Catching Up
From my table in the Flying J Restaurant in Salt Lake City early on Friday of Memorial Day Weekend - I’ve been away from blogging for weeks now and have missed reporting some of our adventures. There was the trip to Disney World in March with two of our granddaughters during their grade-school spring break. We took them in the semi, delivered a trailer 15 miles from DW and stayed inside the park for 3 nights & 3 days. Then April was full of music - 2 Illinois Symphony concerts book-ending a Paducah Symphony concert. The great thing in April though was a long-planned trip to Chicago for violin shopping, joined by Jim Stieren (adventurous guitarist/friend.) I’m on a slow search for a great violin. We visited 6 violin shops. I took one violin on approval for 3 weeks but didn’t decide to keep it… The highlight of the search was the Carl Becker Shop. They showed me 5 violins: one by Jennifer Becker - $25,000; two from around 1950 by Carl, Jr. - each $40,000; one from 1918 by Carl, Sr. - not for sale, but - - - $100,000; and a violin made by Daniel Cox, who lives in Vermont. He had approached the Beckers to represent him in the Chicago area. That’s the violin-maker I have my sights set on right now. I’m also interested in Robert Clemens of St. Louis whom I visited a few months ago. The violin I took out on approval was from Petio Kostov, a Romanian maker working in Mundelein. I went from Chicago to Springfield for IL Sym. Kostov’s violin was passed around the orchestra. I got to try out several other violins in the orchestra - a couple Clemens violins and my stand partner’s Becker. I’d love to have a Becker, but am now favoring Daniel Cox. At the Becker shop, a salesman was available to play the violins. When he brought out the Cox, I had to mention that one of my former beginning students now plays a Cox. “Oh, who is your student?” I replied, “It was more than 15 years ago, his name is Christopher Otto.” And Colin Maki said, “I know him! We studied with the same teacher in Chicago.” Actually I studied with that teacher, Cyrus Forough, long before they did, in Milwaukee. small world…
Now we’re about caught up… The weekend of May 20 Peggy and I rendezvoused in Milwaukee for Angela Holdmann’s wedding - a fireman’s daughter marries a policeman’s son. I was routed into Milwaukee on our truck; Peggy took a train up from home. I got in early. Mark picked me up Sat. morning, took me back to the house and showed me our accommodations. Mark & Janet are highly neat and organized. They prepared their immaculate Jayco RV trailer behind the house for us. They also made their 2nd car available to us, so I picked up Peggy at noon. We went from the train station to UW-Milw to drop off a young woman who needed a ride from the train, then onward to the wedding rehearsal, and to the groom’s parents’ house for a nice dinner. Mark & Janet are our great friends whom I met 25 years ago, when they were just starting their family. Mark was my violin student - that’s how we met. He had inherited his grandfather’s violin and wanted to learn to play. Angie is their 3rd child to be married - only 2 more to go. Each of the 5 learned different instruments - violin, piano, clarinet, viola, trumpet - and each was quite accomplished at his or her instrument - especially the 3 boys. I played with Luke (violist, but architecture major at UW-Milw on a 4-year music scholarship) in the string quartet for Angie’s wedding. Tim (trumpet / HS soph.) played a couple solos accompanied by the quartet. Ben (great clarinetist, but now on the fire dept. like his dad & grand-dad) and his wife Sue sang in the wedding. Amazingly, upon meeting the other violinist and the cellist of our quartet, friends of Luke, we discovered that I went to UW-Milw at the same time as the cellist’s mom, Anita. She and I were viola majors at the same time, so I knew her well. Small world... Sunday morning was a flurry of ladies doing their hair, picking up food, flowers, all kinds of stuff for the wedding - I wasn’t involved, so I went to church alone. Peggy stayed behind to watch 2-yr-old Holly, Mark & Janet’s first grandchild. Angie is a striking beauty and was the quintessential lovely bride. Joe was in his Marine dress blues. (He is out of the Marines after 4 years and getting ready to be a policeman.) The wedding was at the Holdmanns’ church, but officiated by Joe’s childhood Lutheran pastor. The reception afterwards was at a large hall in Germantown. Wow! What a party. It was a huge, sit-down meal. We were seated at a table with Mark’s eldest brother, his wife and step-daughter, Mark’s uncle, his wife and Mark & Janet’s elderly neighbor. There was a DJ. Dancing followed dinner; that’s about when we left.
