ORANGE SQUEEZIN'S 
November, 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.
(Taken from the Orange County Register)
Acton, Richard W., 75, of Santa Ana, a resident of Orange County and an insurance agent (CLU--Certified Life Underwriter) since 1958, died peacefully Sept. 27, 2003, at St. Joseph Hospital, Orange, of complications following his two-month battle with liver cancer. He willed his body to UCI Medical School. Celebration services will be private.
Richard was born in St. Louis, MO, and graduated from Washington University. He was a Sigma Chi. He played the clarinet and saxophone, working his way through college playing for dances with his own dance band, The Acton Sextet. He served in the Army 1946-47, playing in the Army band. He was always full of wit and the life of the party. He made friends easily and was a good, generous man. He was a Rams fan, and even went to their opening game in St. Louis.
He enjoyed singing barbershop quartet music. He sang bass and especially loved singing "Hello, Mary Lou." He has belonged to the Orange Chapter since 1997. He is very sadly missed by his wife of 30 years, Dorothy; his daughters Martie and Julie; and sister Lucia Sprague of St. Louis, MO. In lieu of flowers, Richard would have liked donations made to his Orange Barbershop Quartet Chapter, c/o P. Roth, treasurer, 3061 Ruth Elaine Dr., Rossmoor, CA, 90720.
Editorial Note: This issue of "Squeezin's" is being published by Richard's wife Dorothy in his memory. The Celebration of Richard's Life was held at the Acton home Oct. 26, and many of his barbershop quartet singing friends attended and kept the event filled with music. Richard's singing, humor and great attitude will be sorely missed.
"Thank you from the bottom of my heart, dear barbershop family, for your support and friendship during this time. Dorothy Acton."
Farewell To Indian Summer
In SoCal, October is a good month of an end-of-summer party. A couple of cool nights and hot Indian Summer days warn us to replace the furnace filters, because Hallowe'en will usually be our first chilly evening. Faced by these chores, we find it more pleasant to plan a celebration. So most of the members and friends of the Orange Quartet Chapter gathered again at Phil and Phyllis Roth's home on October 18 to visit and sing and renew old acquaintances. In honor of our dear late friend Dick Acton, who was Co-Editor of the Squeezin's with his wife Dorothy, we sang his favorite song, "Hello Mary Lou," more than once.
The Lee Anderson family provided several highlights for the evening. We were delighted to see his wife Patti, who is completing a long and inspiring recovery from an accident. Lee's young granddaughter Mikaela stood beside him and hugged his leg every time he sang, which was most of the evening.
Besides singing bass with Indigo, Lee sings with another great quartet, California Blend. Dave Gunther is tenor, Richard Neufeld is lead, and Robert Uriarte is bari. They sang several Doo-Wop songs and a new version of "Moonglow" for us, and I think Mikaela knew them all by heart. Remembering that "Hello Mary Lou" has Doo-Wop elements in its second verse, adventurous quartets may want to add another of those easy crowd pleasers to their repertoire. I'd recommend "Under The Boardwalk," but "Earth Angel" I could do without.
Speaking of spectacular recoveries, tenor Sam Barker was back with us for the event. You can't keep a good man down. Sam had also been present at Monday meeting, accepting the adulation of the crowd. Tenors get so much attention it's almost more than a baritone can bear. Stan Haymaker had a frog in his throat, but he came to applaud the singers anyway, while crying on the inside.
Fred Robirds, Rich Martinez, and yours truly trapped Phil Roth into woodshedding the Mexican birthday song, "Las Mananitas." We neglected to tell Phil that it used two-part harmony. The results correlated with our higher math, which had predicted that four minus two means there is no room for a woodshed lead.
During one of several tag quartets, Marcheta Pletcher stepped in as tenor to save "Sentimental Journey," and Virgil sang the high bari duet with her in fine style. Nobody tagged them out. It's a pleasure to hear Marcheta singing clear and strong again.
