2001-10-18 - 11:03 a.m.

Do you know who Mrs. Miller is? She is very important to know about. For the sake of a simple comparison, one might say she was sort of the Wesley Willis of the 60�s. Except she wasn�t schizophrenic. Or black. Or a giant man. Or an original songwriter. Okay, maybe one might not say she�s the Wesley Willis of the 60�s. I guess the only thing they have in common is surprisingly high album sales based sheerly on unintentional comic value alone. Basically, she was a bored housewife who somehow was talked into recording the hits of the day � for a major label no less! I�ve heard tales about her having some mad crush on Merv Griffin which sparked her whole career, but my 15 minutes of internet research on her didn�t turn up any reference to that. Here�s a link to her official website so you can see and hear her for yourself.

http://www.mrsmillersworld.com/

When I first heard Mrs. Miller several years ago, I was beyond amused, and astonished at how much she sang like my grandmother. Not that I�ve ever heard my grandmother sing. Especially not the hit songs of the 60�s, but if she DID sing them, I KNEW that she would sing like Mrs. Miller. One thing you should know about my grandmother is that she is not very nice. And she is anything but silly. Not a frivolous bone in her body. Not the kind of lady who would sing along to �These Boots are Made for Walkin�.� I doubt she would know the song if it �walked all over� her. However, Mrs. Miller does a glorious cover of Nancy Sinatra�s signature tune. And when I told my sister I�d found an old tape of our grandmother that she�d recorded in the 60�s, and played that song for her, she looked very confused and amused at the same time. Not being familiar with the legend of Mrs. Miller, she halfway believed me. That�s how accurate the comparison is. Ever since then, my sister and I have had a joke about our grandmother and her secret past life as Mrs. Miller.

Recently, my grandmother has had her driving privileges revoked. Being the only relative in her vicinity, I have the honor of taking her to the grocery once a week. Ordinarily we go on Fridays, but she�s hostessing a bridge game this Friday, so last night we went to Dorignac�s � the peculiar gourmet grocery where all the old folks like to go. Unbeknownst to me, Wednesday is evidently Mod Day at Dorignac�s. I don�t think I�ve ever noticed the background music before, but last night, as we strolled through the produce department, I was delighted to hear Marianne Faithful�s �As Tears Go By.� After that were a few lesser known numbers, but definitely mod. By the time we�d worked our way over to the bread aisle, I was bopping my head along to the Kinks. What cool music to hear at the old folk�s grocery store! But the BIGGEST thrill came while perusing the cracker section. I heard the familiar twangy bass of � you guessed it, �These Boots are Made for Walkin� � !!! Oh the irony! Of course it was Ms. Sinatra and not Mrs. Miller, but still! It was all I could do to contain myself! Here I was with my grandmother, listening to that song and there was nothing I could do about it! No one I could tell! I couldn�t even laugh! Ahhhhh! But it was amazing. I just watched her picking through the merchandise, being a right pain in the rump in fact, searching out a �good cracker -- just one you could put a piece of cheese on.� I made several suggestions, all of which she declined, and she settled on a boring looking wheat cracker. Meanwhile, I�m imagining her bursting out into her warbley falsetto and singing along with Nancy. Life is great isn�t it?

previous - next