I'm living in Lafayette, Louisiana, my birthplace, after some thirty plus years away. It was here I first saw a production of the musical, 'Fiddler on the Roof'. Performed at the Heymann Center, it may have been put on by the University of Southwestern Louisiana theater/drama department, probably around 1970. (USL is now University of Louisiana, Lafayette.)

A movie of the musical also came out around that time. I'm snapping my fingers to the song 'Tradition', and the feet want to step to the wonderful timing of Jewish dance.

The other song I most remember from 'Fiddler on the Roof' is a conversation that goes: 'Do you love me?' 'Do I WHAT?'

There was beautiful music that I do not remember very well because it had a kind of grieving to it as the villagers are forced to leave their homes near the end, transforming from a stable community into refugees. It's painful, and the music suitable and very good.

I don't remember why there is a fiddler on the roof or why the actors in their colorful garb might be dancing on the roof tops, but that's the only scene I really visually remember. Like many American musicals - The Music Man, West Side Side Story, Camelot, Brigadoon, All That Jazz - it's truly American art that pleases and transforms the audience. It's still with me after these many years.