Perhaps it only affects my family, but certain iconic moments in popular culture, family events, or some private joke between husband and wife, seems to surface in the week leading up to Thanksgiving. For example, my spouse wanted to bring a cake to work for a coworker’s birthday – it seemed only fair – as her team had celebrated her own just the week earlier. I was with her that morning when we drove past a Nothing Bundt Cakes. And at the same moment, we uttered, “it’s a cake!” (it only sounds funny when you imitate the Greek in the movie, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”). I don’t think the young clerks would have understood the reference had they heard us.
This same sort of random cake foolishness seemed to float up from the depths of my subconscious in memories on the way to the hardware store. I had been listening to ’70s and ’80s music in the car. And it had been raining which in Southern California, in which only the bravest join the most foolish drivers on the road. With the rain again threatening, my spouse called to tell me she was unable to save me a piece of the cake from work. I started humming Donna Summer’s MacArthur Park, from 1978,
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don’t think that I can take it
‘Cause it took so long to bake it
Songwriters: Jimmy Webb, MacArthur Park Suite lyrics
© Universal Music Publishing Group
I had the presence of mind to not break into song when I entered the Lowes store. But I was tempted to start thinking of the Griswold’s decorating, in the Christmas Vacation movies. From the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday (sooner in many stores), the Christmas music will start blaring all the way through Christmas Eve. I will need to get the decorations checked and then put out in the yard this weekend. I may not be up to humming singing in the rain (Gene Kelly) but I don’t foresee any cakes getting wet. I had better finish our kitchen project quickly with my spouse planning to bake a lot of Christmas treats,
Thoughts of Willy Wonka (the Gene Wilder version) are filling my head. Oompa-Lumpa!
It's a Dog's Life 