We are super excited about the El Dorado Civil War Encampment taking place at El Dorado Park in Long Beach this coming weekend (May 30-31)!  From what we are hearing, advertising has been significant (large ads in the LA Times Calendar), and they are expecting around 6000 spectators over 2 days. Last year was the first year for this event and we loved it!  It can only get better, and we hope friends and family will find time to come by and visit us, learn a little bit about the Civil War, and enjoy what is projected to be a wonderful weekend!  

By the way, if anyone takes the LA Times, on Thursday May 28, the Calendar section will run the ad again, and I would love a copy.  Please contact me if you can save one for me!

We will be out in the civilian area, a location as yet to be determined, and set up as Mrs Brewer’s Parlor.  We portray women at home during the 1860s. We have free educational materials for school kids, perform many of the “lost arts” of handcrafts and home craft, such as mending, knitting, crochet and tatting. We also will have available some of our books that Miss Pauline and I have put together over the years for sale for a small donation.  These books are created as keepsakes that will help keep history alive.  I’ve just been working on a reprint from a men’s periodical called “How To Wear The Beard” and another piece called “Nothing To Wear,” a humorous and satirical story originally published in 1857 chronicling the trials and tribulations of a young woman trying to decide which outfit will be just right. We can’t possibly relate to that these days, now can we ladies?

There will be a documentary film crew at the event, lots of food, mounted calvary, infantry, big booming cannons, famous generals and President Lincoln, displays, crafts, and tons of stuff to buy!

Melody will be with us on Saturday, and we will also be serving punch and cookies for Miss Pauline’s birthday between 1-3.  If you happen to find yourself with nothing to do, I hope you will consider this event.  It’s close by, at 605 and Spring Street, and is one of the largest encampments in terms of reenactors as well as square milage in Southern California.  Please visit Howitzers.com and click on the “Long Beach” link right at the top for more information, schedule of events, directions, etc.

In light of the fact that Mom has pretty much taken over this site and blog, I asked Dad to rename it (i.e. create a new header) that is more reflective of that status.  So, welcome to the newly renamed “Notes From The Melody Maker”!  The url remains the same.  He also added the “elsewhere” section on the right side bar, so you can find me elsewhere on the web.  

Enjoy!

Have you ever listened to the oldies station in your area?  Just for kicks, with the kid(s) in the back seat, rocking out to “Splish Splash” or “Wooly Bully” just because the music is funny, familiar, and somehow comforting?  For those of you not familiar with Southern California radio, KRTH 101, or “K-earth,” is the local oldies channel.  They set their playlist to 1965 and let ‘er rip.  Images on their website include The Beatles, Dirty Dancing, and The Beach Boys.  This is the station for folks who love the old days, nostalgia, Coca-Cola memorebelia, Ruby’s Diner, woodies and all things Happy Days.  Get the gist here?  This is the hits for kids who want to be-bop and meet at the sock hop for some good times and clean fun.

Yesterday, I was flipping around the channels and I heard the 1982 Hall & Oats hit song “Maneater.” 

On K-earth. 

It was a Marty McFly-playing-at-the-Enchantment-Under-The-Sea-dance moment.

Surely it’s a sign that end times are near.  No way it can be that the times they are a-changing, or even that I am just a-aging.  I’m looking for the 4 horsemen as we speak.

I’m about to rant and rave over a website I’ve been following for a few months now.  I had the pleasure of meeting Marcy, chief beautician and membership chairwoman at The Glamorous Life Association at the KCET taping of A Place of Our Own a couple months back.  I admire her wit, her humor, her sophistocated yet homey way of doing things.  She’s a mom, but not just any mom.  She’s a cool mom with a wicked sense of humor.

So anyway, Marcy is giving away a Kodak printer and I want to enter the contest to win it so I gotta make a post to get double points on the entry.  I figured I’d stroke the ol’ ego while I was at it and maybe I’d get some uber-love.  No?  Well, it was worth a shot. 

If you want to try to win the printer too, go to The Glamorous Life Association and follow all the directions.  And while you are at it, you can follow me on Twitter!  I’ve been there for a couple years.  My first tweet was on March 28, 2007 and was “ignoring the Howard Stern show that John is watching.”  Since then I’ve made a whopping 22 more posts!  Try not to fall asleep reading the history, I know it’s extensive…

That’s all for now, back to your regularly scheduled day.

