There are at least three reasons to see the national tour of  “Memphis,” the current offering at The Music Hall at Fair Park:

The music.

The dancing.

The history lesson.

The score by Bon Jovi’s David Bryan, the terrific production numbers and the glimpse into the U.S. racial landscape of the 1950s are all great reasons to see this show. The cast is top-notch, so you can add that as reason number four to see this show. Bryan Fenkart plays the white, goofy radio DJ, Huey, and Felicia Boswell portrays the ambitious, black singer. Both are outstanding in the two leading roles, and are backed-up by singers and dancers

Presented by Dallas Summer Musicals, this national tour of the show that won the 2010 Tony for best musical runs through May 27th. Check www.dallassummermusicals.org for “Memphis” ticket information and show times.

Katie, Meg and Claire with their mom.

Sunday is Mother’s Day, a special day for a lot of people.

This week I heard Martina McBride’s song, “In My Daughter’s Eyes,”  during my exercise class this week, and it reminded me of a lot of things. I wanted to leave some of the song’s lyrics here for my three girls. Katie, Meg and Claire, I’m so glad you made me a better, happier and luckier person than I would have been without you. Love you lots and lots!

In my daughter’s eyes I can see the future
A reflection of who I am and what will be
Though she’ll grow and someday leave
Maybe raise a family
When I’m gone I hope you see how happy
she made me
For I’ll be there
In my daughter’s eyes

Claire Brandon, far left, and her sorority sisters are off to the races.

I love hats.

I wear one every Easter and every Mother’s Day, and you won’t have to ask me twice to wear one to a tea party or bridesmaids luncheon. Lavender, being my favorite color, is the hue of a couple of my hats, and I do have others in both straw and felt.

Many reasons I like hats–they’re pretty, they’re fun, they complete an outfit. Even better–they enable you to sleep longer because you don’t have to do your hair. For that reason alone I don’t understand why more women aren’t flocking to hats.

Saturday is a day I look forward to. Not because it’s Cinco de Mayo giving us all a reason to eat more Mexican food, but it’s Derby Day. The Kentucky Derby  (www.KentuckyDerby.com), outside a royal wedding, just may be the ultimate hat destination.

Watching the Kentucky Derby was a tradition that goes back to a time when my dad and I would watch on that first Saturday of May. He, of course, was interested in the horse race, but now that he’s gone I toast him still and check out all the hats.  

Who will have the best this year? Pass the mint juleps…let’s watch the show.

Princess Letizia shows the flip-flop world how to wear a dress.

Count me in the group of people who are tired, tired, tired of a total flip-flop world.

Love sandals vacationing at the beach, goofing off in the summer or eating at a picnic. Flips flops in church, at work or at the White House–not a fan. Pretty sure the above preferences would be identical for ball caps, in case you were wondering.

I believe in dressing for the occasion out of respect for the hosts and the others in attendance. I don’t care how expensive your jeans are, they are not appropriate for a funeral.

But there are some people who get it right. This week’s best dressed, according to Lily Lemontree (www.lilylemontree.blogspot), is Princess Letizia of Spain wearing Felipe Varela. PERFECTION.

There’s hope.

A Stradavarius violin puts in an appearance. Photo courtesy Larry Mundt.

The Rotary Club of Fort Worth (www.rotaryfortworth.org) is filled with the city’s movers and shakers.

The ninth largest Rotary in the world, it was established in February of 1913, so the club is closing in on 100 years. The group meets most Fridays at the posh Fort Worth Club, and its a place you can expect to rub elbows with some heavy hitters.

Its membership totals about 500, and in that group, you’ll find some of the pillars of society. Stallions who run companies, bigwigs who run governments. People who are might have seen it all.

My guess is the program chairperson has a challenge. Finding something that interests this well-traveled, well-educated, well-heeled group could be daunting.

But Friday, April 20 a lot of them were treated to something special.  Miguel Harth Bedoya of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra brought not one, but two, Stradivarius violins.

The violins, handcrafted centuries ago by Antonio Stradivari, are considered the finest ever made. He experimented with the instruments’ design, resulting in violins with sound boxes unequaled even today. His best violins were made between 1700 and 1725, setting the standard for violins.

And the Fort Worth Rotarians were indeed in the presence of greatness. A violin like that–now that’s not something you hear at just every Rotary meeting.

So National Princess Week, celebrated the week of April 22, is a subject I know something about.

After all, I raised three of them.

I first heard of National Princess Week while Julie Andrews was pushing with her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton,  their latest literary effort, “The Very Fairy Princess” on TV. I haven’t read this book, but I instinctly know I could have written it. (If you’re looking for a princess book for your daughter, I do suggest “The Paper Bag Princess” by Robert Munsch.)

As for princesses, I am a subject matter exerpt. Our home was a palace for three girls with a love of all things girly. This list of princess-like preferences has included pink, hair bows, dancing, nail polish, pearls, flowers, Barbies galore, show tunes, chick flicks, tea parties and fancy dresses. Along with this has come a certain sense of entitlement, which is sometimes not attractive.

