Viva la Della!

I took my friend's 12-year-old out to Point Bonita Saturday.

Point Bonita is a great place for kids. It's part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and there's all kinds of bunkers and things from World War II to climb around on.

And there's this old lighthouse from 1855 way out there on this little spit of land that the only way to get to it is you go through this little pedestrian tunnel and walk over a rickety wooden bridge that they only let two people on at a time.

And grown-ups, you are going to love Point Bonita too, because it's way out there in Western Marin, and when your kid wants to play the Hip Hop station in the car, you say "Oh, sorry. We don't get reception out here. But there's a Mel Torme CD in the glove compartment."

Or in my case, I took preemptive Hip Hop action by cueing up a collection of 50s-era Della Reese tunes before I even turned on the ignition in El Cerrito.

By the time we got to Marin, the kid was asking to turn on the radio, and I pulled the old "no reception" trick, and he said, "Well, can I put on a different CD?"

And I said "Sure, we got all kinds of CDs here. Pick one out."

So he plays the soundtrack from "Touched by an Angel."

I said "Do you know who that is singing the "Touched by an Angel" theme song? I said, "That's Della Reese."

He said "That old lady from the TV? That's Della Reese?!"

I said "Della Reese is not an old lady! She is a legend!"

Maybe I would have had better luck with Cher.

Kurt "big daddy" True
23 march 2007