This is Melody’s website as you know, but I have really taken it over as a general forum and blog for all my thoughts, not necessarily limited to Melody.  I’m not sure how it evolved this way, maybe one day I felt like I had something to say that was related to Melody in the most remote way, or I hadn’t updated the site in ages and felt like I should put something new up here.  I can’t really remember, but I’ve been asking myself the question lately “why do I do this?” when I don’t often write about Melody and her exploits.

I think I finally have the answer.  It’s taken me a while because I’m a thinker, not a spontaneous, clever and quick-thinking person.  Well, I’m clever, but I have to think about my cleverness and plot when I can use some trick of wit on the unsuspecting.  Melody’s a good candidate here because she doesn’t understand when my clever jokes fall flat.  She just laughs at me regardless of the level of real comedy and that boosts my ego somewhat.  Someone asked me one time what superhero power I’d like to have and my response was “I’d be able to go back in time 5 minutes and say that funny thing I thought about 5 minutes after the moment passed.” 

So after long deliberation – I think Dad asked me why I blog about nothing in particular at least three or four months ago while suggesting I get my own blog, hint hint – I have come to the conclusion that I blog here on Melody’s site because I want her to know what was going on in her life while she was growing up.  I’d love to have a window onto my mother and father’s lives as children, maybe even just to see the family dynamics as they were growing up.  I’ve heard lots of stories about Gram and Grandpa George and what they were like, and I have seen lots of pictures of them, but I didn’t know them very well, even though I wanted to know them.  They were older and lived 3000 miles away from us, so Auntie Kat and I didn’t have the luxury of just dropping in for the afternoon on Saturday like Melody does with her grandparents.  I feel the same about Grammie Hennie and Grandpa Jim (who was my Dad’s stepdad, I didn’t ever meet Grampie at all).  I loved visiting with them and they lived a little longer so I was able to know them as an adult, but still, I didn’t know them as well as I’d like to have.  I don’t know what they were like as parents, neighbors, aunts and uncles, friends.  I don’t know if my parents were model children or hell raisers.  I don’t know what their school experiences were really like, only the few things they might have shared with me, and I don’t know what their thoughts were as new parents in the late 60s.  Apply this to all my aunts & uncles, cousins and other relatives, and you might get the picture.  We live on the left coast while the rest of our family is on the East coast (like how I didn’t call it the “right” coast, ha ha?).

And that is why I blog here and not necessarily about Melody all the time.  I want Melody to have this record of what her parents and family were thinking, feeling and doing while she was growing up.  My mom suggested that I print these blogs out for Melody and I will at some point.  Currently we have it backed up regularly, so there’s no fear of losing anything in a disaster of electronic proportions.  Moreso, I have always been a bit introspective, thinking and writing is a great outlet for me.  I can go back over what I write and change it around and tweak it until it feels perfect to me, something I can’t do verbally. 

This is my legacy for Melody: a record of her mother’s thoughts and activities, usually involving Melody, with love and hope and all the crazy mixed up fears and worries of motherhood all rolled in for good measure. 

Thanks for reading!

For over a week now, I have been sick, down with a nasty cough, sore throat, congestion and fatigue like I haven’t had since I was in high school.  It’s like a mini version of mono.  When I had been home sick for 4 days, my mother asked me “have you gone to the doctor?” and of course I said “no.” You see, like so many others, I figured I had a bad cold.  I missed four days of work, and then on Saturday started to feel a lot better.  Through the week, Melody was sick off and on; one day fine, the next coughing & hacking, the next fine, the next running a fever.  On Saturday she seemed to be feeling better too.  

So we went to a birthday party with 20 kids and their parents.  I know, I know.

By Monday, I was back to work, but Melody was doing really poorly and I took off work to take her to the doctor and get some additional rest myself. Because of course, I was starting to not feel great again.  Melody has an ear & throat infection.  My husband said “since you have the same symptoms, don’t you think it’s possible you both have the same thing?”  But I ignored him like any good wife does.

To cut this story short, I finally went to the doctor today after working only partial days this week so far.  I have really got to get better!  I now have SIX prescriptions to deal with the virus (cold) that is in my throat and the sinus infection in my ears and nose.  

I should have just listened to my mother in the first place!

The United States Navy kicks butt!!  You are hereby forewarned.