Of course, we would curl hair every day. Of course, there was never a hair bow too big. Of course, someone would award them flowers at the end of a dance recital. Of course, we’ll run to Target at the 11th hour to buy glitter so the school project would dazzle the teacher and assorted classmates. Of course, our birthday parties were over-the-top with themes ranging from Somewhere Over the Rainbow to, ahem, princesses. Of course, we would shop for the perfect prom dress AND pay for alterations equal to the price. Of course, dorm room bedding would perfectly match our roommate’s and be the cutest in the hall.

Of course.

I guess I must have had something to do with the invisible tiaras my three blonde princesses carry on their royal heads. Hang on to your tiara; this will come as a bit of a shock.

After all, I am a queen.

April showers means a lot of things, a lot more than May flowers.

Tornadoes, bluebonnets and the start of baseball season.

As the players make it back to the ballparks this spring, they’re required to start a new tradition. As of 2012, all Major League Baseball players are restricted in their tobacco use. No longer will a player be allowed to carry a tobacco tin or package into a game or any time fans are in the ballpark.

The campaign to “Knock Tobacco Out of the Park” (www.tobaccofreebaseball.org)  is serious about this, too. Those who do are in violation of the new MLB contract and would be flying in the face of some pretty powerful groups. Supporters of the new rule include the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, the American Medical Association, faith leaders, researchers and just about every “Smoke Free” state group you can name.

This is great news for parents who know their little darlings idolize ball players. It’s great news for the sunflower seed business. But, oh, the poor janitorial staff who’ll be left cleaning the mess up.

I heard someone say “pie,” and I got a little excited.

I really like banana cream, so I was hoping for that. Strawberry pie sounded good, too. I’m not really that fond of lemon meringue, but you can tell from looking at me, I’m not that picky.

Then it became clear. It wasn’t “pie” at all but “pi.”  Like in math. Today being March 14, otherwise known as 3-14, represents 3.14. Even I, who hated math, can remember that those are the first three numerals in pi.

For those of you who are interested, here are a few more numerals past that decimal point: 3.1415926535. Pi, represented by a Greek letter, represents the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Something I don’t find all that useful to know in my daily life, but maybe I’m boring.

For those of you who are really nerdy, please know that there is a website devoted to the celebration of this day and all pi-related things. Go here: www.piday.org, and you can buy pi t-shirts, coffee mugs and phone covers. You can find out that Princeton University celebrates Pi Day, which just happens also to be Einstein’s birthday. You can learn that Massachusetts Institution of Technology releases its admissions list on pi day.

Who knew? Go ahead and celebrate pi day, if you want. I’d rather eat pie.

Kristin Chenoweth plays the nosiest of neighbors.

So there’s lots of buzz around ABC’s new show, “GCB.”

Supposedly, the initials stand for “Good Christian Belles,” but we all know better. It’s “Good Christian Bitches,” and it’s based on the book by Kim Gatlin. Big hair, fancy cars, high heels, nasty breakups and bad gossip. Gatlin, who was divorced from one of the singing Gatlin Brothers, just might be a subject-matter expert on all this.

The new Sunday night TV show stars Kristin Chenoweth, from my home state of Oklahoma, and Annie Potts, who we know can play a Southern belle from her turn in “Designing Women.” Set in the fictional town of “Hillside Park” with exterior shots that match Highland Park, Texas, the show sets out to do for Dallas women what the TV show did for Dallas oilmen.

We get references to Neiman Marcus and a western-style gala to help paint the scenery before we get into the junior-high style sniping that goes on among the women. We’ve all known people who sorta resemble these cartoon-like characters, so we can laugh. It’s all tongue-in-cheek fun.

I mean, I think it’s tongue-in-cheek…

Here’s a good story. With a happy ending.

So, it starts out a little bad. I get an alert that a charge I don’t recognize has been made on my debit card. Hmmmm. Next thing I know the bank has canceled my debit card, ordered me a new one and checks are my new (old) mode of payment all over town.

Next day I make a stop at Eatzi’s, a place I love but don’t get to as often as I’d like. Not only did I buy myself a tasty lunch, but I loaded up a basket with the makings for dinner, a few fun cheese spreads and this sun-dried tomato bread I’m addicted to. I plop my basket down in line and proceed to write my check, and that’s when the cashier says it.

“We don’t take checks.”

What?!? This is a glorified grocery store. What grocery store doesn’t take checks? I’m starting to dig through my wallet to see how much cash I have when behind me I hear a voice.

“I’ll take care of it,” says the dashing young man in the well-cut suit and dapper purple tie.

I’m astonished for the second time in 10 seconds. A stranger, one I had never even seen behind me in line, offers to pay for my groceries.

I turn. I stutter. I shut my wide-opened mouth. You see, I’m not used to this kind of chivalry  in the big city where horns honk too quickly and people push ahead in line and you have to read the fine print.

So after he pays for my groceries with a debonair swipe of his debit card and I write him a personal check, we exchange information.

His name is Brendon Marks, and he’s a financial planner with Hodges Capital Management in Dallas. He’s a California transplant who graduated from Southern Methodist University. His mama done raised him right, as we say in the south. You should do business with him because he’s a really good guy.

I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers.