Lebanon, PA 3/24

If Chambersburg was short, Lebanon was even shorter. We only stayed one night in Lebanon. We awoke in Chambersburg and drove to Lebanon Cedarcrest High School to present a program for their music appreciation class and a few band and choir members. The students were engaging and asked good questions.

Our program went very well. It was a melancholy one for me as it marked the end of our community concert season. We had good experiences but best of all were friendships we made along the way.
George is no exception. He is the president of the community concert association in Lebanon. He has overseen the growth of the membership from 300 to over 600. He is a retired teacher who taught in a school in Hershey, PA that gives opportunities to students who come from one disadvantage or another in life. (More about Hershey in my next blog).

Sue Drazba and her husband were in attendance. They found me on iTunes and added my music to their website. It was an honor to meet them.
After the concert we were able to join George and his wife Carol for a Chocolate Sundae and for some brief but nice conversation. George grew up in the entertainment field and continued with his own children. At times the family presented themselves as clowns and at other times they were musicians. Whatever appealed to the audience.

Chambersburg, PA 3/23

We enjoy performing in historic theaters. The Chambersburg theater is historic! Unfortunately we did not have an opportunity to explore the area, rich with Civil War history. Chambersburg is the only Union town burned by the Confederate Army. There is a memorial fountain in the town circle dedicated to the Union soldiers for their sacrifice.
Shirley Jones, our board member host, gave us a tour of the theater after we were at Corpus Christi School to present a program for the students. To be honest, I was apprehensive when a request was made to go into the schools as much as we have done. To be honest once again, it is the highlight whenever we are in a community to go to the schools. It is rewarding to say the least when a student has been touched by the music.
The president of the Chambersburg association had one of the best ties I have ever been in the presence of. I have never been "in the presence of" a tie before!

We had the privilege of Rick running the sound for us. His daughter, Cory, was an inspired lighting tech helping out her dad. The lighting during the show was done to perfection. When Katherine was featured in a song, the lights highlighted her. And when I was featured, the light highlighted me. Cory is 15 and just had her Wisdom teeth removed! Ouch!!!

Punxsatawney, PA

One has to mention the weather in Punxsatawney. When we arrived winter was in the air and when we left it was spring!
Punxsatawney is in the middle of coal country and Amish country and natural gas country. The community has a lot going for it in addition to Phil, the most famous groundhog in the world.
On our way to Punxsatawney (Punxsy is what the "locals" call it) we ascended over the Allegheny Mountains. At one time, there was a train that portaged canal boats over the top. Before the railroads, goods were tranported throughout the region via canals. I found it all very interesting. There were many tragic and fatal accidents that occurred when ropes snapped pulling the heavy-laden rail cars up the steep slopes of the mountains.

We stayed at the Hotel Pantall in the center of town in Punxsatawney. We were generously given the Michael Suite which is the size of two rooms. It is a bonus when two harps fill the hotel room. We were pleasantly suprised at the low cost in Punxsatawney for meals. The hotel serves chicken and bisquits all day for $2.95!
We were happy to present a program for the middle school music students on Friday morning. Katherine and I had the rest of the day to explore the region. We visited an Amish bakery.
A highlight for me was a visit to a private persons coal mine. Being made of Welsh blood, I was intrigued by the Pennsylvania coal. Many Welsh immigrants who worked in the coal mines in Wales settled in Pennsylvania. Residents of Pennsylvania have heated their homes and lit their lights by the power of coal energy. I brought a box of coal home. I'll either burn it in the fireplace or give it out as presents at Christmas!


We gave our concert on Saturday night after having dinner with Tom Curry, the community concert board president and Ruth Gordon who is the representative in the region for community concerts. We had a marvelous reception after the concert program in Shirley's home. My 401 song seems to be a hit everywhere we go. Here is a link to the song on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2gB5p3keq8
We appreciate being able to meet the local volunteers who make community concerts possible.

On Sunday we had an opportnity to go to church at the First Presbyterian church next to the hotel. It was a very good sermon. And was a privilege to worship there. That is by far the biggest negative for us in our travels is not beig able to attend Sunday church services on a regular basis.
We loaded our harp after church with the help of Matt. Tom and Matt were a big help all weekend.

Culpeper, VA St Patrick's Day and Montpelier

St Patrick's Day is a bigger deal in the East than the West. There are more parades and more of a conscience awareness about it. At home, Katherine makes Green Eggs Benedict. It takes great but has a very interesting look about it.
The audience was very energetic in Culpeper. Very responsive to what we did. Culpeper was a short 2 hour drive from where we were in Linthicum. We set up our instruments at the high school with the help of the school's music teacher, Adam.

