The Life Box (Part 1)

I though I'd lost the programs from the Rudolph Nureyev performance I attended with my Godmother. I recall having lent the programs to a dear, high-school friend, and I did not remember whether she returned them. She's a do-the-right-thing kind of person—always has been—so it was hard to imagine she didn't give it them back to me.

 

She did return them; I just forgot where they were. 

 

Mr. Irene and I each have "life boxes." The life boxes are oversized plastic bins into which we drop mementos. My life box contains ticket stubs, prom dance cards, menus from restaurants, a little wooden boat Dad carved, an empty can of vending-machine juice that I once threw at a boyfriend when I still lived in Sherman Hall, my First Communion rosary, the tail of a squirrel that Meškė brought home, a few political buttons, and so on. I rifled through the life box last weekend when I wanted to pull out that Verona Morning Star project. At the bottom of the box was a bag in which I'd stored programs and Playbills. 

 

There were the Nureyev programs. I was delighted to see that my Godmother had taken my to see Nureyev not once, but twice.

 

 

Lyric Opera House, Chicago, Illinois, April 7, 1973. I'd forgotten about this performance.

 

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Lyric Opera House, Chicago, Illinois, March 23, 1974. By the time I saw this performance, I wanted an autograph. This was the free program all audience members received.

 

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Lyric Opera House, Chicago, Illinois, March 23, 1974. This was the glossy program my Godmother bought for me. I took it to the stage door after the show. I met Mr. Nureyev, but he declined to sign my program. *Whimpers.*

 

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Lyric Opera House, Chicago, Illinois, March 23, 1974.  Here's my ticket stub and some newspaper clippings. "Admission $7.50."

 

The performance was "Giselle:"