A number of quartets sang to anyone who would listen. But Ed Mowbray chose to serenade his wife Mary, who sat demurely in a lawn swing and smiled all the way through "Ain't Misbehavin'." It was a delightful moment in an unforgettable evening.
Installation Dinner
It's later than you think. November 22 is pushing its way thru the
calendar. There are only TWO meeting nights left to pay. I
would like to have all the money in by November 10, that way I won't have do collecting and recording on the night of the dinner and can spend the time quarteting and visiting. Cash or check ONLY. Why don't you sit down and write the check, or put the cash aside, NOW. Make check payable to Orange Chapter SPEBSQSA. The price, $18 per person. Let me know your dinner choice when you pay.
For time, address and menu, see next article.
Would you believe it's officer election and installation time? By the time you read this, the election will have taken place, but the installation dinner and bash is pending. Read on.
November 22nd is the date. That's the Saturday before Thanksgiving!
Place:
Rembrandt's Beautiful Food
Menu:
Price:
Wine, etc:
We'll have our chapter quartets entertaining you PLUS THE O.C. TIMES as featured quartet! They are GOOD! Pat Claypool sings Bari from about 6'5". (He's Rich Lewis' Grandson.) Stan Tinkle is arranging for an emcee who will be announced later.
See y'all at the installation dinner.
Our grandson Pat Claypool and his mentors of the Orange Quartet-only chapter are proud, proud, proud of his 'Heritage of Harmony' chorus of Westminster who will represent the FWD at Louisville, Ky at our Int'l Chorus Contest in June of 2004....and....Pat's Quartet, the O C Times, placing third behind 'Q and Hi-Fidelity, will be qualifying in March for the Int'l quartet contest also.
For you members and guests who have not sung with young Pat Claypool, nor remember him, Pat and his buddy, Chris Stewart (also in the winning Westminster chorus) started in our chapter at the age of eleven(11), moved on to the Irvine Chorus under Bret Littlefield (Nite Life) and then to the Masters of Harmony with Chris and another Madrigals singer from his Foothill High School, Christian Espanoza, and a Gold Medal in Portland.
Ok, Ok, enuf of these plaudits for our young barbershoppers! A pat-on -the-back to Stan Haymaker and his Seniors Quartet, competing also in the FWD Quartet Contest.
These past two months our quartets were verrryyy bizzy!
"OUDA da BLUE" (Stan Haymaker, Dan Whipple, Dan Gonzales, Vance
Herron)- Emerald Bay "IceCream Social" Fundraiser.-three nites.; Shakespeare Players Cast Party-luncheon; Westminster CofC Recognition Lunch.
Computer Crash! HELP!
The Squeezin's editor had a hard drive crash, and the computer is still in the fix-it shop. Fortunately, the November issue was backed up on disks, but the email addresses went out the window. If you normally receive your "Squeezin's" by email, but this time you got it by snail mail, please write to our backup email address at
Mail & Email
Dick:
In checking the roster I find Masselli. If I remember correctly he was a guy that I tried to get into a quartet but he didn't have time. Heck of a bass.
Keep singing!
Jack Jungroth
Hi, Jack,
I have bad news for you. Richard was diagnosed with liver cancer and
despite chemo and a heck of a battle, he went into a coma Sept. 27 and died just before midnight. I sure miss him.
Barbershop Meets The Sh-Boomers
When our local barbershop quartet, The O.C. Times, placed first in the FWD in October, the Orange Quartet Chapter was especially proud of the baritone, Pat Claypool, who started with us. The lead, Sean Michael Patrick Devine, has another claim to fame. Sean came all the way from Hershey, PA, to sing lead with ... The Alley Cats, premier Doo-wop quartet. Sean's experience as an Alley Cat holds promise for barbershoppers as well.
