Catching Up

Today's high temperature was: 65

Breezy, cool, but sunny

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Last night it was 82 degrees in here and I turned on the A/C for an hour before I went to bed.  Left the bedroom window open and woke up this morning freezing!!
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Yesterday, I got my hair cut.  I went grocery shopping.  I have baking ingredients I need for making Mississippi Mud Brownies for Maddie's open house.  I ALWAYS make them for the kids open house.  Karen's friends ALWAYS look for them.  So...........hope I remember how, LOL.

Why are my eyes always red around them?

My lids are getting droopy.

My right eye (your left) is starting to look like a lazy eye--

must be that lid droops more than the other?

I'd like to use make-up to look a bit better, but for some reason,

I seem to be allergic to shadow, mascara and concealer

even though I have non-allergenic types.

I am really showing my age!!

I found some pictures of me going to a couple of Proms.

My Grandma got me this dress.  

She was shopping one day, saw it and called

my mother to ask if she could get it for me.

It was the loveliest shade of blue!

Really quite beautiful--satin and net

Note the cow in the left background, LOL

Country hick?

Moi?

 My Senior Prom formal.

It was the palest of blue-all very soft nylon.

The bands above and under the bodice

were silver.  It had a soft nylon strap across my

right shoulder.

It was Grecian style.

Did any of you wear the elbow length white gloves?

I think I thought I was Grace Kelly.

In those days, we had what we called the Junior and Senior Banquet and Prom.  It was held in our decorated gymnasium  The Sophomore class served us at the banquet--food prepared by our school cafeteria cooks.  Of course, with only 30-40 kids in each class, and a lot of us dating each other, it wasn't a very large group.  

My girls played dress-up with my formals and what is really neat, Maddie has both these formals in her dress-up box and her friends come up to me and tell me that the soft blue one (pictured above) was always their favorite to wear.  

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I remember the day, August 21, 2009.  Maddie was starting public school for the first time.  She was going into 8th grade (age 12) and decided she wanted to play in the band.  The director had told her they needed a French Horn player and she asked if she could borrow mine.

Thrilled?  Who me?

Music was the most important thing in my life, in school.  I had taken piano lessons, until my right index finger got cut off.  I had to quit and boy, was I glad!  I hated it.  Then when I was ten, in fifth grade, I started band.  The director took each of us kids, checked our "bite" and told me I should play the Mellophone--like a French Horn, but the bell goes off to the left and you finger with your right hand.

In 7th grade, I got to play in the High School band because they needed another French Horn player!!!  The "key" was different.  The fingering was different, the bell pointed to my right--I was hooked for life!!

In the 9th grade, my cousin graduated and asked if I wanted to buy her French Horn.  It was a true brass horn.  A Holton, made in Elkhorn, WI.  A really good quality--like they used to make back then.  I saved my allowances and did work for my Grandma and neighbor and got the required fifty dollars by the end of the summer.

I was told that a French Horn is one of the most difficult instruments to play.  Each of the three keys, one key or the other pressed down,  is used for several tones. If you press down the first key, you can play a D or F or B flat.  Most of the changes in the notes is done with your embouchure--how much you tighten or relax your lips.  I have been told by quite a few guys that I am a good kisser.  I credit all my years playing the Horn, LOL.

I played that Horn all through high school.  I played it at Michigan State--got to play in the orchestra--our high school band played mostly marches and overtures.  I practiced and played so much, my two bottom teeth became loose.  It was my life!!

When I graduated and my sister started fifth grade--she played it, but she didn't love it like I did.

Pammie played it in high school--but she didn't love it like I did.

I played it in the late 60's, when I went to Mott Junior College.  I played it in the 70's with the Flint Symphony Orchestra.  I played it in the 80's in a Community Band.  I played it in the 90's when I lived in Saginaw.

None of Karen's kids had been in the band.  And now--Maddie wanted to borrow my Horn!!!

You can tell by the dark gold color that is it solid brass.

It wasn't long and we were attending her first concert.

She looked quite a bit like I did, at that same age.

It brought back memories and tears to my eyes.

 See that little Asian boy off to her left.

That is Brian Tang.

She took private lessons and progressed.  All of a sudden, she was chosen to be in the second best band in high school AND marching band.  She was given a "better" double French Horn by the school  She was better than her Gramma ever was!!

 Then, her Sophomore year, she auditioned and was picked to play in the school's "best" band.
The Wind Ensemble...and there's Brian behind her--he plays 1st chair.  She could, but she refused to challenge him :-)  Noah, Drew, Maddie and Brian

Her last concert--Tuesday night.

Sorry the picture is fuzzy.

and Gramma had tears in her eyes once again, as Maddie

played the last notes of her life, on her school owned French Horn. 

You can see by the pictures that the double French Horns the bands use nowadays are all pretty and shiny.  They aren't completely brass.  They might be pretty, but I have had a professional Horn player tell me, "There is no truer Horn sound than what we get on the old, solid brass Horns," which is what he still plays.  A new double, solid brass French Horn would now cost well into the $5K range!!!

Holton H292 Merker-Matic Double French Horn l 
$4709.00

I've never played a double Horn.  It also has a thumb valve, to make reaching the very high and the very low notes, easier.  

So--this old gal (Horn) is over sixty years old.  She has been dropped and dented.  Just like her owner.  She has had her dents removed and been restored and then dented again in a school bus accident.  She has had many times, the cork under her valves replaced, restrung with cat gut, oiled and adjusted.  She still has a beautiful tone, but her owner can't play her very well anymore.

I want to give her the honor and respect she deserves--and that is not being stored in her case in my bedroom closet!  I am trying to find someone who can make her useful once again.

This has been a project of mine for the last 2 1/2 years.  I am still looking for someone to make her a lamp.  It seems easy to me--solder a brass tube on the back for the lamp wiring to go through, put it on a base and --------there she is.  

and...if I can get this done before I die, perhaps my sister or Pammie or even Madeleine might like to put her in their home.  

<but--none of them ever loved her like I do>