Karen Ackerman

A trio of children go to visit their grandfather, who was a vaudeville performer in his youth. Their grandfather laments the passing of the "song and dance" days, but he still pulls out all his old vaudeville gear and puts on a one man variety show for his grandchildren. The children are genuinely delighted by their grandfather's performance, and he is equally pleased to be able to share a piece of his personal history with his descendants. Though this story has a sort of melancholy nostalgia to it, I think that ultimately what the grandfather was missing was performing for an audience, so that in addition to passing along memories of his performance to his grandchildren, he was also able to realize that he didn't necessarily miss performing for a large audience, just a grateful one.… (more)