Oh What a Lucky Girl She Is

     There is a line that I find myself saying almost every day, and the line goes all the way back to the Jackie Gleason Show from the early sixties – not his Honeymooners show, but the variety hour that came on Saturday nights.  

     I did not care for the Jackie Gleason Show then at all – the skits seemed not funny, and I had no appreciation for the physical humor and perfect sense of timing that Gleason had – now of course I marvel in awe. Back then I winced as each skit began – each seeming like a repeat of the skits the week before with its recurring characters – the same June Taylor dance, the same cup of coffee with the implication that it is alcohol and everyone knowing it really was coffee, or not-alcohol, and the comment, “How sweet it is!”, Crazy Guggenheim coming into the bar and talking funny but ultimately singing in a perfect singing voice some love song – whenever I think of the Jackie Gleason Saturday Show I picture and hear Crazy Guggenheim singing Red Roses for a Blue Lady – and I wince again.

Denver 2010

     But the skits have stuck with me all these years – and the different characters Gleason played have endeared themselves to me.

     And that brings me to the line I find myself saying almost every day.

    There was a recurring skit that by Googling the details today I have discovered was called Arthur and Agnes. Alice Ghostley was Agnes. Everyone else remembers Alice Ghostley from Designing Women or from Bewitched – but I will always love her from the Jackie Gleason Show. 

    At the beginning of the skit, Alice Ghostley as Agnes is sitting on the steps of a tenement house in the city. The audience sees right away that Agnes is not beautiful, and she is not well-to-do. Agnes talks to the camera about her boyfriend, Arthur, glowing about all of his wonderful character traits – and including his good looks. Arthur then comes along – he is Jackie Gleason – not particularly attractive at all – and his financial circumstances are not any better than his girlfriend's. Arthur and Agnes talk for a while – from what I can remember, I think Arthur talks about his dreams, his some day – while Agnes listens with love. It is obvious to the audience that Arthur will never rise much above his present station in life, and we are sure that Agnes knows it too.

Greenville, Georgia 2010

     But when Arthur says goodbye and walks off, Agnes looks into the camera with a smile that is both totally sincere and yet all-knowing, and says I'm the luckiest girl in the world!

     Now I do have to say that my own young man is a good looking guy. And his economic status and prospects have always been very good – worlds better than Arthur and Agnes. And his dreams and some day are definitely doable. But there are times like when he looks at his phone and reads his messages when I am talking to him, or when he has spent half a day with his shirt buttons one off from the corresponding buttonholes before I see him and am able to tell him, or he walks through the house naked after his shower to help dry off – times like that every single day – that I know just how Agnes feels – and that is when I look into the camera and say with all sincerity I'm the luckiest girl in the world!

playing with software

     And I am.

171 20150620 The Luckiest Girl in the World