I’d like to welcome Monica M. Brinkman, a freelance fiction writer and poet, to my blog today. Monica has quite a humorous 25 Years Ago experience to share with us, but first, here is an introduction. Born and raised in the Philadelphia area, she relocated to San Jose, CA, where she co-wrote and appeared in a small musical, How Lucky Can You Get. All proceeds were donated to The Muscular Dystrophy Association.
Monica is a lover of all arts and has performed as a singer, actress, and voice of various radio commercials, along with dabbling in oil and acrylic painting. She now resides in the St. Louis area, which inspired her current fiction novel, The Turn of the Karmic Wheel. In June of 2009, she released, Into the Tunnel of Darkness, a short poetry/prose book. It has received five-star reviews and was a featured book selection for the month of February 2010 on the Manic Readers site. She is donating a portion of all book sales to the EBMRF Foundation, which uses all funds donated for the research of Epidermolysis Bullosa.
Thanks for joining us today, Monica. I have to tell you, this is the funniest 25 years post that I’ve had so far. Go ahead, tell our readers what you were doing 25 years ago!
MONICA: Twenty-five years ago began my life as a singing telegram. Go ahead…laugh. I’ll be chuckling right alongside you. Believe me, I didn’t wake up one morning and declare to the world, “My chosen profession is to sing silly songs to unsuspecting people.” Nor, did I ever think I would dress up in a tuxedo and sequined top hat, monkey with cymbals hanging from my neck and walk around in public.
Fact was, I didn’t really know what a singing telegram consisted of. Sure, I’d seen those old black and white movies where some young man, dressed in a white shirt, black pants and a ridiculous looking round cap, shows up at the main character’s hotel room, takes out a harmonica, blows into it producing some off-key shrill music, and then sings happy birthday.
That was my extent of any knowledge of singing telegram performers. They’d always been heckled and were supposed to be a comical part of the movie. I sure thought them funny, and weird.
After seeing an advertisement in the San Jose Daily News that read…Auditioning singers to perform at business functions, birthday parties and special occasions. Great pay, fun company,’ I thought my bubble had burst! Here was my chance to finally make it as a professional vocalist.
So, off I went to the audition wearing my best jeans and silk, paisley top. I stood at the side of the room waiting my turn to audition, listening to a young, thin, short, black-haired man sing ‘America, the Beautiful.’ He had a pure, powerful tenor voice. I didn’t think I had a chance, and he could dance like Fred Astaire; not my strong point.
The dreaded call came; my name rang out as a buffed, blonde, blue-eyed man motioned me to begin. I don’t even remember what I sang, but he must have liked it because he hired me ‘on the spot’; didn’t even ask me if I could dance.
Thus began my three-year stint as a singing telegram. I performed in my tuxedo and top hat, of course with monkey at my side, along with being a Mae West take-off. (Funny thing was, I had to use toilet paper to ‘enhance the cleavage’). No one ever questioned it. And we can’t forget the Dancing Valentine Heart, Mrs. Santa Claus or having a belly dancer accompany me.
Looking back at the experience, I wouldn’t change a thing. It taught me many lessons. Lessons about people such as, the quiet ‘Controller or Accountant’ type is the most fun, never embarrassed and always willing to play along, thoroughly enjoying and participating in the show. While the macho, buffed, slick CEO type would get embarrassed immediately and try to run away.
Most of all, I learned about myself. I was able to handle any situation, however painful or pleasurable, with poise, honesty, grace and dignity. What a lark! It is a time I will never forget.
You can read more about Monica’s work on her web site.
Check out her latest book, The Turn of the Karmic Wheel, on Amazon. If you like a mixed genre’ of horror, suspense, spirituality and a touch of the paranormal, this book is for you. “What goes around, comes around.” Truer words were never spoken, as evidenced by the complex interactions and fates of the characters in The Turn of The Karmic Wheel. When the residents of Raleigh begin to hear music and voices that aren’t “there”, and to receive frightening messages from no discernable source, it soon becomes apparent that changes must – and will – be made: to their everyday lives, to their relationships, to their bodies, and, most importantly, to their souls.
