Playlist For September 15, 2019: September-ish

I'm sitting here freezing. But I will NOT close the window. I will put on a delightfully old shabby sweater and enjoy the crunchy crispness called Almost Fall. I will toss the comforter back on my bed. I will roast my vegetables. I will think Apple Pie. I will not sweat.

 This is not me.

Because this is The Time: Best Season Ever. And no, not just because it'll soon be my birthday month (why celebrate for 1 day, when you can extend it for weeks?). We're talking the Fall Re-Set, where you get to start the year (like Kindergarten, or 7th grade)(no, definitely NOT 7th grade. You couldn't PAY me to go back to 7th grade) anew.

But this year it's a bit different, because I'm no longer on a "school calendar" setting. For as long as I can remember, September has been the start of the year. New notebooks, sharpened pencils, a score of new knee highs, a plaid skirt. From age 4 (I was an early starter) to almost 64, I've been connected to those 10 book-bagged months...But I've just retired (from tutoring, 7,000 years of it), and there will be no more new notebooks for me. I may splurge on knee socks (who wouldn't?), but that'll be about it.

However, there are still plaid skirts in my future, and BROADWAY to boost my attitude and warm me in my dotage (I love that word!). This Sunday, we take a magical musical tour of the U.S. of A...saluting a bunch of states and hot-shot cities, plus we'll sample a few contemplative, autumnal goodies, just to remember (or try to) the Septembers and Octobers of our lives. Even if some of them smelled like cafeteria goulash.

So think apples and pencil sharpers and shabby sweaters, and tune in, baby.


America (Chita Rivera, Marilyn Cooper, West Side Story)
Rhode Island Is Famous For You (Jack Haley, Inside U.S.A.)
I Want To Go Back To Michigan (Judy Garland, Easter Parade)
Ohio (Rosalind Russell, Edith Adams, Wonderful Town)
Oklahoma! (Company, Oklahoma!)
Maine (Richard Kiley, Diahann Carroll, No Strings)
Cactus Time In Arizona (Louise Carlyle, Girl Crazy)
Washington Square Dance (Tyne Daly, Call Me Madam)
Travelin' In Louisiana (Ensemble, Sugar Babies)
Shuffle Off To Buffalo (Carole Cooke, Joseph Bova, Karen Prunczik,
      42nd Street)
Dear Old Syracuse (Jack Cassidy, The Boys From Syracuse)
Chicago, Illinois (Lesley Ann Warren, Victor/Victoria)
When You Meet A Man In Chicago (Sheila Smith, Sugar)
Try To Remember (Jerry Orbach, The Fantasticks)
September Song (Lotte Lenya, Knickerbocker Holiday)
Autumn Leaves (Doris Day)
Another Autumn (Tony Bavaar, Paint Your Wagon)
Someone To Fall Back On (Jason Robert Brown, Wearing Someone Else's
      Clothes)
Toledo Surprise (Jason and Garth Kravits, Company, The Drowsy Chaperone)
Kansas City (Lee Dixon, Oklahoma!)
When You Say Vegas (David Josefsberg, Honeymoon In Vegas)
Big "D" (Susan Johnson, Shorty Long, The Most Happy Fella)
In Old Mexico (Tom Lehrer, An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer)
The Streets Of Miami (Allan Sherman, My Son The Folk Singer)
New York, New York (John Battles, Cris Alexander, Adolph Green,
      On The Town)
When You're Far Away From New York Town (Jack De Lon, Jennie)
Only In New York (Sheryl Lee Ralph, Thoroughly Modern Millie)
Do You Miss New York? (Dave Frishberg, At The Algonquin)
New York, New York (Liza Minnelli)