On the Plane - Part I

Leslie Uggams was on my plane from Newark to Dallas yesterday. I know that it was her because this isn't the first time I saw her. The first time was in NYC in the 70s. She was sitting in the big window of a restaurant called Daisy which was owned by Tonight show band leader Skitch Henderson, although the mists of time may be playing little tricks on my memory. There was a young girl sitting across from her and I believe an ice cream soda was involved. Leslie Uggams was staring out the window with a distant and unblinking Do Not Approach Me I Am Leslie Uggams look on her face, as if she was just putting in her time and wished for nothing more than for this to be over.

On the plane, Leslie Uggams was wearing one of those mod Carnaby Street hats that look like a Jiffy Pop container with a  brim and she was with two pre-teen boys who looked very much like her. I watched her as one of the boys returned  from the lavatory. Leslie Uggams had that same unblinking Do Not Approach Me I Am Leslie Uggams look on her face as she stood to let the boy back into his seat, but she held her hand out to guide him as he moved past her. It came near to his back but did not touch him as it moved along with him as he sat down.

Mothers everywhere recognize that automatic gesture. It serves no real purpose except to confirm and perpetuate the bond between them. It's a signal that they are connected forever. The boy was probably 12 or so and didn't need help sitting down or protection from a public who might be contemplating approaching Leslie Uggams. It was a gesture of comfort and habit, a gesture of connection.

In that moment, I forgave Leslie Uggams for her disinterested coolness towards the young girl with the soda.

(The chronology may be a little off here. It seems unlikely that Leslie Uggams would have a teenage daughter in the 70s and pre-teen boys now. What's important here is not if that was really Leslie Uggams or not - what's important is that I can finally put to rest my long-standing bad opinion of her based on that brief glimpse from long ago.)

During the limbo time between the landing of the plane and the moment that forward movement starts up the aisle, the boys horsed around in a good natured way while Leslie Uggams stood in front of them and stared straight ahead.

Comments

[toxiclabrat]

Maybe Leslie Uggams is still longing for the Mitch Miller Days of her youth....(I know I am..). I was just going to write you to see if I could visit you this week. Now I know the answer...when are you coming back?

[Lenka]

Perhaps those teens were Ms. Uggams' grandsons? I found a Washington Post article on her In Golden Pond stint at Kennedy Center in 2004, and she is listed as being 61 years old then...which might fit with your having spotted her with a teen daughter in the 70's?

[Lenka]

Er, make that On Golden Pond...{sigh}

[John D'Oh!]

I would assume medication of some sort is involved in the blank stare...