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Sunday, February 18, 2018

Coincidence

Every once in a while someone comes into my life that forces me to consider other forces at play. If I were a religious person I could say something like, "It's God's doing," or something like that. I seriously doubt that something omnipotent would waste its time with my petty curiosity when there are so many serious problems in the world that need immediate attention.

After a hiatus of several years from the music group I play with, Over The Waterfall,  I needed to come back and play. I have walked away from music for periods as long as a year without even touching an instrument (although I sing in the car a lot) I always come back. The band has existed for at least 25 years in one form or another. When I started to play with them again there was this "new" guy in the band and a few of the veterans. About a year and a half ago we were practicing in my garage and toward the end of the practice Erik, our Irish flute and penny whistle player notices my father's old license plate from Delaware that I had on the wall (part of my "garage chic" decor)  and asks me, "Are you from Delaware?"
"Yeah"
"Me, too!"
"Which part?"
"Wilmington."
"Me, too!"
"Where did you go to high school?"
"Brandywine."
"Me, too!!"
"Really?!?"
I went over to my record shelf (lots of old vinyl LPs) and pulled out my 1969 senior yearbook, the "Azurean," and opened it up. It turns out that we had some of the same teachers, but 18 years apart. Erik was also in the high school jazz band, the Brandywine Blazers, which added to his musical credibility. Many, if not most, of the musicians in that group went on to be at least semi professional musicians. They had some serious talent. Erik also plays saxophone and a few other instruments.

It also turns out that Erik was born the summer I graduated. In fact he lived one block from my girlfriend's house and I probably heard him crying at that distance. His father worked for the same company and at the same location as my father and where I was working that summer. That was 48 years ago so now he is all grown up and has a lovely family of his own and only lives a couple of miles from me. He is a teacher by profession, but plays in several musical groups around the area and is another gem in our community.

In all these years since I left the East Coast I have rarely run into anyone from Delaware let alone someone from the same high school and even then with someone with whom I had so much in common. Coincidence? I guess so.
Here he is playing Celtic music with one of our fiddle players at one of our local venues. Now I need to figure out how to upload music from a cd to blogger and then you can hear something.

20 comments:

  1. Yes, please, play for us. (I promise not to sing.)

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  2. What a great post today ! So much fun.

    cheers, parsnip

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  3. That is SO cool. I prefer to call those kinds of things "serendipity" because I like the "dippity" sound of it :) Fish-lovers could call it a "fluke" though . . .

    Regardless, it's very nice to discover the connections. My father always started conversations off with, "So, are you related to the "insert surname here" from "insert nearby community here"? It got the ball rolling every time. And he'd usually find a connection of some kind to somebody he knew.

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  4. YouTube works for me, although I have to run it through iMovie first. I barely understand how to do it, but once it is "finished" I export it to my desktop, the upload it to YouTube from there. iMovie lets you import image files pretty easily, you can make a little slideshow with titles pretty easily over your audio files. If you don't have a Mac I can't help you.

    Recently I've been getting some of my old high school band mates together for an upcoming class reunion, but we were all in the same class, not 18 years apart!

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  5. That is pretty cool And it all started with the license plate décor. Bet you never imagined something like that when you hammered in those nails.

    Glad to hear you are back at something you love. Our daughter recently started back in to music after several years without it in her life. It just seems as though she was missing a part of her that she loved. It would be great to hear your group.

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  6. Very cool! It's amazing just how small the world can be.

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  7. I really enjoy stories like this, of connections that you would never imagine, just proving once again that the world isn't a very big place after all. I've experienced a couple of those moments too. I'd really like to hear some of that music, the fiddle and penny whistle combination really appeals to me. Unfortunately I have no hidden musical talent, the only musical instrument I can play is the radio.

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  8. anne marie, Who ever would have thought I would have a home boy living so close?

    onevikinggirl, It might be a while before I figure it out. I'm not very tech savvy, but I won't give up.

    angryparsnip, Thank you!

    jenny_o, Dippity is a fun word, isn't it? I sometimes (often, actually) do what your father did with the same results. I think its because I've been around and am old. Mostly old.

    Professor, Alas, I have a PC, so I'm probably on my own. We have had a lot of members of the band over the years with the size ranging from about five to twelve or more. Once we had four fiddle players and our ages have ranged from about 12 to 80. Currently there are six of us.

    magiceye, Thank you!

    chlost, It's funny that something I couldn't get rid of would spark an unplanned coincidence. The music is always there even if it is way in the background. Good to see your blog again.

    Debra, It is a strange thing in a country of 320 million or a world of 7.5 billion. It makes my head spin.

    Shammickite, It happens regularly, but this one was particularly close. I will do my best to figure how to transfer the music from CD to this blog. It should be easy, but I haven't figured it out yet. You can always hum along with the radio.

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  9. That's amazing! "Small world" just doesn't cover it.

    I hope you are able to upload your music CD! As Professor Batty says, uploading it YouTube is probably your best bet. If you have a PC, you can open Windows Movie Maker, import the music into it, and publish it to YouTube - here's how: https://youtu.be/Y_jpH3T_VQg.

    Hope we get to hear your music soon! :-)

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  10. Diane, Thanks for the tip! I'll try it in a day or two when I can work at it for a bit.

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  11. Wow - 25 years and going strong. I'm glad to know it's called you back, Jono. Enjoy the musical zone.

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  12. Wait a second ... you went to Brandywine?!? Just kidding ... but what a nice coincidence, proving you're never very far from home.

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  13. How fun to find someone from 'home' but then to find they walked in the same halls, sat in the same chairs is remarkable.

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  14. Jono:

    I would relish hearing your music if you are so inclined.

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  15. I'm looking forward to hearing the music, too!

    In Germany, there's a saying for stories like that: The world is but a tiny village.

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  16. Robyn, Thanks! It has always been fun.

    Tom, And sometimes you are not far from my old home, either!

    Toni, All of a sudden it was like gaining a younger brother I never knew.

    Donna, Who would have thought?

    Pipe Tobacco, I think I need a bit more education on how to do it. I won't forget that I owe it to everyone to at least give it a good try.

    Pixel Peeper, It is such a true saying!



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  17. jenny_o, Dippity is a fun word, isn't it? I sometimes (often, actually) do what your father did with the same results. I think its because I've been around and am old. Mostly old.สมัคร D2BET

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