Eons ago, while spending a few hours (and who in town hasn’t?) at Cameron’s hunting and gathering for Christmas, a plastic Jesus on wheels kept yelling “save me” from his place of honor near the register. Who can resist that? In homage to The Goldcoast Singers/Billy Idol’s “Plastic Jesus,” he ended up on my dashboard.
On a car ride with my Dad, no doubt to another funeral in Yadkin County, he couldn’t take his eyes off the extra passenger on the dash. He finally reached over and pulled it off asking “can I have this?” So PJ went to live with Dad for about 10 years, to be reclaimed while going through Dad’s stuff when he moved permanently to heaven.
PJ joined my tiny family of California Raisins, Barbie, Trolls, Jimi, Janis, Gene Simmons, Obama, RGB, Game of Thrones, et. al. I didn’t realize he was missing from the fold when I found him in a drawer a few months ago and left him out on the counter in the guest bathroom – coincidentally next to a photo I took of John Lennon’s Strawberry Fields garden in NYC while living there circa ’95-’97.
Felt like a bit of synergy happening right there in the bathroom UNTIL … one night before Christmas, I noticed he was facing the photograph. Yelled “hey, honey, did you move Jesus?” Took a few back-and-forths before Honey finally got it. “No, why would I move Jesus?” There are three of us in this house, and the third is short with paws. I know I didn’t move it and we hadn’t had anybody over. Out of respect for whatever plan the universe has, he’s still there. Now while using the convenience in that bathroom, I sing the words under my breath “I don’t care if it rains or freezes … “
SHUFFLING THE COVERS
The GoldCoast Singers
Billy Idol
Paul Newman / Cool Hand Luke
simmer2sizzle 