| Bound Down for Newfoundland |
| Saturday, August 2nd Had a pleasant breakfast with about 20 people in the Ham Radio Club. They meet informally every Saturday at the Avalon Mall. I felt a bit weird in the beginning not knowing anyone, but I was soon put at ease by the friendliness of the bunch. They all welcomed Vic back warmly, as he had spent a good two weeks with most of the hams present during the TARGA Rally last year. One really weird introduction happened here. I was chatting with Gerri, one of three female Ham there, and Vic introduced me to her husband – “This is Jim Fleming.” I nearly fell off my chair! Jim Fleming was Vic’s best friend from High School and died about 10 years ago from complications from a kidney transplant. We both miss him a lot and it was so weird to meet someone else with his name. Fate works in strange ways, doesn’t it? After the conversations over breakfast, Vic went to the engraver’s at the Mall to get something done and I wandered aimlessly around. May I say I HATE the Avalon Mall? I can’t tell you how many times I got lost or stuck at dead ends and had to go all the way back to the middle. Vic was waiting for me at a table when I finally found my way back. After my getting lost at the Mall, I felt the need to center myself and we went up to Signal Hill. I tell you – if I lived in St. Johns I’d be at Signal Hill every single day. Just to stand there and look in at the harbour and out at the sea and Cape Spear is so relaxing you wouldn’t believe. I climbed uo to Ladies Lookout and met a lady who was looking for Janeway from that perspective. She had gone to nursing school at MUN and did her first years of nursing at Janeway. Since I was right next to it the day before in the ER, I was able to point it out to her. She had brought her entire family back to Newfoundland with her to see all the places that figured in her growing up. She told the family they HAD to experience Newfoundland to believe it. They seemed quite happy to be there. And someone from Alaska was there! |
| After Signal Hill, we went to the festival. I had to work in the beer tent later on in the evening but we were in time for me to see the accordion session in the afternoon. Let me tell you that in no other place in the world I bet would you have heard the conversation of the family next to me on the lawn. Kids: Can’t we go back there? Mom: Oh mercy no! You’d miss the accordion music. Grandmom: Oh, you don’t want to miss the accordion music. It’s the best! Kids: Okay! Oh look, there they are! Goody! It’s about to begin! This is really gonna be good. The kids sat very happily throughout the session and enjoyed the music as their Mom had promised. Also during this time, an awful lot of kids came to sit and listen. Two kids even brought their little lawn chairs with them and looked like they were doing a critique! Only in Newfoundland! The Ray Walsh Family was on stage as we entered the festival and they were a joy to listen to. I really enjoyed Greg Walsh. The family is extremely talented. |
But I was able to congratulate Vince Collins backstage because I had to be there to get the till for the beer. He was quite popular signing the Naked Accordionists Calendar. I saw Graham Wells backstage too. He looked hard at me and asked, “Didn’t I see you at Erin’s the other night?” When I answered in the affirmative, he remembered we were with Jim. He smiled and went his way. I was all excited because I saw the guy who played Ned in Random Passage. SO who knew he played an instrument? He was quite good, too. |
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| I have a cross stitich that looks exactly like the above scene. |
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| The accordion session was fantastic, with Stan Pickett, Frank Maher, Vince Collins, Dave Penney and Corey Clarke. Andrew Lang and Glen Collins played their guitars to round out the tunes. I don’t know how Stan managed to not get in the naked calendar, but he was not in there at all! Dave Penney I had never heard of before – he was cute! And Corey Clarke played some of his original tunes, which were absolutely fantastic. Of course I was hoping that a certain accordion player from GBS would show up but he didn’t. We scooted out to have dinner at the KFC overlooking the harbour again and didn’t lock the keys in the car. I worked with Karla, a recently graduated grad student, at the beer tent. She was great to work with and we had a little system going real soon. She seemed to know a lot of the musicians (turned out she dates Greg Walsh!) and was not excited at all by the prospect of waiting on Fergus O’Byrne, Larry Foley, Pamela Morgan or any of the other 5 million musicians we sold tickets to. None of the GBS b’ys came by while we were on though, unfortunately. |
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| Vince and Glenn Collins |
| accordion critics |
| accordion dancer |
| Frank Maher & Stan Pickett |
| Dave Penney and Corey Clarke |
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| Daniel Payne (Ned from Random Passage) |
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| I though WE had a long drive to get here! |