“The hills are alive with the sound of music.”

Well, that’s true in Alamosa, Colorado, as it has been true in Mississippi many times. I recall a wonderful production of “The Sound of Music” at Thalia Mara Hall in Jackson some years ago, and I never get tired of trying to help the nuns figure out how to solve a problem like Maria.

Josh Streeter is bringing Maria and the Von Trapp family to life again in the theater department of Alamosa High School, and I will have a front row seat.

It’s a classic show for kids from three to 92. I remember being mesmerized, transfixed under the spell of Julie Andrews as she filled our living rooms with the sound of music all those years ago. Way before Netflix and even video stores, kids like me waited with joyful anticipation for the cinematic masterpiece to fill our living rooms once, and if we were lucky, two nights a year.

I sat on my fish-shaped bean bag through the entire movie while Mama warmed her toes by the popping fire in our little house in the country.

It was a long way from Hollywood, farther still from Austria, but for a few hours we felt closer than ever to Maria.

During commercial breaks, I grabbed Mama’s hands and we sang at the tops of our lungs: “Doe, a deer, a female deer, ray, a drop of golden sun, me, a name I call myself, fa, a long, long way to run.”

It was magic. It still is.

The show won six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, while the movie won five Oscars, and the original cast recording of “The Sound of Music” was number one on the Billboard charts for 16 weeks.

When casting the movie, producers originally wanted Grace Kelly or Doris Day, but Julie Andrews sang and danced herself right into the role of Maria Kutschera, an Austrian nun-turned-nanny.

Just last year we all celebrated as the beloved film turned 50 years old.

Who could ever forget Christopher Plummer singing “Edelweiss” or the Von Trapp children in their hand-sewn play clothes dancing through the Austrian Alps? I noted the shock and humility Lady Gaga showed when Julie Andrews walked on stage to commend her for reprising the role of Maria on television.

That must have been for them both a moment in time.

For weeks after the movie filled the hearts of Mama and me, we sang to each other in our family’s blue Oldsmobile or while she was vacuuming, me on the floor coloring. “…Sew, a needle-pulling thread, la, a note to follow sew, tea, a drink with jam and bread, and that brings us back to doe, ray, me, fa, sew, la, tea…”
David Creel is a Mississippi native, former Vicksburg resident and syndicated columnist. Contact him at beautifulwithdavid@gmail.com.