2024 Thanksgiving with the Friedmans

We were invited to celebrate Thanksgiving this year with Lillian's in-laws again. This time we met at Louis Friedman and Leslie Vogelman's beautiful home in Sandy Springs. It is the home our son-in-law Jordan grew up in with his brothers Adam and Daniel. (Last year with also celebrated with the Friedmans -- at Dan and Rosie's.

This ranks among the greatest Turkey Day feasts of my lifetime! We started with a salad made by Rosie (wife to Dan, Jordan's brother). Rosie had "massaged" the kale -- I didn't know that was a thing! -- with lemon and oil. She sprinkled it with nuts she had fried in olive oil and infused with honey. Delicious. 

Sheila brought a cranberry relish the she makes from orange zest and fresh cranberries and that we keep around the house throughout fresh cranberry season. She also cooked a delicious cranberry sauce. Everyone (except me) seemed to enjoy Sheila's deviled eggs that were garnished with fried shallot crumbs that Lillian had prepared. 

Lillian brought a big pan of Mac & cheese that was to kill for. She also had plain mashed potatoes as well as a dish of mashed potatoes toped with very nice sour cream topping. Lillian also brought a pot of those wonderful green beans in a tomato sauce.

Jordan's brother Dan was in charge of the turkey. It was cooked to perfection. So moist and good.  And the huge quantity of homemade stuffing/dressing was delicious. 

In looking at the pictures I realized that I somehow missed Leslie's sweet potato casserole, but Sheila said it was very good. Don't worry about me though. I still managed to eat myself into a near coma.

The desserts included two different pecan pies by Lillian. She claimed one didn't turn out quite right, but the one I tasted was about as good as anything that I've ever eaten. There was also Leslie's traditional and tasty apple cake. Leslie also made some wonderful toffee bar/cookies.  Sheila brought along some of her delectable ginger snaps and Lillian had a bowl of "Expresso Cream" that made a topping for the cookies (or anything else) that was to kill for.

I am aggravated that I failed to get some organized pictures of everybody. 

After the meal we gathered in the Friedmans' music room and enjoyed some singing and playing by Jordan and Dan and Lillian. Lillian sang a gorgeous rendition of "Feed the Birds" from Mary Poppins. I remember us singing "I'll Fly Away", "Vincent" and several other songs, including a little song requested by two-year-old Graham "Bim Bam." Here's an online version I found of that:

Lillian with baby Neil.

Lillian & Jordan get in some practice with Neil -- they are expecting their own baby in May!

Lillian helped Sheila prepare her deviled eggs. The two cranberry dishes are also in the picture.

Finally they garnished each egg with a few pieces of fried shallot.

I thought the Dan's turkey was mighty tasty looking and was wonderfully moist.

It is grossly unfair to Graham that I have so many pictures of Neil. Somehow my Graham pictures are all a blur.

Clockwise from the green casserole dish: Mac & Cheese Kale and Nut Salad, Turkey, bowl of stuffing/dressing, sweet potato casserole, deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, mashed potato with sour cream and chives topping, green beans in tomato sauce.

Jordan and Lillian singing.

Wedding Venue?

Our daughter Lillian and her fiancé, Jordan Friedman are planning a wedding for this fall. They haven't yet chosen the site for the ceremony. Today Lillian, with two of her close friends, Hillary Sawyer and Russell Evans with me and Sheila walked around the old waterworks building on Jackson Hill right in the heart of Rome. The city has remodeled the old building into an event center. They haven't hosted a wedding yet.

The old building has several things going for it, in my book anyway.

57 years ago our friend Michael Burton talked the city fathers into allowing the Rome Art League to host a coffee house for young folks in the deserted old building on city property at the top of the beautiful wooded hill off Turner McCall Boulevard above the Oostanaula River. Mike and Carolyn and their friends got busy hanging burlap to cover the rough walls, building a small stage in one corner, collecting small tables, borrowing sculpture from noted Rome artist MacLean Marshall to adorn the space, and recruiting for outstanding folk singers like, ahem, Terrell Shaw, Cleve Burton, Richard Ware, Gary Smith, Tony Baker and others.

Cleve Burton and I were probably singing something like "Ain't No More Cane On This Brazos"

Tony Baker

In the intervening years Jackson Hill and the adjacent Burwell Creek area has become one of my favorite places. So much so that when the city considered in the 2000s the idea of selling off part of the property to developers I helped organize a political action group, "Save Rome's Central Park," to oppose that.

Here are some of our pictures from to day.

 You will find more here:

The Star Spangled Banner

 And here:

The World's Largest Coffeehouse

 And here:

For Gary

And a little, very recently, here:

Christmas and Hanukkah 2022

Mother's Day 2023

Lillian and Jordan joined us for an evening at the Rome Little Theatre's production of Sister Act starring our friend Beth McCain last night... 

