ORANGE SQUEEZIN'S 
August, 2003
MEETING EVERY MONDAY 7:15 P.M.- COME SING WITH US UNTIL 10 P.M.
AT THE FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH, 1130 E. WALNUT ST., ORANGE, CALIF. Summer in Montreal by Stanley Tinkle Our Society's International Contests are so full of indoor activities--42 quartets and 21 choruses competed this year--that it's easy to miss out on getting acquainted with the host city. If you ride the bus from hotel to hockey rink, Old Saint Louie might as well be Salt Lake City. So this year Barbara and I decided to arrive early and take as many tours as we could. We signed up with Phil and Phyllis Roth and did the town with them that week, discovering good Chinese, Mexican, and Lebanese food on the cosmopolitan island that is Montreal, Quebec. We felt safe walking to our hotel late at night; Montreal has a very low crime rate. We soon discovered that it was a good place to spend summers. Montreal is 240 miles farther south than Pinecreek, Minnesota, and about one foot to the east of New York City. It shares the weather patterns of the eastern seaboard--warm, wet, windy, exciting. Don't waste your time digging for permafrost. Go swimming instead. Our tour guides, who really enjoy their home town (of two million people), explained why other Canadians think Montreal's residents are rather odd. Notice, they said, that the older apartments have iron staircases so that you can leave your house from the second story after a blizzard. Notice that the huge underground malls are connected by the excellent metro, so that you don't need a car in the winter. Notice the balmy summer weather, which is so welcome after the November-to-March ski season of winter. Everyone goes to the jazz festivals and parades in July, except for July 1, which is Moving Day, when about one fourth of the residents haul their furniture down those iron staircases and up into different apartments, amid a general uproar comparable to that of a mob of lemmings. Why not move in June or August? Well, the tax year ends on June 30, and no one wants to pay his taxes twice. Canadians import a lot from us, and the cost of shipping makes things expensive, as in Alaska. Four dollars U.S. buys you five dollars Canadian, so our room at Days Inn looked expensive at $180 Canadian per night. Add a $2 Special Hotel Tax and 14.5% Province and Federal Taxes, and you pay about $208 in that handsome two-toned currency per night. Their smallest paper denomination is the $5 bill, so your pockets do jingle a lot. We expect to get a refund by mail on their Federal Tax, which may total $65.--Canadian, that is. That seems pretty neighborly to me; I'll take it. Montreal has an arboretum that donates flowering plants to anyone who promises to plant them. It also has the Ragweed Police, who give you a ticket if you allow ragweed to grow on your property. Why? Because, mon ami, you don't want the health clinics to be overloaded again by a horde of sneezing citizens, do you? Montreal's residents have a strong suspicion of politics. For example, their Dorval Airport is a bit too close to downtown, so they built another one thirty miles away. But it didn't thrive, so they closed it down and moved back to Dorval. Now They're talking about moving back to the other side. Everyone blames the politicians. We passed a huge General Motors auto plant, which is closed at the moment. Politics, says our guide. Back in the 1960's, a geodesic dome was built for the Olympics. Its cover burned in a flash when a repairman's torch lit the fabric, but the elegant frame is still a drawing card. I think the locals prefer it this way.
"Je me souviens" say the license plates in Quebec: "I remember." They remember their origin, which is French, and also their future, which relies on the business savvy that English corporate practices have given to the world. No one wants to risk slipping back into the old ways. Our bus passes a factory where the famous French-Canadian Bombardier family (of snowmobile fame) makes Bell helicopters. A shiny million-dollar model sits out front. All around us is the bustle of summer construction as roads and skyscrapers are hurried to completion. We know that all of Montreal will take the last two weeks of July off and go on holiday, led by the construction workers. They'll head north to the land of a million lakes. As we fly south, somewhat lighter of heart and wallet, we agree that the Society-sponsored tours made our stay with the Quebecois twice as much fun.
Some Thoughts
Our talented editor, Dorothy Acton, put the arm on me for an article. She only had one article, from Stan Tinkle, at that time. Hopefully more will come, but she ain't gonna beg for them!
