WOW! It has been 11 months since I wrote a blog!

 A quick summary for anyone who still remembers who I am.

Joe & I are fine

After the world began opening up after the worst of Covid, we are traveling again.

December 2021 - 3 weeks in the Caribbean aboard a 5 masted sailing ship

Hoist up the Wind Surf Sails!
(Imagine me singing to the captain to the tune of "Sloop John B"  Yeah, I did that

Then a "marathon" 42 day 3 cruise trip across the Atlantic in Spring 2022

10K Miles & 10 countries!

Summer 2022 - Catching up with family and the annual medical/dental/eye checkups

And off for more travel! (Sept-Oct)

Just enough time between trips to lose the weight I always gain while traveling

I NEVER deprive myself during travel.  

Hope all my old friends are doing well

 The Way We Were

You know how hearing a song takes you back to a time in the distant past? 
You almost feel like you are there?
Yesterday I edited some digitized cassettes of my daughters’ music in high school and college.

Concertos with orchestras – Mozart, Schumann, Beethoven, Liszt, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff.  That took hours.
So I took a break and edited a little reel-to-reel tape from 1976. 

Suddenly I was back in the living room of our little ranch house.
Jeanne was 6, Karen was 3 and Bobby was a baby crawling around.
 
Jeanne was practicing on our spinet piano adding her own commentary in her little girl voice.  It was usually about the music
“Scales and contrary minor” - “I can do The Entertainer” - “Here comes the one I always wanted” - “America 76 – the WHOLE book”

But my favorite was the sisters’ interchange with baby Bobby squealing in the background
Jeanne – “Quiet Karen, the tape recorder has to have me on it, not you”
Karen – “Now it has me on it, not you, ha ha”

We lived our lives right on top of each other – in the LIVING room.

This Christmas photo some years later gives an idea of our confined space

We had no idea where all this would lead.  We kept adding instruments

Fortunately, they got along well and as teenagers the girls accompanied each other’s concertos. Saved me a lot of money at competitions
By then we had 3 pianos – a Steinway Grand that we bought used (instead of the new car we needed) a Baldwin studio and the old spinet.

The Steinway took up a huge part of our living room.
The other 2 were in an alcove off our bedroom. 
Jeanne also played electric bass with a church group and its HUGE speaker took up another big chunk of the room

Trumpet, flute and trombone were their band instruments.

Follow-up note: Only Jeanne was a Music Major.  Karen became an engineer although in 1992 she was the first non music major to win the State Concerto Competition.
Bobby played piano too.  He was very good but quit before high school.  It wasn’t what boys did and he did have 2 hard acts to follow.
 
When his son was old enough for music lessons, he bought him a drum set  LOL

September 22, 1956 - 65 Years ago

 I remember when my Dad took me to "Make a Record" (78 rpm)

I sang a popular song & repeated it
Que Sera Sera

Then I sang a hymn (like a good Catholic School girl) Twice

Daily Daily Sing to Mary

I was 9 and was so happy to go home with a 78 rpm record of ME.

“Que Sera Sera” was a popular song at that time.

The date is especially significant since exactly 13 years later our daughter Jeanne was born.

“What will be, will be!”

I wanted SO MUCH to sing and do stuff – music, sports, travel.
It just wasn’t possible.  Organized sports (like the PAL – Police Athletic League) were boys only. Even the church childrens’ choir was “boys only”
There was a neighborhood “Boys Club” too.  Lots of stuff there that I heard about and wasn’t able to participate in.

At least the gender barriers have decreased over time. 
However, still today, lessons, activities, access to facilities and the ability to travel requires money and an environment where it is encouraged and opportunity provided.

So many still face those barriers. 

A Voice from the Grave

 The most emotional moment of my entire music project

I’ve been editing over 100 newly digitized files from cassettes of 3 decades of my children’s music

I discovered one tape among my Dad’s things. He died in 1997
My kids recorded 45 minutes of music (songs with piano & guitar) for his 66^th birthday in 1983
They were 7, 10 & 13 at the time.  I have no memory of this.  My voice is nowhere on the recording.