Culpeper has a very active board with many volunteers. Volunteers are the reason that community concert tickets are so reasonable. I don't know why many musical concerts have to have such high priced tickets. If one does the math for the big extravagant entertaining shows, one night can gross a million dollars. We complain about our athletes being high paid what about the rock 'n' roll stars. After thinking about it, I'm going to take some guitar lessons. I don't know if I'll be able to make it with the harp!
The concert went very well. The audience was very generous with the amount of CDs that they purchased. my 401(K) song was a big hit with the audience. Someone phoned the following morning and wanted me to record it on a CD.

Two couples came from far away to attend our concert. We are humbled when people come from so far away just to hear us sing and play. The Fortners traveled from North Carolina. They did the same the last time we were back in the East when we were in Georgia. The Antolowitz's drove all the way from New York. It was our first time meeting them. We will see them again as their daughter has recently moved to Seattle.

We had a day off to explore the Culpeper area. Many of the battles of the Civil War were fought in Virginia. It was the battleground. The Viriginia highway department has done a remarkable job in marking historical spots. One could take years to travel the Virginia roads if all the signs were read.
We visited James Monroe's (the fourth President of the United States) plantation home, Montpelier, located 30 miles south of Culpeper. In 1903, the duPont family purchased the plantation. President Monroe' birthday was 2 days prior to when we were there. That is the reason for all of the gorgeous wreaths in the family cemetery.

(the following has been copied from www.montpelier.org)
"Montpelier had grown into an almost incomprehensible behemoth. The Madisons twice expanded it. There were mid- and late nineteenth-century alterations. And when the wealthy William duPont Sr. bought the home in 1901, he enlarged it from thirty-six rooms above the cellar to 104. He also raised more than 100 structures on the grounds, including a general store. Two of the house's first-floor spaces remained in their Madison-era form.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which in 1984 became Montpelier's ninth owner, asked Colonial Williamsburg's architectural research department in 1997 for help understanding how the house had evolved, and how, renovation to renovation, it had looked.
Despite his accomplishments, Madison is perhaps the least known of the nation's Founding Fathers — although his contemporaries had a deep appreciation of his abilities and his contributions. At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, one fellow delegate praised Madison as possessing both the intellectual depth of the scholar and the practical wisdom of the politician, and observed that he was involved in the "management" of every major issue. He was hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" by his peers, and scholars agree that no one had a greater role in shaping American Constitutional theory and in framing the particulars of representative government than James Madison. And, it was at his beloved Montpelier that James Madison's great investigation into the principles and ideas of government occurred. It was at Montpelier where he read, thought, and conceived of the foundation of democracy upon which our country still stands."
The Virginia countryside is beautiful, especially this time of the year when is grass is starting to giveway to hints of green. The rolling hills fall on top of each other looking west to the top of Shenendoah National Park on the crest of the Appalachians. We found rest in Culpeper, VA.

Linthicum and Severna Park, MD

As I mentioned earlier, there will be a time when we will have 3 concerts on 3 consecutive days. With traveling, 3 concerts in a row is stressful. It's certainly not the performing but the setting up, tearing down, packing the van and driving to locations that I am not familiar. I have always said that I word as a van driver for a living and every once in awhile I take my harp out to play.
The usual reasons for not wanting to perform 3 days in a row were alleviated due to their proximity with each other. We could stay in the same hotel in Linthicum and Severna Park.
The concert in Linthicum was held at the Chesapeake Arts Center on Sunday afternoon. Their were many people in attendance, especially for a Sunday afternoon. What was most coincidental for me is that the arts center director is a harp performance graduate from Peabody Institute. It was a pleasure to meet David. He was sympathetic to our needs, knowing the "touchiness" and "moodiness" of a harp. We have met a lot of harpists on our trip this time. I say "a lot." One or two at a concert every so often is a lot. How many harpists do you know?





The following night we were in Severna Park at the high school. The most interesting thing about the stage is that the school was in the middle of a rock 'n' roll show. I loved it because we had the opportunity to perform using an expensive sound system. We had a lighting operator in Pat and a sound person in Matt and great all around help with CDs and loading and unloading in Colleen who's father is the teacher/overseer of the technicians. He is actually someone who has a job as an engineer and does this "techie" stuff as a hobby. Each year the high school students present a rock 'n' roll show that gets bigger and better with each production. I felt like a rock 'n' roll star! The sound system was a $300,000 system if the lighting were included.
The load and unload help was fantastic at both shows.