A word of introduction: The Alley Cats are not a one-hit-wonder group that fizzled in the fifties. This is their day job! They teach a cappella singing to children in the Los Angeles City Schools (at over 300 schools so far). Their audiences pick up their easy lyrics, the catchy rhythms and the hand motions, and soon they are performing along with the quartet. When their parents ask them what they did in school that day, the kids begin to perform a song. At that point Mom or Dad says, "Your grandparents would understand that stuff; go show them." The moral: the boomer generation missed out on group-participation music, but their own children love it.
Our Society too is dedicating great efforts to reaching young people with vocal music. Our investment is already paying off with splendid sings like The O.C. Times. We do not compete with other genres such as Doo-Wop; we complement each other. Here's a case in point: you sing in a barbershop quartet, and you're doing a gig at an anniversary or retirement party. The audience enjoys your first two songs, which are slam-bang uptunes if you've been reading your Harmonizer lately. Now how do you maintain that interest level, without exhausting your listeners?
It's a no-brainer. You pick any "Youth In Harmony" song and sing it with controlled gusto: "Under The Boardwalk," "Silhouettes," "Hello Mary Lou" or whatever you can do well. Your listeners will be delighted, and your quartet (if they sing well) will be invited back.
Like barbershop, Doo-Wop is performance music; a live gig is better than a CD. And like Metropolis, The Alley Cats make use of good vocal techniques as well as visuals. They let the music carry them along, and that makes for easy listening. My three Alley Cat CDs help make me a mellow driver.
So does that mean I'd rather learn "You Belong To Me" or "Blue Moon" or "Twilight Time" than a barbershop favorite like "I'm Beginning To See The Light"? No; they're too easy, with that tenor melody sitting on top of the chords. But when the audience goes bonkers and wants another doo-wop tune, you can bet your britches I'll want to have one ready. By the way, The Alley Cats do sing barbershop, too, because the audience loves it. I think there's a message in there somewhere!
The Songs We Sing
by Lee Anderson
I was half-watching an old movie on Turner Classic Movies called "Badman’s Territory" where Randolph Scott versus every ‘baddie’ in history.
Encounters were made with the James Gang, Sam Bass, Belle Star, etc....
In one evening scene, Randolph Scott and Ann Richards were strolling down the sidewalk of the town and you could hear "You Had a Dream Dear" in the background.
As they approached, 4-6 guys where hanging around in front of a barbershop with a concertina and some sort of banjo looking thing. They tipped their hats to the lady and they continued walking.
Randolph said, "That reminds me a lot of my dad," to which Ann inquires, "Was he a vocalizer?" "No, he was a barber," was the response. The song continued for quite a while as they chatted down the street.
Cast: Randolph Scott, George "Gabby" Hayes, Ann Richards, and more. It was released in 1946 and was directed by Tim Whelan.
Mark Your Calendars!
On December 15, the Orange Chapter will be Christmas Caroling at
Chapman Medical Center. We will be meeting in the main lobby at 6:30 P.M. and will start at 7:00. There will be opportunities for quartets to sing, so any quartet that has a special Christmas song ready, be prepared to sing it. The hospital is at 2601 East Chapman Avenue in Orange. It is East of the 55 Freeway. The chapter will begin working on Christmas music at our meeting on November 3rd. As more information becomes available, I will keep you informed.
Typo-girrafical errors
Birllaint Obsrevatoin...
Aoccdrnig to extnesvie rseeacrh conudcetd at Oxofrd Uinervtisy in Enlgnad, it deosn't raelly mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae.
The rset can be in a toatl mses and you usulaly can sitll raed it wouthit much porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by itslef but the wrod as a wlohe.
Jsut thnik a momnet abuot all the tmie you and I watesed laernnig how to splel wrods croreclty!
Target publication date for the next Squeezins' bulletin is Dec. 1, Dec. 8, or whenever we get enough articles. Send your articles to Editor at acton17@adelphia.net or bring to the Monday meeting. "Squeezin's" is on the web at http://www.harmonize.com/orange/.
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