Whistle a happy tune

I had about five hours to myself in the car the other day. I had to make a day-trip to Connecticut to see my daughter Elizabeth.

So how did I pass the time on the road? I listened to Broadway show tunes ... the whole way ... and I loved it.

My wife Jane thinks it a little girlie of me that I love musicals so much, that I can hum the overture of "Camelot" during an idle moment or spontaneously break into "Defying Gravity" from "Wicked." I like to think that I'm tapping into the creative side of my Geminian personality. After a work week of spreadsheets, deadlines and process control analysis controlled by the left side of my Gemini brain, it's good for the right hemisphere to let loose with a rousing rendition of "Whistle a Happy Tune" from the "King and I."

And I was able to do that at full throttle during my solo trip.

My iPod electronic music device holds mostly the kind of tunes you'd expect of a baby boomer -- lots of Bob Dylan and Neil Young and Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen, with some Guster and R.E.M. and U2 and Who and Green Day thrown in for good measure just to make sure I completely lose my hearing some day.

But I've also made an effort to load the musicals that are part of my DNA because I grew up with parents who loved Broadway shows and would buy the albums and play them on the hi-fi. The ones I remember the most are "Camelot," "The King and I," "Man of La Mancha," "The Music Man," "My Fair Lady," and "South Pacific."

I didn't see any of the musicals on Broadway, but I knew them as well as anybody could. In addition to their frequent play in the house, my Dad was part of a theatre group at the U.S. Air Force Academy in the 1960s that staged "South Pacific" and he played the Luther Billis character, complete with the coconut bra and grass skirt during one scene. Rick Flood, my good friend from high school in upstate New York, was Lancelot in an Oswego State College production of "Camelot." This "Camelot" and other musicals were staged at Oswego State by the father of my girlfriend at the time; he was chairman of the theater department so we saw a lot of musicals. I saw community theatre productions of other favorites at the North Shore Music Theatre while living on the Massachusetts North Shore for many years in the 1980s and 90s. I've seen "Wicked" twice -- at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles and at the Opera House in Boston.

In total I have 154 Broadway songs loaded into my iPod, about seven and a half hours worth of music to keep me company on solo road trips. It helps wile away the miles and the hours to imagine myself as Robert Preston as Harold Hill, Richard Burton as King Arthur, Richard Kiley as Don Quixote orIdina Menzel as Elphaba (oops, there's that girlie part again).

My mom's favorite musical is "Camelot" with Burton, Julie Andrews as Guinevere, and Robert Goulet as Lancelot. Mine is "Man of La Mancha." The knight errant story has always resonated with me -- the idea that sometimes we indeed tilt at windmills, not because we're crazy but because we believe the cause is right and just:

"To dream the impossible dream,
To fight the unbeatable foe,
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go."

Sung at full voice, of course ... armor, lance and steed optional.