Hello, Fans! Well, it’s just a pleasure to tell you a little about myself. It’s hard for me to stop and sit down long enough to catch my breath and reflect a little on my work here in beautiful Box Springs. My life is a whirlwind of eternally significant activities. I hear you saying, "What is it that you do, my good woman?" Well, how much time do you have? Ha Ha!

Let me start by telling you about the little business I started here in Box Springs 20 years ago. I had a vision one day while cleaning the toilet at our local GAS AND GO! I had just moved here and found part time work at our only gas station. While in the bathroom I heard a voice say, "The culture of Box Springs is in the toilet!" I quickly got my head out of the toilet and looked underneath the stall to make sure I was alone. I was. So where had that voice come from? Then I realized it was a divine calling and the purpose of my life on earth. I was wasting my time in the toilet at the GAS AND GO! My destiny was to bring fine arts to Box Springs!

I handed in my resignation immediately. (I did finish the toilet.) Then I went straight home and began planning how I would build the Box Springs Fine Arts Center. I used my own life savings and rented an empty building in downtown Box Springs. I put an ad in the paper and let the good people of Box Springs know that the cultural times they were a-changin’ and now their little darlings could take tap dance lessons and elocution lessons. They could send their children to me to learn dramatics and true vocal technique (how to successfully tighten the jaw and render the high notes).

Well, the response from Box Springs was overwhelming. The children poured in, and soon I had to expand the business to create a separate dance studio called TAPS AND TUTUS. Then lo and behold the parents and grandparents of Box Springs came to me and said, "Queenie." And I said "What?" And they said, "It’s not right that only the children of Box Springs get to express their artistic souls. We, the adults of Box Springs, long to do it to. Will you help us?" And I said, "Is the bear Catholic?"

As they say, the rest is history. Or His Story, if you will! I opened the Box Springs Little Theater and thus gave everyone in our dear town the chance to tread the boards. And tread them we do! I am proud to announce this season’s line up of theatrical enrichment. We open this season with an original musical (written by yours truly) called MISHAPS, MISCHIEF AND MAYHEM! THE HISTORY OF BOX SPRINGS! It’s a humorous look at how our forefathers settled Box Springs and brought the first cultural offering to our area. They performed an outdoor drama using the local Indians. (They played the beggars, loose women, and townspeople.) We are planning a reenactment.

The next show in our season is an evening of choral delights featuring a medley of 200 of our favorite hymns called BOX SPRINGS ETERNAL! (You’re probably thinking I use a lot of exclamation points, but that’s just how I feel about life! I’m excited about it!) THE GLORY BUGLES will render these hymns with their glorious harmonies and choreography. (Yours truly will be there.) Following the performance, we’ll have a time of request singing if there are any hymns left that we haven’t already sung. We’ll even give a prize to the person who can stump the Bugles and come up with a hymn we don’t know.

Our last show of the season will feature all my fabulous tap dancers from TAPS AND TUTUS in another original musical called BRING IN DE BOX, BRING IN DE SPRINGS! Whew! The "feel-good" musical of the year.  A must see!

Well, as you can see, I’m one busy woman. But I love it and know that I am fulfilling my destiny. Between my work at the Box Springs Fine Arts Center and my role as a charter member of THE GLORY BUGLES, I don’t have much time to just kick back and smell the coffee. So I drink a lot of it, and keep a’ goin!

You know, the first recorded act of our heavenly Father was a creative one. He just spoke and made something out of nothing. Well that’s exactly what we do at the Box Springs Fine Arts Center. We make something out of nothing every day. Our budget is small but our creative juices know no bounds. They just spew forth all the time, splashing artistic joy on everyone we touch.

So, there it is. I hope my little story has encouraged you to step out and just go for it! Please come see our season line up at the Box Springs Fine Arts Center and catch the GLORY BUGLES every Sunday morning on WBOX radio! (We are also featured every 5^th Sunday on Brother Blowforth’s Voice of Hope Radio Hour.)

Gotta run!

Queenie Delphine