Stepping Stones

Kermit came to the hospital and hung upside down above the foot of Jory’s bed until the end, but Kermit was a latecomer.   It all began on Sesame Street before Jory was 2 years old.  He fell in love with Cookie Monster and Rubber Ducky.  We had an 11 inch color TV and Jory would dance in front of it singing along with the muppets, "C is for cookie, that's good enough for me."  He joined in when Ernie sang to Rubber Ducky in the tubby.  That Chanukah, squealing with excitement, Jory opened a gift containing his own rubber ducky along with Bert and Ernie hand puppets, which he kept and safeguarded forever.  He sang "Rubber Duckie" and "C is for Cookie" his entire life, eventually being able to closely imitate the voices of muppet actors Frank Oz and Jim Henson. 

A few months after Jory's second birthday, Star Wars was released.  Jory was too young to see the film, but the theme song played all over the radio.  Since California kids are raised in cars while being constantly transported from place to place, Jory was generously exposed to the score written by John Williams.  Almost immediately, he was singing "Na, Naaa...Na Na Na Naaa......Naaa.... Na Na Na Naaa....."  Everywhere we went, Jory sang at the top of his lungs, inviting strangers to comment, "Hey, do you hear that kid singing Star Wars?" 

He was approaching 3 years old when our family decided upon our first visit to Disneyland.  Older brother Darren was almost 8 and had been pleading to go.  We lived in Mickey's backyard, but as a young couple, couldn't afford it sooner.  We were as excited as the kids, wanting to see their faces as they met the real Mickey and Minnie Mouse at the photo station on Main Street, USA.

The minute we entered the park, Jory spied the steam locomotive chugging into the Disneyland train station and shouted with joy.  He had fallen in love with trains from the many storybooks we had read to him and tugged at our hands to hurry up so he could see it up close.  In retrospect, he was probably intrigued mostly by the rhythmic clattering of the steel wheels along the tracks, the whoosh of steam escaping from the brakes and smokestack, the engineer releasing double wailing blasts from the horn, as well as the conductor's clanging the bell and singing, "All.....a-b-o-a- r-d!"  If portable sound recorders had been invented then, he would have told us all to keep quiet while he stuck his right hand up into the air and recorded all the glorious sounds for his library.

As we entered Main Street, a spiffy uniformed marching band was making its way around the circle.  Jory's eyes opened wide as he watched the rows of shiny brass horns and cadenced drums parade by us and down the street.  Again he tugged as he tried to persuade us to follow the band.

Throughout the day, we went on ride after ride, always ending each attraction humming the melody of that particular ride.  As we stood in line for the next ride, Jory sang "Alice in Wonderland, la la la la laaaa" or "I can fly, I can fly, I can fly...."  He insisted that we ride the Merry-Go-Round several times.  I thought it was because he loved going up and down on the sparkling, white carousel horses.  Years later, while Jory and I were again riding a Disney carousel, he told me that it was because he loved listening to the calliope.

In New Orleans Square, there was a Dixieland band performing in a pavilion, and another outside the Carnation ice cream parlor.  Jory took delight in each band and was reluctant to move on to the next attraction.  He was dazzled by tubas and trombones.  We thought he was drawn to them by their size and color:  gleaming brass and shiny silver ones, each tuba curling around the player and evolving into a glorious spout above his head, and each trombone with its arm-length slippery slide moving its sounds into the atmosphere.  In hindsight, Jory was mesmerized by their um-pa-pa's and wa-wa-wa's. 

Shortly after sunset, we thankfully found seats curbside along Main Street for a brief rest while waiting for Disney's hometown character parade.  We were all exhausted from a full day of fun and excitement.  Jory had missed his nap and his eyelids were heavy, but he was fighting hard to keep them open.  All of a sudden, a man's polished voice blared from loud speakers above us, "Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls of all ages:  Disneyland is proud to present the Main Street Electrical Parade!"  Immediately following, flowed a river of synthesized music in an upbeat, syncopated rhythm, accompanied by 600,000 sparking lights concealing small vehicles that whirled and darted down the street.  Jory came alive.  Electronic music was fairly new and it was the first time that he was experiencing it.  Jory absorbed each note and after the initial loop, was able to sing the entire catchy melody.

On our way out of the park, we stopped at the General Store and Jory was gifted with an LP vinyl recording of the Main Street Electrical Parade.  He could hardly wait to play it on his plastic kid's record player, but like any exhausted toddler, fell sound asleep in the car on the way home, clutching his record.  With Mickey taking a surprising back seat, the absolute highlights of Jory's day at Disneyland were tubas, trombones, drums, and stick-in-your-head melodies.

The next morning, singing the Main Street Electrical Parade ditty at full volume, Jory woke us up by climbing into our bed inquiring about his record.  Before releasing it to a very rambunctious Jory, Sam safeguarded the pristine record by recording a tape cassette on our Hi Fi stereo system.  Twice we listened to it:  first as it was being recorded and then the recorded version.  Jory danced around the room with glee and excitement as Sam placed the record into his chubby little hands and told him to be very careful not to scratch it with the needle.  Like a cartoon character, he dashed to his room with his prized possession, leaving the air behind him swirling.

Almost immediately, Jory emerged, sobbing and screaming, "Daddy stole the boom booms!"  We couldn't understand what he was saying nor could we calm him down.  Louder and clearer he shouted, "DADDY STOLE THE BOOM BOOMS!"  Sam and I looked at each other trying to figure it out.  Nothing clicked, so Sam placed the record on Jory's toy turntable, gently placed the arm at the disc's edge, and lowered the needle into the groove.   "Dum De De Dum Dum....." began the music, yet Jory could not be soothed.  Finally, Sam looked at me and proclaimed, "This children's record player has no bass.  He can hear that the bass is missing from the music."  We were dismayed.  It was our first real awareness of Jory's musical talent and gift.

In hindsight, this was the pivotal time of Jory's young life.  Through music, he fell in love with Jim Henson's world of fun and funny muppets, George Lucas' world of innovation, and Walt Disney's magical world of creativity.  We would never have guessed at that time that the stepping stones for his professional career would include jobs as an Electron at Jim Henson's Creature Shop, a sound designer for Star Wars Video Games at LucasArts, and a sound engineer at Disney Online.

Even into his early 40's, Jory continued singing “Rubber Ducky” and “C is for Cookie.”  When he added "It's Not Easy Being Green,” Kermit joined Jory's favorites.  Working as an Electron at The Creature Shop, he earned the right to wear a black, Jim Henson's Productions jacket with Kermit embroidered on the back and Jory's name on the front.  As an adult, he wore Cookie Monster t-shirts and was often requested to sing his signature Sesame Street songs at open mic venues and parties.  When Jory opened his studio, Kermit the Frog, in stuffed animal form, presided up-side-down on a microphone stand, immediately establishing Jory's playful sense of working and living.  He now sits at our house on the piano that was Jory’s first instrument.

COMMENTS:  

Click on Jorysmother@gmail.com to send comments.

Jory Prum   January 7, 2009
When I was very small, Grandma Edna gave me a picture disc 10" record of the "Disneyland Main Street Electrical Parade" soundtrack. My dad said, "Let me copy it to a cassette before you play it, so we can listen to it in the car." He knew I was going to destroy the record on my toy turntable.  I listened as he copied the record and then ran excitedly to my room to listen to it on my record player.  I then ran crying to my mom, inconsolable. She asked me what was wrong and I said, "Daddy stole the boom-booms from my record!"  I didn't understand it at the time, but my dad's stereo was a really nice high-fidelity system and my little toy record player simply couldn't reproduce the bass that I'd already heard on his speakers!  Thank you for everything, Grandma!

Donna
Musical talent is right!

Molly
Another fascinating and beautifully told account of Jory's wonderful gift with sounds and music.   It showed early on his creativity, rhythm and love for music, but more than anything, it showed your support and belief in his pursuits. He succeeded because you believed in him and were with him since early on in his life.  Read it three times already!

Alyse
So incredibly powerful!  Thank you for sharing your insides and outsides.

Sam K.
I started this lovely Sunday morning by reading your first two posts. Joryprumfreespirit.blogspot.com is now on my favourites bar!  I so enjoy the vignettes and your insights into the making of the man.  I think it must be characteristic of you to find ways to transform the tragedies of life – be they big or small – into triumphs of spirit as you are doing with this journal. And, there is a lot of potential for a book.  What vividly re-created vignettes. I didn’t know Jory, but these stories give me windows into who he was (and why…)

Miriam

Jory will always hold a very special place in our heart.  His winning smile from the youngest age, his awe and wonder at everything in the world, to his incredible ear for music and wonderful sense of humor.

Several stories from his childhood capture all of this.  I remember hearing from you how one day you found him in the car having taken apart the sun roof to see how it worked and another time in tears because when Sam recorded his favorite music onto cassette, he took away his "Boom-boom" and then of course was one of his favorite songs - "fish heads" complete with actually getting a fish head.

© 2017  Leslye J. Prum.  All Rights Reserved.