Not only did Dad save the tape from 1983 – 1997, but at the end he recorded his own message to them
and sang 2 songs himself.

Maybe it’s national & world events but one song the children did is haunting to me

This the chorus of “One Tin Soldier” –

Go ahead and hate your neighbor
Go ahead and cheat a friend
Do it in the name of Heaven
You can justify it in the end
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgement day
On the bloody morning after
One tin soldier rides away

This is the how the children sounded.  10 year old Karen is playing the guitar.
It’s only 4 minutes long.

One Tin Soldier

This was my Dad’s message

Thanking his grandchildren

If you read this far and listened, thank you

Connections – Bob Dylan and Me – 4 Degrees of Separation?

Moving requires new connections – here & also on MFP I’m glad to connect with old friends and even make some new ones.

I moved a lot in my early life – THREE high schools in very different environments.
My ongoing family music project and a recent documentary illustrates that.

In 1962 we moved to Queens, NYC.  I was 15. 
My mother joined a chorale of a local group of women.
One of the women was Grace Van Ronk.  I remember when her husband died, and the women at the wake were commenting about her son. 
It seems he looked like a hippie – long hair, beard and clothes of the era.

I remember the women talking about how “Grace must be so embarrassed.”
More likely she was proud of her son and his music. I understood that he was quite well known in the evolving folk music community of Greenwich Village in Manhattan. 

I liked folk music and even bought the album of the “Newport Folk Festival 1963.”    I still have it.

Last week I was watching a documentary about Bob Dylan.  I always liked his music, although I must admit I preferred it sung by somebody else, usually Peter, Paul & Mary.
When I bought a guitar in 1968 trying to learn to play from a PBS show, I used the song book “Folk Music Today” with a lot of Dylan songs. 

Anyway, what a shock when repeatedly featured on the documentary were videos and commentary of Dave Van Ronk! 
It seems he was a mentor of Bob Dylan and many other musicians.  He was known as the “Mayor of MacDougal Street”
There was even a movie based on his life.  He released several moderately successful albums. 

Some google research - “Van Ronk was born in Brooklyn.  He moved from Brooklyn to Queens around 1945 and began attending Holy Child Jesus Catholic School”
That was OUR parish. That’s how our mothers met.   Joe & I were married in Holy Child Jesus Church.  

Connection #2 – As I edit over 100 newly digitized tapes of 25 years of my children’s music, I found a performance of my DD (Hayburner1969) at age 12 broadcast by the European Broadcast Union.  Two children from each of 5 countries were featured. 
The other USA musician was Joshua Bell.  If you follow classical music, you recognize the name.  He went on to a famous and very successful international career.
My DD stopped competing after college, got married, had 3 kids and teaches middle school music.  I did write on Spark about her successful return to the stage back in 2016. 
In 2019 we traveled to Munich and St Petersburg for her performances. 

If you’ve read this far, thank you.  While I don’t blog as much as I used to, it’s nice to have a platform to record my thoughts.

If you would like to hear my DD on that International Broadcast, this is the link. 

Jeanne (Hayburner1969) at age 12

(If not clickable, just copy and paste the URL into your browser)

http://www.brigs.us/portfolio/Music%20Archive/Tape-61b%20Music%20Joy%20of%20Youth%20USA%20Jeanne%20Backofen%20Arabesque%20I.mp3

“Stop Whining and Find Something to Do” - An Update – Where I’ve Been

 It’s been over a month since I blogged about my unplanned summer

I did write about it on a few of the Spark “lifeboat” groups I’ve joined.

This is a general update

After I stupidly decided to “hop” for a fitness survey in June, my injury was finally diagnosed by MRI on August 9^th
I have a “tear in the posterior horn of my medial meniscus”
Fortunately, I had one of these in my other knee in 2017, so I know that it will heal with treatment and TIME

I decided to continue with rehab exercises only at home.  I have a treadmill, a bike, resistance bands and a whole lot of stairs.
This is preferable to rehab with a therapist because of all the clients who refuse to follow Covid safety guidelines.
Not even the death of a well known church member and the hospitalization of others has convinced our majority to get vaccinated or at least wear a mask indoors around other people.