Peggy and I drove Janet’s car to our truck, parked it for later retrieval, and we took off for Cleveland. I had a really good load - 2500 miles from Albion, PA (100 miles east of Cleveland) to Everett, WA (north of Seattle.) Peggy and I delivered a trailer in Cleveland, picked one up in Albion and were on our way west Mon. morning. Our route took us back through Milwaukee about 24 hrs. and 1000 miles since leaving there Sunday night. We arrived in Everett about noon Wed. Peggy had promised to take the grandkids down to our house for Memorial Day Weekend, so she had to fly back to Champaign. We spent a relaxing afternoon in Seattle at the movies - Spidey3 and Shrek3. Peggy’s flight was 10:00 p.m. from SeaTac. I got her there about 8:00, accompanied her to the check-in, and was on my way to Boise, ID - 530 miles bobtail (no trailer.) With sleeping, it took me till Thurs. afternoon to get there, but the trailer wasn’t quite ready anyway - hot off the assembly line. Good timing. It wouldn’t have done me any good to have arrived any earlier. But I phoned ahead to Dallas about the logistics of delivering this trailer. Bad timing!--no-one will be around till TUES to receive it in Dallas. Normally someone would meet me on Saturday, but this is a holiday weekend, so everyone is leaving town. It’s okay. I’m having a leisurely 1700 mile drive to Dallas. There are relatives along the way, so we shall see what connections I can make once I leave Salt Lake City today… Meanwhile back home, Peggy has arrived with Jadyn, Treighton and Echo - our 3 youngest grandkids. Wish I were there! - but paradoxically I’m glad to be on this trip…
Now Sunday night. I had breakfast Saturday morning in Fort Collins, CO with Aunt Norma. Uncle Dave had already left for a hiking/camping trip. Norma picked me up from Wal-Mart and we went across the street to “The Back Porch Restaurant,” a place familiar to me. We had had a big family event there for Uncle Curly’s 80th birthday a couple years ago. My time with Aunt Norma was brief - only a couple hours, but wonderful. She gave me Cousin Judy’s phone number. I was able to connect with Judy & Rich in Denver on my way south. That was a great reunion. Judy is just 3 mo. older than me. She guided my by phone to a vacant store to park the truck & trailer. She drove me to their home. We sat on the back patio, under the 2nd floor deck. Judy & Rich were working on the yard that day, but there was plenty of time to visit and eat sandwiches. I played a few fiddle tunes while Rich & Judy worked. It was just great to see them and catch up a little on our lives. Now it is Sunday evening. I have been driving at a very leisurely pace, stopping to sleep, fiddle, eat, stroll. But tomorrow I have plans to park near in Allen, TX and will spend the day at Tim & Dana’s house (Peggy's cousin.) It would’ve been nice to be home for the long weekend, but I can’t complain about the way it worked out.
Now we’re about caught up… The weekend of May 20 Peggy and I rendezvoused in Milwaukee for Angela Holdmann’s wedding - a fireman’s daughter marries a policeman’s son. I was routed into Milwaukee on our truck; Peggy took a train up from home. I got in early. Mark picked me up Sat. morning, took me back to the house and showed me our accommodations. Mark & Janet are highly neat and organized. They prepared their immaculate Jayco RV trailer behind the house for us. They also made their 2nd car available to us, so I picked up Peggy at noon. We went from the train station to UW-Milw to drop off a young woman who needed a ride from the train, then onward to the wedding rehearsal, and to the groom’s parents’ house for a nice dinner. Mark & Janet are our great friends whom I met 25 years ago, when they were just starting their family. Mark was my violin student - that’s how we met. He had inherited his grandfather’s violin and wanted to learn to play. Angie is their 3rd child to be married - only 2 more to go. Each of the 5 learned different instruments - violin, piano, clarinet, viola, trumpet - and each was quite accomplished at his or her instrument - especially the 3 boys. I played with Luke (violist, but architecture major at UW-Milw on a 4-year music scholarship) in the string quartet for Angie’s wedding. Tim (trumpet / HS soph.) played a couple solos accompanied by the quartet. Ben (great clarinetist, but now on the fire dept. like his dad & grand-dad) and his wife Sue sang in the wedding. Amazingly, upon meeting the other violinist and the cellist of our quartet, friends of Luke, we discovered that I went to UW-Milw at the same time as the cellist’s mom, Anita. She and I were viola majors at the same time, so I knew her well. Small world... Sunday morning was a flurry of ladies doing their hair, picking up food, flowers, all kinds of stuff for the wedding - I wasn’t involved, so I went to church alone. Peggy stayed behind to watch 2-yr-old Holly, Mark & Janet’s first grandchild. Angie is a striking beauty and was the quintessential lovely bride. Joe was in his Marine dress blues. (He is out of the Marines after 4 years and getting ready to be a policeman.) The wedding was at the Holdmanns’ church, but officiated by Joe’s childhood Lutheran pastor. The reception afterwards was at a large hall in Germantown. Wow! What a party. It was a huge, sit-down meal. We were seated at a table with Mark’s eldest brother, his wife and step-daughter, Mark’s uncle, his wife and Mark & Janet’s elderly neighbor. There was a DJ. Dancing followed dinner; that’s about when we left.
