River

   My tag is called Moon River. It's a combination of painting, creating foliage with molding paste, cutting a tiny sailboat from heavy black paper and assembling them all in a frame that creates a shadowbox on the tag.
    I grew up in a river city where one of summer's greatest pleasures was going to our neighbor's river camp, floating on tire tubes, jumping off docks, running barefoot and usually unsupervised all day. When we were hungry we would run into the little concrete floored, cinder block house and grab a coke out of the huge cooler full of water, ice chunks and drinks, stuff a sandwich down our throats and run back down to the river to play - doing everything we could to avoid the attention of our card playing parents. It was time to go home when the big old moon rose over the river. We'd tumble into the back seat of the car, too tired to even care that one of our siblings were in the window seat when it wasn't their turn. By the time we reached home, all of us were asleep from the drone of the car and the long sunny day.
   When I saw Breakfast at Tiffany's and first heard Henry Mancini's song Moon River, it immediately became my favorite song. Even now, when I hear those first strains of "Moon river, wider than a mile, I'm crossing you in style some day...", my heart soars and summers past return.

   Here's a link to the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flm4xcOyiCo