Lillian greets Beth out front are the show...

Sheila with Beth

It is fun to be Lillian Shaw's father when she visits RLT where she is beloved...

The blurred fellow in the background is Lillian's longtime friend Russell Evans , who nailed the role of the cop who falls for Delores/Sister Mary Clarence.

...and stayed over for Sunday morning with us. 

While Sheila and I were at church, Lil and Jordan concocted a delicious brunch of waffles with egg frittatas and fruit with a butter-cream sauce for the waffles. Yum!

Brannon and the Grandgirls FaceTimed with us in the afternoon to wish Sheila a Happy Mother's Day. I  have some screenshots from the FaceTime but they are on Sheila's iPad... watch for those pics. 

Carmina Burana & meeting Jordan's Folks

Today Sheila I drove to Emory University's Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts to hear the university chorus and orchestra present Carmina Burana; what a powerful performance! Lillian and Jordan sang in the chorus. 

Afterwards we enjoyed meeting Jordan’s parents, Lou and Leslie, and shared a meal and conversation with them at a nearby restaurant. It’s easy to see how Jordan turned out to be such a fine young man; his parents are warm, interesting, and interested folks. I wish we’d thought to get a picture of all six of us, but we did do the selfie thing with J&L before we headed back home.

Saturday Song: I Could Be Jewish For You

I love listening my daughter Lillian sing. She has a beautiful voice and is a wonderful actor. Her song interpretations are nuanced and intriguing, and, in this case, very humorous. From the perspective of 2023 it is especially fun. Lillian met Jordan a couple of years after recording this song, and is now engaged to that fine young man -- of Jewish heritage. Though I'd advise him not to try to guide Lillian's convictions; she has always had a mind of her own.

Here Lillian performed "I Could Be Jewish For You" by Nikko Benson on April 13, 2018 at the Atlanta Workshop Players Barefoot Playhouse...

John McCutcheon at Eddie's Attic.

It was fun to treat Lillian and Jordan to supper and a John McCutcheon concert. Jordan was not familiar with John's music, and I think we've made a convert. He and Lillian had already picked up John's ancient LP The Wind That Shakes the Barley at an antique shop, adding to their growing vinyl collection. Lillian, being our daughter, has known John's music her whole life. Once about a decade or so ago she and Brannon accompanied Sheila and me to his concert in Rutherford, New Jersey where he shared a stage with two other favorites, Pete Seeger and Tom Paxton. John and Tom are working on a joint album right now that should be out about Labor Day this year.

We got take-out from Siam Thai for dinner and took it with us to Eddie’s Attic.

Should have tried to get a picture of John with each instrument he played. That would have required more pictures.

He made plain with the first song -- an ancient folk song "The Cuckoo is a Pretty Bird" -- that this would be a storytelling experience as well as a musical experience. As he sort of absently plucked the banjo between verses he talked of his grandson Willie, and the Voyager Golden Record, and Carl Sagan and more.

2. The second tune was his topical song about the attempted murder of 

Malala Yousafzai. 

3. Then a great old guy's song: "I'm Too Old To Die Young". The audience -- pretty long in the teeth themselves, were invited to sing along.

4. In the times of "The Troubles" about the Irish "Troubles"

5. John's song about his Cuban refugee father-in-law's first day at the Georgia steel mill and his first experience with segregated restrooms.

6. I Am Ukrainian Now. (Me too.)

He played guitar, banjo, piano, hammered dulcimer, and autoharp tonight. 

7. Hammered dulcimer: (instrumental)

8. Hammered Dulcimer: (Library Book / Silvertone guitar story) Woody Guthrie's Pastures of Plenty (John's favorite Guthrie song) 

9. Nimrod Workman, coal miner, fought in the Battle of Blair Mountain -- learned this song from him. 

I have sorta known the union song, "Step by Step" for decades, I suppose. John invited us to sing-a-long on parts and I did BUT... I am ashamed to admit that I have never been sure of some of the words. I remember wondering at the words before. I sang the vowels but left some of the consonants sort of indeterminate in places. I pretty sure I've heard John sing this song several times, and I know I have heard Pete Seeger sing it. This time I consulted Mr. Google after the concert. What a wonderful song about cooperative striving for the common good. Here are the words which were adapted from the preamble to the 1870 constitution of the first US mineworkers union:

Step by step, the longest march
Can be won, can be won
Many stones can form an arch
Singly none, singly none
And by union what we will
Can be accomplished still
Drops of water turn a mill
Singly none, singly none

10. Hammered Dulcimer (imnstrumental)

11. With Kerry Newcomer "Camino De Santiago De Compostela"

Walking with ashes -- Our joys, our doubts, our trials. 