A day off in Maryland

It's unusual that community concert locations are near a metropolitan area. But that's what happened when we were "booked" in Linthicum, MD and Severna Park. Linthicum is near the Baltimore, MD airport and Severna Park is only 15 minutes away. We had the luxury of not having to move between concerts which afforded us a day off. We drove 45 minutes to Washington DC and Mt Vernon, home of George and Martha Washington.
What I wouldn't give for more leaders like George Washington. I am not speaking of leaders serving as President but of leaders in every capacity. Leaders in politics and leaders in business. Leaders in the community and leaders at home. When President Washington was elected as President, he was truly serving his country. He was humble. He had such reverence from other leaders in our new country that they wanted him to serve in the capacity of king. He could have been a king and started a new monarchy. But he chose a route of humility and wanted the citizens of our new country to govern. Upon being offered the position of king, he replied, " I have just finished defeating a king (King George), why would I want to be one?" I admire his humility and self restraint and control.
I didn't realize it until our visit to Mt Vernon but a vast amount of his time was dedicated to creating the job description of President. He was made President so now what is he supposed to do? Simple questions such as how is he supposed to be addressed to organizinf the chain of command. Amazing!
The portrait that we see on the dollar bill was completed shortly after dentures were made for him. His cheeks are puffy in the portrait on the dollar bill. He suffered with chronic teeth problems all of his life.





After Mt Vernon we visited the amazing National Cathedral. Unfortunately we could not enter the main portion of the cathedral as it was closed. We arrived too late because of my inability to navigate Washington DC streets. I am used to a grid system. I haven't caught on to the Washiington DC system. The roads are about as efficient as the government that originates from there. The Nationl Cathedral is something that we are not going to miss if we are in Washington DC again. Absolutely stunning!
We also visited the newly constructed World War II Memorial. The veterans of World War II and of all of our wars possess the same charachter as George Washington, a sacrificial heart.
One of the portions of our concerts is my 401(K) song. It gets the biggest response of anything that I do. It's the timing of it all and what is going on currently in our capital city. And speaking of timing, we passed Fannie Mae by coincidence.

"Citigroup and AIG,
There's Bear Stearns and Detroits Big Three
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,
You're givin' me a heart attack.
You don't know where your money went
so ask for help from the government.
Guys like me we'd be in jail.
Unlike banks that are too big to fail."

Seaford, DE March 12

Phil Livingston is an incredibly interesting fellow. Not only does he volunteer as the president of community concerts in Seaford, DE, he also is a substitute teacher in the high school. Before retiring (yes...he says he is retired) he served in the military and then worked as an investigator for the FBI. No wonder the students behave in his classroom. And no...he wasn't wearing dark glasses. Between his time as an FBI investigator and teaching, he invented the EXPO pen for writing on whiteboards. It's basically "liquid chalk." There is a lot one person can do if time allows. I admire people like Phil.
Phil took us on a brief tour of the area where we stopped by to see the ferry that his son serves as captain of in Woodland, near Seaford. crossing the Nanticoke River. Typically, at a ferry crossing you had to wait for a while until the boat arrived. There was usually a tavern where you could buy food and drink, read newspapers and notices, and exchange information and gossip with other travelers and the local people. in a land that was still thinly populated, a ferry crossing provided an opportunity to socialize. Communities often developed
around ferry landings, as one did at Woodland.

Katherine and I enjoy presenting programs in schools. We were particularly touched by the students in Seaford. We encourage students to try new things like playing a harp. If it weren't due to the fact that I started to play the harp in 6th grade, I might not have been to Seaford, DE. I encourage kids to take a risk in the right direction. Expand horizons while time is on their side and while the pressure of living does not sit squarely on their shoulders as far as earning a living is concerned.


We enjoyed the concert. We appreciate when people support the concert as they have been doing all along our trip. It's easy to say "I don't want to go out tonight." Audiences have been awesome!

A day off in Virginia and on to Seaford, DE

Our concert in Severna Park, MD on March 10th was rescheduled to March 16th which afforded us an extra day off (but it will be 3 days in a row of concerts later). We took advantage of the "window of opportunity" by driving to our next concert in Delaware on a route that is not the most direct. It is what I enjoy most.
We left Lancaster, OH and drove through West Virginia. The rolling hills of Eastern Ohio were just showing tints of green. The hills became larger as we crossed the Ohio River and entered West Virgina. West Virginia was beautiful. The roads seem to follow a line of Northeast to Southwest due to the direction of the "folding" of the Appalachian Mountains. We noticed the deep, darkness of the dirt at the surface while riding in the van due to the great amount of coal in the soil.
We stayed 2 nights in Richmond, VA. I enjoy history. Before checking out the local history, we had to visit the Virginia Harp Center because I was out of 2 strings for my harp. In Lancaster after the last concert a string broke. I discovered I only had one more extra string which I used. I always carry a complete set of strings. Since replacing my string, I didn't have an extra 3rd octave E. Great fortune for me to be in Richmond where there is a harp store. There aren't too many places were I can get a harp string!





There is an amazing amount of history in Richmond, both from the Civil War era and the Revolutionary period. We spent a day at the Confederate Museum and Hollywood Cemetery. Two Presidents of the United States are interred in Hollywood Cemetery who are James Monroe (5th President) and John Tyler (10th President) as well as Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy. It is also the resting place of 25 Confederate generals, the most of any cemetery in the country as well as many confederate soldiers.