Most of you have me pegged as an old grouch who can only sing "Wild Irish Rose" and belly-ache about everything. Mostly true. My gut now tells me it is time for our Board of Directors to have a real scheduled meeting somewhere besides the church and find out where we are. No shoot from the hip, instant ideas should prevail. Why do I say that? Our attendance has dropped drastically the last couple of months, and I hear the old "It's vacation time" from some regulars. Some truth there, but I smell a steady drifting away of good singers. We've got problems that can't be solved with flip answers. Better give it some mature thought.
Membership Roster Update
Here are August's updates on the membership roster:
Barker, Sam sparknbark@attg.net
Please send your updated information to Bill Snyder WWilln@aol.com
FWD Registration--Fall 2003
A series of emails between Rich Lewis and Keith at FWD:
Rich wrote: I would like to add my name to the 'Joe Barbershopper' Chorus.
Keith wrote: Are you the Rich Lewis that so grandly welcomed me to the Orange quartet chapter about 6 years ago? I was taking a class nearby and had a wonderful time visiting there.
Rich wrote: You're right on! I welcomed you to the Orange 'Quartet Only' Chapter where you had a chance to sing with several configurations of a quartet.
We're are in our 12th year as a chapter that practices preservation and encouragement of quartet singing, unlike the majority of present-day chapters.
I am a four-part member of AHSOW and will be helping out Casey Parker, Dick Dickey and Warren Grant in the AHSOW room.
I am pleased to see an AHSOW member running the 'how-to' build the chapter you really want. If I can help in any way, let me know.
P.S. Go to www.harmonize.com/orange/
for a copy of our chapter bulletin with pix
Keith wrote: I'm the Prez of the Placerville chapter and we do mostly chorus stuff, but every week we allocate time for quartetting. We do some gang singing too. Our number one goal is to have a good time every time we get together and we seem to be succeeding there.
I'm gonna join AHSOW just as soon as I figure out a bit more on woodshedding the Baritone part.
If you want to help at Bakersfield, I would love to see some AHSOW quartets wander, draw a man in to sing a polecat, then ask if he would like to try woodshedding a song. Not many people have been stopping by the AHSOW room, so why not seek the guys out???? I have suggested this idea to Casey, but I haven't checked back with him yet to see if they plan to do it.
Rich wrote: Good idea, Keith: You can count on me to make that happen. I will get one or more of our quartets in the Orange, Laguna Hills or Dana Pt. Quartet-only Chapters to go out and sing in the hallways, hooking a potential quartet man with a 'ringing' chord, and, asking to join us for which ever part he would like on any of the polecat songs, then, send him up to the AHSOW room for more woodsheddin'.
I am going to copy Dick Dickey of AHSOW, and, baritone in one of my quartets, as well as other members of other quartets on this e-mail to get things started.
We spent hours in front of the computer watching the quartets and choruses performing at the International in Montreal, for awhile at the Lewis' house and then many more hours at home. We agreed that the most fun part was watching Marilyn Lewis' excitement every time there was a close up on Pat during the Masters of Harmony performance (he got a LOT of close ups!). At home we even set up a table in my office so we could watch the Web Cast as we ate dinner. We had to admit we enjoyed the choruses more, because the quartets seemed to be so much into convoluted arrangements that it was hard to hear a real "melody." We're just gettin' to be old fuddy duddies, I suppose.
During breaks in the contest, my wife was noodling around on the Society website and discovered a section that allowed us to hear some great classics--not just MIDI music, but the real thing! These songs required that we install Real Player (which didn't work on my wife's older computer), but if you can get your hands on the Internet, you can hear some great quartets and choruses. Go to http://www.spebsqsa.org and scroll down to the link that says "Listen to Top Quartets and Choruses." Then look for the "Jukebox" link.
The Song "Lida Rose"
Since I first heard "Lida Rose" many years ago, I've been curious about that lyrical title, so fitting for the equally beautiful melody. Last year at Phil and Phyllis Roth's annual "End of Summer" festival of song at their home, a quartet sang "Lida Rose," to my delight. This year I decided to learn more about the song and the lady who might have inspired it.
