Dorney Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania is the amusement park that I went to for fun. For as long as I can remember it was the one place that my family (mom, dad and sisters) went every August for our one day of family vacation.
One of the rides in the park the first few year we went there was called "The Cuddle-Up" It was a "spinning tea cups" type ride that had been there since right after WWII. It was a lot of fun and got you rather dizzy. Here's a link to a You Tube video showing you what it was like. Cuddle UP Type Ride Circa 1925
Around 1980 the "Cuddle Up" under went a transformation into a brand new ride. It was enclosed inside a facade which was covered with sprayed concrete and then painted white. The now enclosed dark ride was cooled by air conditioning to 60 degrees and the name was changed to "The Iceberg".
With no seat belts, if you didn't spread your arms out and hold onto the back of the car you were tossed around like a berry in a blender. But it was fun.
The flashing multi-colored lights and disco music added to the chaos of the experience. When the strobe lights came on everything looked like it was in slow motion. Seeing your fellow riders floundering was the equivalent to watching somebody slip on a banana peel. I couldn't help but laugh from start to finish.
The disco song they played was the 1976 instrumental hit "Theme From S.W.A.T." by Rhythm Heritage. It was a 4 minute version of a popular ABC TV show. If you're not familiar with it or just want to hear it again, here's a link to listen to it on You Tube.Theme From S.W.A.T.
As you can tell riding the Iceberg was one of my favorite experiences at the park at the time. My sister, Shari and I loved it so much that when we talked about the ride while we were at home, we would hum the song and move around in slow motion pretending that we were on the ride. To this day we still reference it quite often.
I've written all of that to get to the spontaneous whimsical moment I'm going to share with you.
About a week ago, I was doing some household chores, which included cleaning the bathroom. I had the radio on to help me whistle while I worked.
Local radio DJ, Chris Allen, was featuring the top songs from 1976 on his show. After giving a little background history he played The Theme From S.W.A.T". Hearing it for the first time in a while immediately took me back to those rides on"The Iceberg" with my sister.
I was in the process of cleaning the mirror at the time and in a moment of total spontaneity I decided to video myself recreating the way we used to imitate the ride. Here's the 20 seconds of silliness that I call my Iceberg dance; that I captured on my phone.
In February 2015 South Central Kentucky had the biggest snow fall since I've lived here. Over 10 inches fell in the middle of the month.
The subsequent daytime melting and nighttime refreeze created a phenomenon that I have been fascinated by, since I was a kid. This called for a tour of my little town for some carefree fun.
Earlier, I mentioned the hilarity of watching someone else slipping on a banana peel. It's always at it's funniest if it comes as a surprise to "the victim." In this video in an effort to capture a moment of nature, I surprisingly become the target in a rather funny situation.
This last set of videos centers on being whimsical in a family game night situation. In 2015, the game "Pie Face" became very popular. One night, my granddaughter insisted that her Papa play the game with her and her mom. On my first turn I got lucky.
Then I got lucky again but Brandi didn't.
I have more whimsy and fun capture in still pictures. At this point I am not sure if I'll share them in a my next post or in a photo album on Facebook. I'll let you know in the next post. Come on back to find out.
Blogger's Note: Wanted to let y'all know that there has been an addition to my last post which features pictures with celebrities. I added one with Ray Stevens that I had forgotten I had. You can go back and check it out.
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