Hayley Mills – M. K. Waller

When I pretend I’m gay
I never feel that way
I’m only painting the clouds with sunshine
When I hold back a tear
To make a smile appear
I’m only painting the clouds with sunshine

—“Painting the Clouds with Sunshine,”
Joe A. Burke and Al Dubin

*

My husband says, “Start with the headline.” So.

Ailing Kathy Waller Watches Eclipse from Hotel Bedroom
but Claims Holding Back Tears Unnecessary, She’s Fine
Hillsboro Partly Cloudy, Street Lights Kick On but That’s About It

That really is about it. Few blanks to fill in. I came down with something Saturday night, slept most of Sunday, drank Coke, watched NASA’s broadcast of the eclipse on TV (Mazatlan, Torreon, Kerrville, Dallas, Little Rock, Cleveland . . . ), drank more Coke, ate a few saltine crackers, slept most of Monday. Drove home Tuesday.

*Total eclipse 2024, Dallas, TX, via NASA, viewed from hotel room, Hillsboro, TX*

I didn’t wake with a song in my head Tuesday morning but on the drive was suddenly gifted with the one referenced above.

Published in 1929, the song “encourages listeners to embrace a mindset that seeks out the silver lining in every cloud, finding solace and joy in even the darkest of times.”

That description doesn’t reflect my feelings about my eclipse experience. In the first place, it wasn’t, metaphorically, “the darkest of times”; it was a little bug, a mild under-the-weatherness, a minor malady leading to a minor disappointment. In the second place, it wasn’t “the darkest of times” in reality either; every cloud in the partly cloudy sky had a silver lining. It didn’t get dark at all. That could have been a major disappointment, but frankly, my dears, I felt too ratty to care.

(Oh, all right, I admit to having a couple of evil thoughts at hearing people in Dallas, only 56.36 miles northeast of the room where I lay wallowing in my misery, whoop it up in pitch-black dark at midday. And I decided the Greeks might be right about weasels.)

OldTimemusic.com references Bing Crosby’s recording of “Painting the Clouds with Sunshine,” but I prefer Jean Goldkette’s version, vocal by Frank Munn, recorded in 1929. I like the music of that era. The arrangement is so bouncy that the singer couldn’t be near tears.

People watching from outdoor Eclipseboro–Eclipseboro Park, Main Street Eclipseboro, Cosmic Cowboy Eclipse Festival, Eclipse Carnival, Eclipseboro Landing, or Parking and Pancakes at First Methodist Church, for example–might have seen the moon move across the sun even if not in total darkness; I didn’t ask. I did snap a picture through the window during totality, but the flash sort of dulled the effect.

And that is the story of Kathy and David’s Excellent Eclipse Adventure 2024.

*

Pollyanna. Hayley Mills. Pollyanna (movie). Pollyanna (clip from movie, 1960).

For women my age, “Pollyanna” needs no explanation. For the younger generation, there are the links. There are several movie adaptations, going back to a 1920 version starring Mary Pickford, but the only real, true Pollyanna was released by Disney in 1960.

The script writer said, “In the book, Pollyanna was so filled with happiness and light that I wanted to kick her. In the old days, she came on like Betty Hutton. Now, she is shy. We have an adult drag advice out of her. … instead of making her the ‘glad girl’ of the book, we’ve simmered her cheerfulness down to merely emphasize the things-could-be-worse attitude.”

Pollyanna and, a couple of years later, Disney’s The Parent Trap, made Hayley Mills the god of millions of American girls’ idolatry. It’s fashionable to sneer a bit (as I did in the title) at Pollyanna’s “glad girl” personality, but I saw the movie again, more than fifty years after seeing it the first time, and still liked it. The script writer did well, toning down Pollyanna’s robust and saccharine optimism, and making her a sweet little girl who’s taken her father’s philosophy to heart.