Well
when this edition comes out, I will be hosting my fifth or sixth (I
can't remember) Mayor's Annual Senior Picnic. It's been 29 years since
former Mayor Brune started the great tradition. I will have the
pleasure of working with the gregarious and talented George Landers
,who is the city's official DJ, and a very good one at that. I love
seeing the sea of seniors as I look out from the stage. I have to say
that it is one of my favorite days of the year. I have made a lot of
friends at the picnic over the years. I bump into these folks at
Johnnies, in Davis Square, even at K-Mart. They are a wonderful
audience. This year I will be presenting the Sunsetters who June Knight
and I had the pleasure of directing this year. I usually put together a
few parody songs for the crowd.

I must now take a detour to
touch a serious reality for a moment. In a one minute period I saw a
grown woman up Powderhouse park who, sadly, could not read. Although
she was smartly dressed in what looked like GAP pants, Rockport shoes
and a cute little up swept hairdo, she lacked one of life's simplest
functions. This was evident to me as she was allowing her huge mixed
breed dog prance freely around the park. Now you know and I know that
there are signs posted that say "all dogs must be on a leash," yet this
woman ignored that sign. Was she illiterate or just irresponsible and
blatantly breaking a law? Man that burns me up. Of course I had to yell
out, "you know there's a leash law!" And a moment later, a car
screeched as a pedestrian was in the cross walk. See, the pedestrian
did not wait to check if there were any cars coming, and she also did
not make sure that the driver in fact saw her. You cannot just dart out
into a crosswalk assuming the cars will automatically stop. You have to
give the driver a chance to acknowledge that there is a person
crossing. She was almost hit. On Sunday a guy in an older Lincoln Town
Car came inches from broad-siding my truck with my son in the passenger
seat. This man never saw me. He was pulling out of the Clarendon Towers
and damn near killed us. Then some nut started beeping like a mad man
at me because I stopped at the intersection of Highland and Willow – he
wanted to proceed down Highland to Davis, and I wanted to let the 3
boys continue walking across the street… who were already IN THE
CROSSWALK! I know it's summer but, we all need to simmer down.

Back
to Big Wednesday. At 7 pm in the evening, 14 youngsters will take the
stage at Somerville High School Auditorium to sing 8 new songs about
Somerville. The show is called "Back in the 'Ville" and it is presented
by Project STAR – Summer Theatre Arts and Recreation. It was a free 6
week summer workshop that borrowed it's name from the historic Title 1
program of days gone by. We have a 3 piece band and a lot of energy.
It's a short show, but we will have a raffle and some former Project
STAR members may actually take the stage to share some memories. Next
year we hope to expand our enrollment. We did this on a very small
budget this year. We started out small and made our own little
backgrounds, but next year we hope to have more parent and community
involvement and a bigger group. Actually, our student-painted
backgrounds are dwarfed by the enormity of the high school stage, but,
hey…it's our first shot! I think we did pretty good for an upstart
group. What we lack in sets, we make up for in energy. Sophia Carafotes
was my able-bodied assistant, and she worked her tail off. Also the
counselors from the Recreation Commission helped enormously. The
Communications Department and the Mayor's Office did their usual huge
part in supplying support. The Sunsetters also enter our home stretch.
You can catch the schedule on Somerville Cable or on the city web site.
The show is basically about a guy who returns to Somerville after over
30 years, expecting that things stayed the same. You will share
memories of The Waldorf, The Woodbridge Inn, Frascatis, Speedy's Pizza,
The Venice Café, The Blarney Stone, and many more.

So there's
two big events on this "Big Wednesday." The Senior Picnic and "Back in
the 'Ville." We hope this show will evolve into a vital thriving summer
theatre program, giving many kids the chance to take the stage and
strut their stuff. We have some exciting school year things going also
that I will share with you later.

Enjoy the rest of your summer
and stay cool, both physically and mentally. When I used to get all
crazy and started acting impulsively and like a hot-head, my dad would
say…"slow Down." So let's take some advice from Fred. Slow down, and
enjoy the Senior Picnic, "Back in the 'Ville," and the rest of summer
2009. You can email Jimmy direct at jimmydel@rcn.com.