I'm sitting in the living room with my Poppa. I'm on my computer, he's watching The View. Whoopi mentions the recent passing of R&B legend Teena Marie, so my ears perk up. I'm a fan, and her death was a tragic loss, but I don’t expect my grandparents to know who she was, which is why I’m so confused when Poppa calls Nanny into the room...
Poppa: “Margaret, come here for a sec!”
Nanny: “What is it, what do you want?”
Poppa: “What was the name of that singer you liked? The one who had her own show? The one who was gay? With the raspy voice?”
Nanny: “Who?”
Poppa: “What was the name of that show.. Beyond, something?”
Nanny: “Beyond Reason? Beyond...”
Me: “Do you mean Melissa Etheridge? That wasn’t-”
Poppa: “Yeah, yeah. She looks like the woman who just died.”
Nanny: “Beyond Belief.”*
Me: “Wait, Melissa Etheridge had a TV show?”
Nanny: “Who died?”
Poppa: “That singer, Tina Louise.”
Me: “No, not-”
Nanny: “Oh, she was getting on...”
Poppa: “She was only 53.”
Me:“No, it was Teena Ma-”
Nanny: “No, she was older than that... she was on that old show...”
Poppa: “Gilligan’s...
Me: “No, Tina Louise didn’t die, it was Teena Marie.”
Nanny: “ Gilligan’s Island.”
Poppa: “Oh? Who’s that, what did she do?
Nanny: “Who?”
Me: “She was a singer.”
Poppa: “Oh.”
Nanny: “Don’t call me in here again!”
Poppa: (to me) “You’ll be old one day too, you know.”
Yeah, so that's the kind of conversation that happens several times a day. I've got dozens more where that came from...
But seriously, Teena Marie was an enormously talented singer, songwriter, and producer, and we lost her far too soon.
Yeah, so that's the kind of conversation that happens several times a day. I've got dozens more where that came from...
But seriously, Teena Marie was an enormously talented singer, songwriter, and producer, and we lost her far too soon.
*The TV show in question, which I was not familiar with, was in fact called Beyond Chance. It starred Melissa Etheridge and ran from 1999-2002 on Lifetime. Yeah, I had to do some Googling to find that out.