My personal thought is that it is good to visit cemeteries once in awhile. It gives me a reason to think about my priorities and what is important. Especially military cemeteries. I appreciate those soldiers that gave their life for their country and fellow citizen and wonder if I have the strength to do the same. One never knows until the time of decision is at hand. I like to think that I would give my life to save someone else for the cause of liberty and freedom. I commend all of our past veterans who have served on my behalf and for all of those soldiers currently doing likewise.



We visited St Johns Church where Patrick Henry gave his "Give me Liberty, or give me Death" oration on the church porch the close of the Virginia Convention. It was given March 23rd, 1775 and is credited with persuading the Virginia House of Burgesses to pass a resolution to send troops to the Revolutionary War. Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were supposedly in attendance. At the end of Patrick Henry's speach, the crowd roared "To arms! To arms!"





The next morning we departed Richmond for Deleware via the Tyler Memorial Parkway where John Tyler's home and plantation was (and is). It continues to be owned and occupied by direct decendents of John Tyler. The farmland is also being farmed. One of the house's claims to fame is the length of the house; over 300 feet. It is supposedly the longest single beam house ever made.



The parkway continues on to Jamestown, the first settlement in this country. What hardship they endured. Another personal thought is that we are spoiled wimps in this country. Two-thirds of the people died in the settlement. The building that continues to stand is the church. Our country was built on faith and by faith. All history points to that fact. I found it curious that Jamestown ended because of rising sea levels. Did global warming start with Jamestown?
We drove to Delaware via the 15 mile bridge and tunnel on the south end of Chesepeake Bay. It was a bit creepy descending under the water. As I pushed on the gas peddle, Katherine asked what the speed limit was to which I responded, "Not fast enough!"

On to Concerts in Ohio

Mt Vernon and Lancaster are charming places. I particularly enjoy when towns retain their central square. Ohio is a beautiful place, just like the song is named "The Beautiful Ohio."
The people are all so friendly. In fact, everywhere we have been we enjoy talking with the citizens best of all.
In Mt Vernon, we performed at a gorgeous theater built in the early 1930's called the Knox Memorial Theater. It was dedicated to those who gave their life in service to the military.
While in Mt Vernon, we had a tour of the previous opera house that currently is going through with ambitious plans of renovation. Most amazing to me was a trough to be filled with kerosene lining the front of the stage in the old opera house to give light. The kerosene was lit the entire length of the front of the stage! No wonder so may opera houses burned to the ground.
We had a fabulous dinner of Indian cuisine in Mt Vernon. I love Indian food and this was particularly delicious. For a meal on the concert night we had an amazing feast. We were given a hot plate of homemade turkey dinner, complete with the dressing and mashed potatoes. We felt like we were back home. Only better because there were no dishes to do! Bill Harper is the president of the community concert organization who is highly organized. Very friendly as well.
We had a Sunday afternoon concert in Lancaster held at a branch campus of the University of Ohio. A special treat for us was the effort that was put forth to give us high quality lighting. Mike was the sound person and Dale was the lighting specialist. Bruce was the "roadie."










In attendance in Lancaster was someone who has purchased all of my CDs, Betty Greve. I think I will make her honorary president of my fan club, if I had one. It's always a joy when I meet people such as Betty.










Bob and Doug were the ones in charge of the concert association.
Of particular importance, Doug's daughter was expecting a baby at any moment. talk about Doug and Bob being committed to community concerts! Doug was to become a grandpa and Bob (Doug's father) was to become a GREAT-grandfather.





The morning we left Lancaster, we presented an assembly at St Marys. We enjoy "picking" on the music teachers at the school by making them a guinea pig to play the harp for the audience. We do this to demonstrate that the harp is similar to the piano. If one can pick out Chopsticks on the piano, it can be plucked out on the harp.









For the concerts in Ohio the newspaper gave us a bit of material by publishing the cities in the country considered to be most "manly." Ohio had 3 in the top 15. The harp is not considered "manly" but playing the Ohio State Fightsong for the manly people in the audience was a relief to their masculinity! I have made a lot of friends in Ohio and all along the way.

March 4th to Kalamazoo

We enjoy having a few days off so that we can do a bit of sightseeing. On our way to the next dates in Ohio we were able to visit very dear friends in Grand Rapids, MI. We gave a program in a church in Kalamazoo. We enjoy the church concerts in that we can open up and share our faith a bit.

We stopped at an amazing place in Frankenmuth called "Bronners." The name of course is what drew me there. It is the largest Christmas shop in the world.







We also visited Holland, MI on a day off. Katherine's parents immigrated to Canada shortly after World War II from the Netherlands. Katherine is Dutch. We went to "Bronner's" for me and my namesake; we went to Holland for Katherine's quenching of her "roots."