Once upon a time (today), Classic Ross Amico beat the alarm on Mother’s Day. He drank some caffeine, took a quick shower, and double-checked his radio bag, just to be sure it was still full of music inspired by nursery rhymes and fairy tales and bedtime stories he recollected from childhood. So much nostalgia and security was contained in that bag that he had to try very hard to resist falling back to sleep.

In fatigue and despair, he cried out to his fairy godmother, “O Fairy Godmother! Why must I get up so early on Sundays, when other, more sensible mortals get to sleep in on their days off?” Then he glanced in the bathroom mirror and noticed that he had been transformed into a raccoon.

So he traded the family cow for some magic coffee beans at the House of Wawa and set off for Princeton University’s Bloomberg Hall. There he found the equipment left in disarray by DJ Bluebeard, who had evidently been cavorting with the Bridge Trolls. It was with some frustration and embarrassment that he began his carefully prepared air shift, since the condition of the studio directly impacted the playing of both underwriting and music, until he reconnected the machinery and located the station log, which is often the first quest of the morning. But when at last he played his first selection, the good people of New Jersey and Pennsylvania and more distant lands awoke delighted from their enchanted sleep, and were refreshed by the Raccoon-Man’s noble sacrifice.

The Fairy Godmother smiled and waved her magic wand, and after spending the rest of Sunday in a fog, Classic Ross Amico awoke as if from an enchanted sleep to discover that it was Monday, and time to go back to work.

Not all the nursing takes place in the nursery on Mother’s Day. I’ll call for my pipe, I’ll call for my bowl, and I’ll call for my fiddles three, from 7 to 10 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. You’ll find me living still, if I am not yet dead, on Classic Ross Amico.