respublica

Windshield Wipers!

Several weeks ago I was heading up to Edwardsville and when I got some what short of Maryville it started raining. Then I suddenly saw the drivers side windshield wiper slip out of its frame. It didn't fall off, but was pretty useless and scared me really really badly. There was no real place to pull over so I kept going, praying that the rain did not come down in torrents. I finally was able to pull over in the Bobby's Frozen Custard parking lot and tried to fix this myself. No luck. So I looked around for any gas station or some auto place and it took me a while to finally realize there was a body shop behind Bobby's. The man was nice enough to fix the wiper, but I knew it was just a matter of time before I had to get new ones. Which I did some time later.

All this back story because while driving yesterday I heard Charlie Brennan on KMOX talking about wipers. He and another of his co-hosts mentioned a Haywood Banks song about wiper blades! They laughed about this song but as soon as I got home I looked it up and sure enough, Banks was lamenting the problems with wiper blades. I love this and it is so true. It also gave me some relief that others have this issue too.

Here is a link to Banks singing the Wiper Blade Song.

I'd never heard of him before and do not know why he has cereal all over his face, but it is what it is.

Old time music

Dale took accordion lessons when he was a kid as many did back in those days. Girls took piano lessons, boys accordion lessons. At least they did in the Chicago area. He kept his bright red and shiny instrument in its case all these years. When he or we moved, so did the accordion. It rarely came out of its case except for one time when Katie had a high school party and he interrupted them with a loud accordion song.

Well, a few months ago when Katie was in town, she asked about this thing and Dale said he had been wanting to get it worked on but hadn't gotten around to it. As luck would have it one of her best friend lives in Webster Groves just down the street from music place which repairs and tunes accordions. This friend came and picked it up, took it to the music store to be repaired. Katie covered this work as a birthday present for Dale.

He picked it up yesterday and hasn't put it down since. Even this morning while still in pajamas he's been playing.

Now this is oddly funny

You can rig up iPhone speakers with a whole lot of odd stuff should you need them. It's interesting in a weird way and I may try a few of them to see if it's true. Actually I rarely use my phone as a speaker for music or news, but I know many do. 

Many of these sound amplifiers are probably sitting around your house. For instance: paper towel roll, metal mixing bowl, solo cup, mason jar. The science is, they are not actually amplifiers but they boost the quality of the sound and make it sound fuller.

This is so true

But if I recall, this show was followed by Gunsmoke which was terrific and were you aware that Gunsmoke was on for 20 years?! 1955-1975

Last Sunday a large number of people came to Holy Cross in Collinsville for a concert by Concordia Seminary's special choir, Laudamus. Yesterday a big crowd filled the seminary chapel to listen to the Concordia University Nebraska's A Cappella Choir. Beautiful music both Sundays.

Holy Cross

Concordia Nebraska

45 rpms are 70 this year

Remember the 45 rpm records? Usually black vinyl but kind of wax-y. They showed up 70 years ago in 1949 and became a hit. Juke boxes used them, teens got the record player to play them on and they were at every party.

I found one of my old ones recently. I hope I find more even though there is nothing around to play them on anymore.

In the Big Inning

Last night the students in grades 1-4 at Christ Community Lutheran School in Webster Groves put on their annual musical, an operetta of sorts before a packed house. There were so many people in attendance there was no where to park in either of the two large parking lots. I ended up in a nearby neighborhood I was totally unfamiliar with. The many people were there for a reason, this was a spectacular production for which the kids had been rehearsing for months. There are approximately something over 300 kids in these grades and they were all in this baseball themed musical. You would not have believed how professionally they sang and acted. No hesitation, no scared/quiet voices. This was amazing.

In the end, the 4th graders were the lead because this is their last year on the Webster campus. Next year they head to the Kirkwood branch of CCLS and that includes our oldest grandson, Christian.

Here are a couple of pictures taken after the operetta ended with the 4th graders (and there are 50 of them) making a silly pyramid.

Christian is on the top left, arms out, cap in hand.

Then who is the one to leap off into thin air? Christian

Here's how things looked, the kids in the play were across the front and covered both right and left sides.

Can you hear what we hear?

My sister gave me the Amazon Echo device for my birthday this year and I have used it for fun stuff like questioning it about the weather and sports scores and listening to KMOX. But now I am loving the Echo while I've used my Amazon Prime account to stream Christmas music, music which I stream for free through the house.

I plan to take it outside and plug it in by our Christmas Tiny Town display and shoot music out into the dark. We have had many parents and kids walking through our tiny town this year and staying for a long while while the kids played with the tractors and cow we have out there by the barn. The speaker is really good so I'm hoping it works.

All I have to do is say, "Alexa"! Play Classic Christmas Carols" and it begins. Cool

This floor just sings

Outside the door of Holy Cross Lutheran School's music director is a brand new floor. It's been newly waxed and shiny, ready for school to begin. And, Mrs. Shimkus went to work making the floor sing.

If there was any doubt over where her room is, this settles it.

This can't be true!

But it is. Oh my gosh.

John Kerry brought 60's singer James Taylor to France with him this week to try and make amends for the US not being at the Paris world wide unity march. He had Taylor sing, "You've Got a Friend". The Huffington Post headlined this ridiculousness this way: "John Kerry Decides the Best Way to Apologize to France is to have James Taylor Perform."

Also as he left for Paris he told reporters he wanted to give a big hug to the French people.

The 60's are long over folks.