While I gradually increased my walking time & distance, I kept up with my upper body exercise with my set of hand weights.

Then on August 19^th, I cut my hand on a big sharp knife while emptying the dishwasher.  My DH Joe bought a set of new knives to process our garden produce. They are way beyond anything necessary to cut vegetables.  Lots of blood in the sink and stitches required.  The cut was on my very dominant right hand and limited its use.

That ended hand weight exercise and even my ability to type. 
The stitches were removed yesterday and my fingers are working fine. I was lucky actually.  It could have been much worse.
 
Meanwhile, I have buried myself in a very emotional project – organizing & indexing over 100 cassette tapes of my children’s music
Some of you may remember my DD Jeannie from Spark (Hayburner1969) and how she returned to piano competition in 2016 after 25 years
What you likely did not know is that her early career included performing with her piano partner.  They even won a trip together to NYC.
Hearing these little girls play again is emotional because Jeannie’s partner Mimi died at age 13. 

I’ve listened to about 50 hours of the recordings and I’m about half way done.
I’m using “Audacity” software to trim sections of each tape in separate files.  I’m creating a new section on my website – a family archive of an important part of our lives.
At one point we had 3 pianos so they could all practice at the same time.   Also flute, string bass, trumpet and trombone echoed through the house. 
A few tapes are of Community Theater productions.  Jeannie had child solos while I was in the chorus and sewed a lot of costumes. 

Summer is almost over – not what I planned, but I know others have had much worse to deal with.
I am grateful that I can type again and can now walk 4 miles over the course of the day in 1 mile intervals. 

I am also grateful for my online connections.  I’ve been reading even if not able to respond much.
Stay safe, stay well

Eileen

“Stop Whining and Find Something to Do”

Downton Abbey fans may remember that advice from the Dowager to her granddaughter (Lady Edith, jilted at the altar).

My summer hasn’t been what I intended.  After my stupid (hard to diagnose) leg injury, I’ve been in rehab for 4 weeks.  While there has been improvement, I have not been able to return to my normal fitness routine without setbacks.  So now I’m scheduled for an MRI AND been prescribed Diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory drug a lot stronger than Advil.  Overnight I felt almost normal but will follow my doc’s advice “do not stress your leg.”  Rehab is on hold except for easy home exercise until the MRI discovers exactly what damage I did to myself. 

Here is part of my project

These are 2 boxes of the 100+ cassettes I have recorded of my 3 children’s music competitions and performances (1975 – 1993). 
After that they were on their own. 

All are labelled with date and event and the majority have detailed contents of repertoire on assorted index cards, note and legal pad paper.

My goal is to transcribe all this into organized spreadsheets and arrange to have the tapes transferred to digital format of all those they want to keep.

Many are tapes of lessons and assorted practice.  Surprisingly they are quite interested in those as well. 
We have the equipment to do this ourselves and have done a few over the years, but this is WAY too many.  Time to pay a guy.

I have several reel to reel tapes too.  Once upon a time cassette recorders were “new technology”
We bought a VCR way back in 1978 to record their local TV appearances.  Never did buy a video recorder though.  Never could have imagined how easily it is done now.

Fortunately, the later years, including Jeanne’s return to competition in 2016 (Cliburn) were automatically recorded for purchase. 
When she performed in Europe, it was great to be was able to sit back and enjoy it without dealing with the old, very bulky recording devices that I remember using. 

This will be pricey, but considering we haven’t travelled since Feb 2020, it’s worth it to spend some money to preserve an important part of family history.

So between my injury and our increasing Covid numbers it’s time to follow the Dowager’s advice.

The entire quote began “You are an intelligent woman with a brain…”  so I better stop whining and complete the project in front of me.