XMAS 2003

December 2, 2003

Dear Friends,

Another year over.  Here we are at Thanksgiving again, polishing off another turkey with 15 people celebrating with us.  This has been a sterling year with decent health, many new friends, lots of fascinating travel, a revived stock market that takes the worry off of our retirement fund, and much fun with modern gadgets including TiVo and a car GPS portable system.  We got a gold 2004 Subaru to go with the 2003 we bought last winter--last year convinced  us of the value of All-Wheel-Drive--and passed the 1994 Accord on to folkies for a folkie price.

We started 2003 in January at the South Florida Folk Festival in the Fort Lauderdale area.  The people who run the festival are among the more pleasant and hospitable folks in the world and the selection of artists was superb.  Of course they could have been more successful in their selection of weather.  It was just plain cold down there despite our bringing heavy coats, gloves and scarves from the wintry North. On the last night of the festival we had to jump into our car, turn the heater on high, and crack the window to hear the last couple of acts.  We are going back in 2004 but we may have to get Arctic wear to brave sunny Florida in January.

Folk Alliance was in Nashville in February, the biggest attendance in the 15 year history of the event.  Vic made an award to Christine Lavin in honor of all that she does in time and money to further the careers of young performers on the rise.    We give the Heyman Award every two years with the approval of the FA Board of Directors, a strange but satisfactory arrangement.

In early April we took a Grand Circle river boat tour of Belgium and Holland at the height of tulip season.  We loved the boats, which hold about 120 people, which served as our floating hotel for 13 days.  The little towns were interesting and picturesque, and the tulips were unbelievably beautiful.  We topped the trip off with a train ride on the high speed train from Belgium to London through the Chunnel, seeing 5 plays in 3 days, and meeting up with Kate McDonnell and family in Covent Gardens.

The Susquehanna Folk Music Festival in early May was successful in every way except for attendance, as was Kerrville in late May. 

We went to Texas early in May to participate in the wedding of Jessica Loose and Jared Christensen, a perfectly matched pair.  Jessie is Leslie Tuckers daughter "adopted" by us some years back.  We've been helping Jessie get into and partially through the University of Texas San Antonio.  It was a privilege to be able to participate in the wedding activities. 

We rented a big double-wide RV for Kerrville and stayed for the full 18 days in relative comfort. Vic is still on the Board of the Festival, working hard to keep it financially afloat.  His term of office runs out in June 2004 and he doesn't expect to run for another three year term.

The New Bedford Festival in early July was marked by our taking our granddaughter 14 year old Andrea with us on a very successful trip to the enjoyable sea town near Cape Cod.  We have enjoyed this festival for several years, especially with the annual Scallops Festival associated with it.

Later in July we went on a 2 week 47th Anniversary Folk Tour visiting the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in Hillsdale NY near the MA/CT/NY border, Sonny Ochs outside Albany NY, Bernice Lewis in Williamstown MA, Annie Wenz in Westhampton MA, Rachel Bissex in Burlington VT and attending the nearby Lake Champlain Folk Festival, Kate McDonnell in Albany NY, New York City for some plays and a tour boat ride around Manhattan, and finally Long Island to visit Rick and Maria in Stony Brook.  It was a great trip though we got a bit lost a couple of times.

So, before we went to Kerrville the end of August for "Little Folk" we bought a marvelous GPS system that is portable from car to car (it plugs into the lighter socket), and works like a charm.  Not only does it plot routes to destinations, knowing one-way streets and left exits off of freeways, but it also quickly plots new directions when you miss the turn that was so clearly laid out for you on screen and by voice.  We are still learning all the features available to us and to trust it despite some sometimes very unintuitive routes

Right after the Kerrville Wine and Music Festival was the Southwest Regional Folk Alliance outside Austin TX, a small but very enjoyable conference that we had passed by the first three years of its existence.  The people involved as organizers and attendees are just our kind, friendly even while intently attentive to business.  We booked four acts there.

Then we went to Detroit for a beautiful fulfilling wedding of our friends Terry Gonda and Kirsti Reeves, two gorgeous warm-hearted brides who have been  going together for 9 years.  Kirsti is English, just having gotten her PhD and Visa to work here,  Terry is an engineer for the Army and one of our early " adopted daughters."  It was a fun but very touching event.

Also in September, we went to Boston for lobster and the Boston Folk Festival.  It uses the facilities of U Mass Boston and the staff of WUMB.   BFF draws most heavily from New England for its talent with a sprinkle of National performers like Greg Brown or Nanci Griffith.

We had time to have a drink with Jim Petosi, Artistic Director of the Olney Theatre, who now doubles up in the winter on the faculty of Boston University.  Jim is largely responsible for our "co-producing" plays at Olney, including Mary Shelly's "Monster" this year, the Frankenstein play.  We enjoy attending the rehearsals of his plays, seeing the interaction of director and actors as the play comes together. 

In November we went to the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance in the Catskills, one of our favorite events.  We are on the showcase selection committee, a rewarding but tiring activity involving the judging of over 200 entries.

And that brings us to a marvelous, noisy, crowded, extended Thanksgiving, with 19 for Chinese dinner on Wednesday and 14 for Thursday.  We demolished a 23 pound turkey with all the trimmings.  As the evening wound down we watched the Macy Parade archived on TiVo earlier.  It took about 40 minutes to see the highlights of the 3 hour coverage after we fast forwarded over the advertisements and dull acts.   We got satellite TV this spring and the TiVo recording system makes it worthwhile.

So you can see that 2003 has been remarkably good to us,  We wish that California did not have Recall and that the US did, but we can hope that next year gives democracy another chance to work here and we can redeem ourselves in the eyes of the world.

Love,

Vic and Reba