On July 6, 2007, Three Rivers Chorus made their annual pilgrimage to Kennywood Park to perform and just have fun with family and friends.

On pages 6 & 7, of this issue, we have a couple of photo montages by chapter photographer, Fred Donotno. [Let me walk you through].

At the top of page 6, we see the Three Rivers Chorus near the end of "five foot two." Do my eyes deceive me, or do I see three "moves" occurring at the same time? Hmmmm.

Page 6, left center, is a high school barbershop quartet called "Some For The Road" who participated in the barbershop performances for the day. They consisted of (left to right) Nate Fessler, tenor - Collin Lindberg, lead - Keith Harker, bass and Bill Boyer, baritone. They were quite good and actually sang some of the old songs such as "Don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me."

Right center, page 6, we see the "Old Timer's Quartet" who performed on stage. They are (left to right), Roger McQuaid, tenor - Mike Petruska, lead - Alan McGaffic, bass and Neale Connor, baritone.

Bottom left, page six, we find Charlane Donofrio (wearing visor) and her friend, Mary Ann Fleming having a great time on the whip. Looks like a bit of over acting to me!

Then to the right bottom we see the Thunder Bolt with no one we know. Seems most of the chorus guys were too chicken to ride.

At the top of page 7 are some empty carousel horses. It seems there was a quartet on board during the last turn but they disappeared. Could it be that they were thrown?

The rest of page 7 pictures some chapter members enjoying their day at Kennywood:

Left center - Bill and Sandy Amos; right center - Ken and Gloria Ernst; bottom left - Lois and Dick Hammer; bottom right - Bill Amos & Walt Thomas

In other performances, the chorus sang at Penn Hills high school stadium on July 14, 2007, for the Pittsburgh East, Relay For Life, a fund raising event for cancer research (see photo on page 9).

On July 27, the chorus performed for residents of Asbury Heights Home (see photo on page 9).

At the bottom left of page 9 is a photo and paragraph pertaining to 10 chapter members who participated in, and sang at, the Indiana County Workshop, annual picnic for the handicapped.

Turning to quartet performances, the Random Choice Quartet did some performances, using their usual "random" membership.

On July 21, "RC" using Bill Amos, Ken Ernst, Bill Hamilton and Jim McCarthy sang at the Murrysville office of financial advisor Bob Lauver. They performed at a customer appreciation day for office personnel and customers. In lieu of a normal quartet fee, they had Bob Lauver make a donation to the "Indiana County Workshop."

August 11 found RC (Bill Amos, Jay Garber, Tom Koch and Mark Pascarella) performing at a private residence in Elizabeth, PA. This was for a joint birthday celebration for Irene (81) and Walt (85) Levdansky. They are the parents of PA State Representative, David Levdansky. The quartet was hired by Irene and Walt's daughter, Jo Ann Codelka, who made all the quartet arrangements from her home in Atlanta, Georgia. By request, the quartet sang Battle Hymn of the Republic, God Bless America and Armed Forces medley for Walt, who is a World War II veteran. For Irene, they sang Irene, Good Night Irene plus Irene, Irene, Bless Your Heart (Honey, Little Liz).

Rome Division Activities - by Ken Williams

Welcome all! My name is Ken Williams. I am the Rome Division Manager, connection between you and the District, and for the past year I have been trying to help make the Rome Division (RoDi) "some place special" in singing and camaraderie. Please read the following ways you can help us preserve the hobby and enjoy the fun.

(1) The Rome Chorus - We had one meeting so far June 3rd and plan to meet every other month. Sorry if you didn't know about that. I am working constantly to improve communication. The next practice is Sunday, August 5th from 2:00-4:30 PM at Hamilton Presbyterian Church, 4500 Hamilton Road, Bethel Park. My apologies to Tom Hawkins and Karl Chapple who will be attending Directors College but I want to keep the first Sunday of every other month reserved for chorus (February, April, June, August, October, December).