Peggy and I drove Janet’s car to our truck, parked it for later retrieval, and we took off for Cleveland. I had a really good load - 2500 miles from Albion, PA (100 miles east of Cleveland) to Everett, WA (north of Seattle.) Peggy and I delivered a trailer in Cleveland, picked one up in Albion and were on our way west Mon. morning. Our route took us back through Milwaukee about 24 hrs. and 1000 miles since leaving there Sunday night. We arrived in Everett about noon Wed. Peggy had promised to take the grandkids down to our house for Memorial Day Weekend, so she had to fly back to Champaign. We spent a relaxing afternoon in Seattle at the movies - Spidey3 and Shrek3. Peggy’s flight was 10:00 p.m. from SeaTac. I got her there about 8:00, accompanied her to the check-in, and was on my way to Boise, ID - 530 miles bobtail (no trailer.) With sleeping, it took me till Thurs. afternoon to get there, but the trailer wasn’t quite ready anyway - hot off the assembly line. Good timing. It wouldn’t have done me any good to have arrived any earlier. But I phoned ahead to Dallas about the logistics of delivering this trailer. Bad timing!--no-one will be around till TUES to receive it in Dallas. Normally someone would meet me on Saturday, but this is a holiday weekend, so everyone is leaving town. It’s okay. I’m having a leisurely 1700 mile drive to Dallas. There are relatives along the way, so we shall see what connections I can make once I leave Salt Lake City today… Meanwhile back home, Peggy has arrived with Jadyn, Treighton and Echo - our 3 youngest grandkids. Wish I were there! - but paradoxically I’m glad to be on this trip…
Now Sunday night. I had breakfast Saturday morning in Fort Collins, CO with Aunt Norma. Uncle Dave had already left for a hiking/camping trip. Norma picked me up from Wal-Mart and we went across the street to “The Back Porch Restaurant,” a place familiar to me. We had had a big family event there for Uncle Curly’s 80th birthday a couple years ago. My time with Aunt Norma was brief - only a couple hours, but wonderful. She gave me Cousin Judy’s phone number. I was able to connect with Judy & Rich in Denver on my way south. That was a great reunion. Judy is just 3 mo. older than me. She guided my by phone to a vacant store to park the truck & trailer. She drove me to their home. We sat on the back patio, under the 2nd floor deck. Judy & Rich were working on the yard that day, but there was plenty of time to visit and eat sandwiches. I played a few fiddle tunes while Rich & Judy worked. It was just great to see them and catch up a little on our lives. Now it is Sunday evening. I have been driving at a very leisurely pace, stopping to sleep, fiddle, eat, stroll. But tomorrow I have plans to park near in Allen, TX and will spend the day at Tim & Dana’s house (Peggy's cousin.) It would’ve been nice to be home for the long weekend, but I can’t complain about the way it worked out.
posted by Trucking Fiddler at 7:05 PM
3 Comments:
Small world. You should stop in and see Douglas Cox, the violin maker, if you ever get up into New England. He has a really neat place out in the woods. I think I remember Colin from Cyrus Forough days. Just 10 days before we head to Korea for Jeremy's wedding. I hope you can make it back this way for the reception. Chris and his girlfriend are going to play.
"It's a small world after all..." Speaking of weddings, tonight (June 1) is Canaan's big night. It was nice knowing him, wasn't it?
nice one !!
keep it up :)
trucking Charleston
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