"I was only seventeen when she looked at me that way. She said, love changes, changes everything! Love makes the rules." (Dennis Morgan, Rob Fisher, Simon Climie 1987)

This month we look in on girlfriends Lori Williams and Ado Annie in Oklahoma!  and find two friends who were once "scrawny, and flat as a bean pole, or  teeny like a shrimp with freckles" are now young women who find that "love changes everything."

Welcome to the May 2021 Edition~ Oklahoma!  Love Changes Everything.  

As the film opens, we find Ado Annie relishing her newfound attraction to the opposite sex and theirs to her. ("I kinda rounded up a little, and now the boys act different to me. I like it! I like it so much when a fella talk pretty to me I get all shaky from horn to hoof!")  This mutual attraction gives her the freedom to "like best" any boy. ("Don't feel kinda sorry for them when they look like they wanna kiss you?")

As Annie expresses more of her feelings about the joys of dating in "I Cain't Say No," ("I always say come on, let's go. Jist when I orta say nix! When a person tries to kiss a girl,  I know she oughta give his face a smack. But as soon as someone kisses me, I somehow, sorta, wanta kiss him back!")

Laurie cautions her, "You can't just go around kissin' every man that asks ya!" and reminds her she is promised to Will Parker. 

 

As the voice of reason for her fickle friend, Laurie knows that while having a man talk pretty to her or take her for a ride in the "Surry with the Fringe on the Top," or collect things (her rose and her glove), are endearing she desires more.  ("I want things I can't tell you about. Not only things to look at and hold in your hand but things to happen to you. Things so nice that  if they ever did happen to ya, your heart would quit beatin'") 

Although she initially resists him (beating him with a broom after he tells her "lies" about his new surry, refusing his last-minute invitation to go to the box social), Laurie discovers if Curly will give up everything (from his saddle to his horse and gun),  to win the bidding war for her picnic basket, he is the one she wants.

As her heart stops beating (or is it skips a beat?), she and Curly embark on a life and love that changes everything!

Thanks for looking in!

To my SLP friends and fans, be sure to visit our Virtual Booth at the 2021 ASHA  Online Conference: Empowered SLPs: Breaking Barriers and Shaping Solutions June 2- 14, Register to win one of our engaging products!

~~See you There!

~Lori