The older I get, the more I appreciate the rare, unexpected pleasures of everyday life. Take Saturday afternoon, for example.
I was so happy about a free weekend at home that even cleaning the refrigerator – which I’d put off until after one wedding, then until after another wedding, until after vacation, until after recovering from vacation, until summer was over, until a free weekend rolled around – seemed fun. By the time I moved onto making and freezing pie crust and making apple crisp for dessert, my mood was wholly content. So I tuned into my very favorite radio show – wait, wait, don’t tell me – ready for the funniest hour of the week, thinking life could get any better than this.
But it did.
When the show’s host, Peter Sagal, announced the special guest star for the week, life got way better. Because the guest star was Dick Van Dyke. That’s right. Dick Van Dyke, whom I loved, loved, LOVED through the run of The Dick Van Dyke Show, Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, his short stint on The Carol Burnett Show and the detective series, Diagnosis Murder. And here he was, one of my favorite actors on my favorite radio show while I was putzing around the kitchen, my favorite way to spend a Saturday. Surely, life couldn’t get any better than that.
But it did.
Because it turned out that Peter Sagal loves Dick Van Dyke, too. The host used all his wit to charmingly fawn over his childhood hero while simultaneously giving him a hard time. And Dick Van Dyke. Well, he was as funny as Peter Sagal and a good sport when teased mercilessly and he gave as good as he got. Life just couldn’t get any better, I thought.
But it did.
Because at the end of the show, the other contestants started humming the Dick Van Dyke Show theme song. So Van Dyke asked Peter Sagal if he knew the words to the song. When Peter said no, Dick asked, “Would you like me to sing it for you?” The live audience broke into thunderous applause, and Dick Van Dyke broke into song. It was a moment to savor, all the more precious because of it’s unexpectedness, and much to lovely to hoard or hide. So I’m passing it along to you – the download of wait, wait, don’t tell me on October 23– and wishing you belly laughs aplenty.
Life doesn’t get much better than that.
