Good Tunes and Good Friends

As the year 2004 draws to a close, I would like to raise a toast to my fiance Andy, and the fine friends that we play music with, all of the wonderful old time tunes, and all of the family members who have appreciated our renditions of same.

Now if I could just learn to play old time fiddle. I have tried approaching this from many angles including the purchase and restoration of several fiddles hoping to find the magic fiddle that would make my fingers always fall in the right place and my bow glide nimbly on the strings. I have tried taking week-long lessons down south in the summer hoping for my end-of-week expertise to stick. I have listened to hundreds of tunes so I have the tunes in my head.

But the fiddle refuses to be so easily conquered. It appears that if I ever want to play fiddle, I will actually have to practice - a lot. I will have to suffer the screeching dissonance of a bad fiddle player, myself, practicing right in front of my own ear, and not far from the ear of my fiance. Sounds like a plan for 2005.

But before I go practice, a few more toasts are in order.

A special toast to my dear mother who we all loved very much, and who lives on forever in our hearts and in my family's holiday feasts and traditions.

A hearty toast to my departed witty friend Jim Fessenden who left his father's fiddle to me, in an old black wood case, unexplainably marked with my own initials in old gold paint.

A warm lap somewhere to our sweet departed Blue Point Siamese cat "Amy" who enriched our lives for many years but did not make it to see this one.

And a final wish for all that the year 2005 will bring a lessening of strife and disasters and destruction in the world, and be a happier and more secure year for all.

Carolyn