Trailers and toads

I got a new, or at least new to me, utility trailer on Friday. In all fairness the trailer has been well-used by its previous owners who were in the process of downsizing to something a little smaller.

This was convenient because I have been looking for something that was just a little bit bigger than the utility trailer I have had for about the last 22 years. While the trailer has done OK, it really didn’t have the capacity I needed to do things like hauling Christmas decorations to the city park. Instead I was finding myself needing to borrow other people’s trailers. Borrowing a trailer is always a hassle no matter how willing people are to let you use theirs. I tend to feel like Melvin the Moocher whenever I borrow something from someone, but without needing to wear the purple unitard and welding goggles that form the basis of Melvin’s uniform.

I explained this to my ever-loving wife, Kim, as I laid out my case for needing to spend our tax return on a trailer to haul things primarily for the various clubs, organizations and activities I am involved with. My key selling point, was when I also pointed out that having a trailer with the actual capacity to carry moderately heavy loads would make cleaning out our garage a far easier task since I would be able to take years of accumulated stuff to the transfer station and dispose of them.

I am quite certain that promise will come back to haunt me later this summer, especially since Kim has strongly indicated that she desires to actually be able to park inside of our garage by next winter.

Regardless of the looming task of cleaning out my garage, I am strangely excited by this purchase of the trailer as evidenced by me annoying my friends by sending them pictures of it after I got it home on Friday. I was even excited to get up early on Saturday morning and load up a couple old TVs and a dead microwave oven to take to the Taylor County Clean Sweep. See, Kim, I am cleaning out the garage already. These things take time and can’t be rushed, you know.

My other major high point of the weekend, in addition to chowing down on some fresh fried smelt at the Jump River Fire Department 38th Annual Smelt feed Friday evening, was going to see the Medford Area Senior High School spring production of A Year with Frog and Toad.

I had seen part of the show earlier this week when I took pictures during a special showing for elementary school children. It was as adorable as you could picture with the youngsters standing up and straining to see the invisible “flowers” that were growing. One girl in the back announced in what was intended to be a whisper “They’re using imagination.” Like a wave crashing on the beach, the rest of the children’s response was “Oh imagination.”

In full disclosure, I attended the evening performance last Friday largely because it was something to do that wasn’t cleaning my garage and my son, Alex, was playing the part of the Old Turtle who changed the season signs and pantomimed fishing while a flock of birds stole his worms. It is unusual for a musical to have one of its funniest scenes occur without a word of dialogue or song being sung, but it worked. Of course there were plenty of other hilarious scenes, including my personal favorite about Toad looking funny in a bathing suit, which works better when you don’t dive into the underlying message of body-shaming an amphibian in a bathing suit — even if it is silly looking.

The show’s main vocals were carried by the outstanding talent of Brook Meyer in the role of Frog and by the many other voices in the cast as well as Lisa Porten serving as a last-minute fill in for Toad. Porten has a penchant for physical comedy which always makes it a joy to watch her perform. Among the many reasons I look forward to the end of the COVID-19 pandemic is to see her return to the stage with the Medford Area Community Theater.

It was a job well done by all in the cast and helped make the play happen.

Brian Wilson is News Editor at The Star News.