There are about 250 men in Rome Division so it should be very possible to put together a 100 man (members of the Society) chorus together. The goal is to be bigger, sing better and have more fun than you have had before. Songs we will be working on are, The Old Songs, Keep The Whole World Singing, the Polecats, The Star Spangled Banner, The Irish Blessing, Whispering, In The Good Old Summertime and Hello Mary Lou. We will have music if you can't get it on the Society web site. See you there.

(2) The Roamin' Apple Award - The District's famed Sour Apple Award is lost so we now have our own "RoDi" apple award to promote fellowship and singing. The Roamin' Apple will be presented at the next Rome Chorus practice. A chapter will get "apple seeds" or points for taking the award to another chapter and at the end of the year the chapter with the most seeds will be awarded an apple tree to plant in their town. See the photo [on page one].

After nineteen years of satisfying barbershopper's need for outstanding shows and contests, featuring our best choruses and quartets, the Buckeye Invitational will be "laid to rest" after this year's addition.

Sponsored, from it's incepUon, by the Columbus Buckeye Chapter, the weeklong pageant of barbershop talent failed to match it's costs with profits. The extravagant endeavor has been losing money, recently, in the neighborhood of ten thousand dollars per year. No chapter can afford to handle such losses, no matter what the value of the event might be.

At the start, two decades ago, the concept was to showcase the quartet and chorus contests, second place winners, from each of the Society's sixteen districts. Wild card entries, to the international contest, depleted those dhoices. The increasing cost of travel and lodging added to the problem of securing competitors.

To attract as large an audience base as possible, the Invitational added female competitors from Sweet Adeline's International and Harmony, Inc. New contest categories, such as Comedy Quartets and Mixed Quartets were also added.

Although competing groups paid their own way, star studded Friday and Saturday evening shows involved payment to performing, gold medal quartets. These fees, event promotion and venue costs, plus the Youth Harmony Camp (which runs concurrently with the Invitational) ate up the approximately $175,000 yearly budget. Unfortunately, ticket sales have not kept pace with accelerating costs.

Word has it that the Youth Harmony Camp, which this year was attended by 320 High School Students, will continue to operate. The Buckeye Chapter's Annual Show may very well be moved to the Invitational's current mid-August date so that the Youth Chorus will have a place to showcase their newly learned songs.

Mike Renner, who originally conceived the idea of both the Invitational and the Youth Harmony Camp, is to be commended for expertly steering his off-springs through the past two decades. Kudos also are due to the many members of the Columbus Buckeye Chapter for their efforts in making this event happen. As the saying goes, "It was a great ride," but now the train has pulled into it's final station and is no more.

Who is Ring Lardner, nee Ringgold William Lardner? Per the Encyclopedia Americana: "While Lardner is thought of primarily as one of the major American humorists, critics have pointed out that his satire is caustic, often picturing his characters as unhappy, shabby, exhibitionists. His stories are read, however, for their shining humor and the excelling delineation of the lower middle class."

Long before the Barbershop Harmony Society was founded, Sigmund Spaeth wrote a book, published by Simon and Shuster in 1925, Barber Shop Ballads. Ring Lardner wrote the introduction, which enumerated the six deadly sins of close harmony;

Question:

A tenor who, being the only tenor, takes a high tonic instead of a third for his finishing note.

A lead who says he knows a song when he doesn't.

A man who thinks there is nothing to baritone except winding up on the fifth.

A man who thinks bass is just lead, two or three octaves lower.

A tenor who would rather sing baritone.

And a girl who sings tenor and says it alto.

_Research by Tom Pearce, Charlottesville Chapter Big D Bulletin, December 1998

Questions:

1.  If you simultaneously play every other white key on the piano starting on G and ending on the F above it, what chord will you hear?

2.  Four current TV shows (i.e., regularly scheduled and not in reruns) have featured barbershop quartets. Name them.

3.  The Heritage Hall Museum located in Kenosha opened when and in recognition of what?

4.  Where and when did the famous Norman Rockwell painting of a barbershop quartet first appear? For extra credit, in what venue was the painted quartet singing?

Answers are on page 12