An Internet search engine junkie, I turned to Copernic first. I found that the name "Lida" was not so uncommon in the 1800's. I turned up several genealogy websites. In more than one instance, somebody's great or great great grandmother was named "Lida." Then I checked out the placename "Lida," knowing from my own genealogy research that people were often named after places. Lida is an old village (since the 1300's) in western Belarus and has at various times in history been a part of Lithuania, Poland, and the Russian Empire. Lithuania itself has been called Litwa/Litva/Lita. The name Lida means "a place cleared of forest." This information didn't satisfy my interest in such a romantic name, so I kept looking.
Meredith Willson (born Robert Reiniger Meredith Willson in Mason City, Iowa May 18, 1902) was educated at Julliard and played flute and piccolo. He played with John Phillip Sousa's band in the early 1920's, and then with the New York Philharmonic (Arturo Toscanin, director) from 1924 to 1929. His career included a stint as musical director at NBC in San Francisco and Hollywood, as well as Musical Director for the Armed Forces Radio Service (he was a Major in the U.S. Army).
Meredith Willson presented "The Music Man" on Broadway in 1957. Among the many good songs in the show was one sparkling gem called "Lida Rose." The tale behind the tune was this: the Music Man met four feuding town fathers in a small place in Iowa called River City, taught them to harmonize in close harmony, and from then on the feuding fellows were inseparable! In the musical, that quartet sang "Lida Rose," with a wonderful harmonizing melody by Marian the Librarian. "The Music Man" album won a Grammy, several Tonys, and eventually an Academy Award for Best Musical Score. Other memorable works of Willson were "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" and the ever popular "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas." Willson died in Santa Monica in June 1984.
A website at www.clipper.net/~nancyw/The_Music_Man.html finally revealed the inspiration for the title of "Lida Rose." This website is well worth a visit for its amazing collection of slang and turn of the century references from The Music Man. According to this source, Willson named the song after his mother Rose and his aunt Lida. The website displays a lovely old photo of these very pretty ladies when they were teenagers. The accompanying text states, "To the left is a picture of Rose, Willson's mother (sitting with book) and Lida (leaning on boulder), Willson's aunt, taken when they were in their teens. Joan (Jodie) Wyland, (Lida's grandaughter), provided the picture, writing "The original is in a beautiful family scrapbook made by my aunt and along side the picture, she wrote "here are the girls for whom Meredith named his song "Lida Rose", seventy years after this picture was taken on July 19,1889." I'm most proud of my family!" -- Picture used by permission of Joan Wyland, all rights reserved." When you see the photo, it is easy to understand how these young ladies could have inspired the lilting and lovely "Lida Rose."
CURIOUS ONE-LINERS
A genius is someone who is screwed up in a useful way.
Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting.
The extra mile isn't half as long as all those other miles.
Frustration is trying to find your glasses without your glasses.
Today everyone wants instant gratification, no matter how long it takes.
When you're rich, it's "eccentric"; when you're poor, it's just strange.
A grownup is someone who suffers from responsibility.
Work when you should and play all the time.
Life is really like a shower. One wrong turn and you're in hot water.
A woman who dresses to kill probably cooks the same way.
People who live beyond their means should act their wage.
If your wife wants to learn to drive, don't stand in her way.
The wise never marry, and when they marry, they become otherwise.
He's a wolf in cheap clothing.
It was a case of love at Versailles.
A fool and his money are some party.
All's fear in love and war.
Nip it in the butt.
All I want from you kids is a little piece of quiet.
Perforation is a rip off.
How To Stay Young
1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctor worry about them. That is why you pay him.
2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.
3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. " An idle mind is the devil's workshop." And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.
4. Enjoy the simple things.
5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.
6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on.
The only person who is with us our entire life, is ourselves.
Be ALIVE while you are alive.
7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.
8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.
9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, to the next county, to a foreign country, but NOT to where the guilt is.
10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.
AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,
but by the moments that take our breath away.
AND "Enjoy the little things, for one day you may
look back and realize they were the big things."
Target publication date for the next Squeezins' bulletin is Sept. 1 or Sept. 8 or whenever we get enough articles. Send your articles to Dick Acton at racton@adelphia.net or bring to the Monday meeting. |
