The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #91214   Message #1740058
Posted By: IvanB
13-May-06 - 03:07 PM
Thread Name: Video: Too Many Shadows (Jean Ritchie/kytrad)
Subject: RE: WATCH/LISTEN-Oldish Video-TooManyShadows(kytra
Jeanne, sadly my copy of Celebration is in far too poor shape to be a collector's item - at this point it consists of a collection of single or groups of a few bound sheets held together in a file folder. I can, with some certainty, say that both covers and all the pages are still there however.

I have a small anecdote regarding the collection that might interest you, though. My wife and I had two daughters six years apart, and from the time they started talking they would join us in singing together of an evening. When the girls were 5 and 11 we adopted two sibling boys who were 6 and 7. The boys came from a background of abuse and neglect and, as one might imagine, brought along lots of psychological and emotional baggage. For months they would sit silently, seemingly uninterested, during our family sings.

One night I did "Boston Beans," and the boys, rightly or wrongly associating it with eating beans and the attendant gas and other bodily functions which follow, thought it was wonderful. I'm sure it was partly the guilty pleasure gained from allusion to a slightly risque subject in polite company, but they began requesting the song just about every sing. It wasn't long before they were enjoying our sings as much as the rest of the family. So I have to thank you and your song for one of the many breakthroughs we had in integrating our sons into the family. Although they've scattered, all four kids still have an abiding love of music.