Celtic Soul.....just read your post. Hits me like more "Mudcat Magic"...which I'll explain SOON...no, REALLY!!!

I drove past the property today. A neighbor stopped by yesterday to tell me the house was gone. I printed out all of your posts to this thread.....and read them a few times before going over there. It's now a treeless sand lot...no trace of the plants and flowers. I did manage to get some of the Ramblin' Roses, Blue-bells, and a few of the baby lilacs last Wed. They'll have a new life with me here. It's clear to me that I was writing the obituary for my home and its "memory wall" last week. I am FINE with seeing the sandlot....thanks to all of you and the support here!!!

I'm gonna hang out at Mudcats, typing for a while tonight...not feeling very "focused" so am going to continue "blithering on..and eventually find my way to explaining what a potato peeler has to do with anything.

A couple years after my partner died, I bought my first computor ...and it terrified me! I had decided to learn what a computor was, because most jobs required some computor knowledge......and working the three jobs destroyed my feet, including, among other things, detaching my Achilles tendon. We thought, for a while, I wouldn't be walking again.

The first thing I did, after learning how to turn the computor ON, was to do a "search" on the internet for "Music...folk/blues". Within a few minutes...I found Mudcats.

Like most of us.....I felt "home" immediately. I found my way around the site and eventually into the forum. I found lyrics to some of those obscure songs my brother and I had learned, found some threads about those old camp songs...found lyrics and tunes to songs I had forgotten I knew....and even found "The Legend of Sam McGee" which had been one of his favorite recitations.
I found some of the same political arguments he and I had over the years in these "threads"....and found that people got mad at each other because of opposing STRONG views...just like my brother and me....and members here recognizing consistently that the love of music is a bond that ties us together...and keeps the door open...no matter how mad we get....just like my brother and me.
And .... it gave me back the music.

After about a month of quietly reading threads, I realized how absolutely hungry I was, for the music and the information here, and the knowledge, and the humor.......and the community.
Although I was still petrified of stuff I heard about the internet...and scams...and privacy invasion etc., I became a member...because it simply felt like "home" AND the design of this site made it EASY for me to understand HOW to join.

Up until then, I hadn't been playing any of my instruments....had simply turned the music off. There had been no dancing, or singing, or playing in my home and heart for a while after my partner died. It was a surprise to me that I was excited to find Mudcats, at a time when I had been going through life in a trance, internally numb.

An 8yr. old and Mudcats helped me turn the music back on.

After the fire, when I was finally able to replace the computor, (and with Joe Offer's help I got my "cookie" back)-- THANK YOU JOE, there was a piece of my history, saved from the fire. ALL of those threads I was "tracing", all of my archived Personal Messages sent and received were there.....right there!!

THANK YOU Max..for all the effort you put into the incredible DESIGN of this site, keeping it going, and ensuring the information is accessible to us.

THANK YOU Mudcat community, for giving me back my music, for the second time in my life.

THANK YOU Mudcat Community for taking the time to post ALL of that information and ALL of those "blue-clickies" that will allow me to rebuild my music library..... books and all.

It took me a while to realize that there's something else here. I have good friends in the "real" world, who enjoy listening to music, enjoy making music, enjoy going to music events, and get "excited" when they hear a neat piece of music or a good band. It's something we "do" together.

The difference in me is that music is part of who I am and is necessary to my existence. I'm not a performer, singer, nor a really good musician. But I have music in me. Unfortunately it took some "hard" times to recognize that,for me, there is eating, drinking fluids, breathing and music. I have found here at Mudcats......BUNCHES of human beings that feel exactly the same....and here..some four years later I understand why I was so excited at finding this community.