12. (request) "The Night John Print Died"

13. I'll Write You a Great Song When You're Dead

14. Marjorie Taylor Greene -- "She's got the hots for Putin."  Tom Paxton said he had to get in on this song so he wrote a verse. I hope the CDC comes up with a vaccine for Marjorie, Marjorie Taylor Greene.

15. (A palate cleanser) -- Krispy Kreme 

16. Christmas In the Trenches

17. The Great Storm is Over

18. Encore: (request) Leviathan (That Whale Song on the Dulcimer)

Eighteen numbers! An hour and a half. Fun!

We bought John's two latest albums: Bucket List and Leap. Here we got to pose with John for a picture afterwards as we have done now several times over the years.

Here are a few pictures from our history with John McCutcheon (and this is probably not half of them):

November 2011, Rutherford, NJ

In Knoxville, TN, December 2014

Red Clay Theater, Duluth GA, July 2016.

My 2018 birthday present from Sheila.

John's in here somewhere: 2019 The Craddock Center at Cherrylog, GA.

Pandemic concert in 2021-- virtually there.

Christmas and Hanukkah 2022

 It was wonderful to get to share Christmas and Hanukkah this year with Lillian and Jordan. Unfortunately we could only share the holidays "virtually" with Brannon, John, and our Grand Girls - Clemmie, Ruthie, and Suzie. But I am thankful that we can use FaceTime to "make do". Here are a few pictures and even videos of our holiday celebrations together -- physically and spiritually. 

Brannon sent this and the next two pictures of the way Santa  presented the gifts for the GrandGirls. They have practically worn out the light green "Nugget" set of cushions during the last year. These wonderful foam cushions can be made into a couch or chairs, of course, but better yet they can be used as construction elements for "Little Pig" houses, playscapes for climbing, jumping, and sliding, puppet theaters, tents, dog and kitty houses, and more. So Santa brought a whole new set to double the possibilities, this time in a darker shade of green. And he used his fertile imagination to make a Christmas Tree  out of old and new.

Meanwhile Aunt Lil and Jordan sent a complementary group of cushions that make a castle (Jordan's business manufactures these!) Brannon & John may need to build an addition to their abode to house these Christmas gifts.

Here one of Santa's elves poses with the "Nugget Tree"

FaceTime screen shots do not make for prizewinning photography, but perhaps they can give a taste of the joy we shared electronically Christmas morning.

Mama's iPhone and empty boxes are great Christmas morning toys as well.

Clemmie mugs for the iPad in front of her new "castle".

Ruth showed off her new 60s short-skirted Barbie, but hid her face. We were soon able to turn this into a game of "Peep-eye" (or "Peek-a-Boo")

The girls sometimes get right in the iPad's face...

... Suzie has gotten into brushing her teeth and Clem is enjoying a chocolate coin.

Christmas afternoon we decided to take a walk on Jackson hill. We parked at the intersection of Ross and Dogwood Streets and walked up to the old Water Works -- with commentary from yours truly on his adolescent acquaintance with the hill. We walked across the top of the big 1890s water tank where the hilltop American flag flies. We peeped through the windows of the remodeled waterworks event space that in the late sixties held the Rome Art League coffee house where I used to sometimes sing. Then walked around the old empty and topless tank below it. Since the sixties I've thought there should ve a concert space there. I wonder what an acoustical engineer could do to take advantage of the great reverb in that tank and yet keep unwanted noises under control.

Jordan and Lillian experiment with the reverb of the tank with one of my favorite mournful songs, Stephen Foster's "Hard Times Come Again No More".  I first labeled this a "folk" song momentarily forgetting it was composed by Foster. I first learned it, I think, from a Peter Yarrow album, but Bob Dylan, Jennifer Warnes and many others have recorded it. Foster has been a favorite of mine since childhood. I remember reading a children's biography of Foster in third or fourth grade.

And Lil plays with her echo.

We sang some too, but didn't record it. :-)

Back home it was time to celebrate the eighth day of Hanukkah, which in 2022 coincides with Christmas. 

Jordan sang a Hanukkah blessing. He & Lil also sang another longer Hanukkah song.

...and lit all the candles of the Menorah.

Lil & Jordan were thrilled to raid our LP collection for some classics to take home with them. I see "Famous Blue Raincoat" Jennifer Warnes' cover of Leonard Cohen songs.; "Still Crazy..." Paul Simon, "First Take" by Roberta Flack, "9 to 5" by Dolly Parton, "Sweethearts of the Rodeo" by the Byrds, Sweeney Todd cast album.