Well, for a lapsed Mudcatter, the Getaway was a fun way to meet the faces behind the posts...but, just a "little" bit of dissent from the completely rosy posts above...

I've been coming to Getaways since '85 or '86, and though I'm also a 'Catter (or have been at times), I and a few others from FSGW who aren't on the Mudcat did have a bit of a "strangers at our own party" feeling. I was a daytripper this year, so didn't get to share the wonderful singing after hours that always goes on; I don't know how "integrated" those sessions were.

I realize that it's a mixed blessing; as the folks in the FSGW get older, have kids with soccer practice, jobs with deadlines, etc, it's been harder for the Society to find folks willing and able to organize, run and attend our events. The influx of new folks from the Mudcat has given the Getaway a welcome boost both financially and in song and musical diversity.

I guess it's just incipient Old Fogey-hood that makes me yearn for the days of MY first Getaways at Camp Letts, listening to Jonathan Eberhart and Barbara Karns jamming in Letts Lodge, eating Pete the Spy's latest (and always late) dinner extravaganza; hearing "Tubas in the Moonlight" from Marv and Kathy Reitz's jugband; Dave Olive performing as "Blind Harry Palms" doing a blues guitar and gaeda duet with Mark Gilston on "Please Don't Play A11"; someone who shall remain nameless setting fire to Dick Rodgers cheat sheet for the 40-something verse ballad he was trying to perform, Bob Hitchcock and the Cockettes doing "I Got Stoned and I Missed It" at the Sunday concert, and the debut of the Yorkist Ballad Charade Society, in which Sue West and I had supporting roles as Lord Randall's dead dogs...

Those days are gone; I hope that both Mudcatters and FSGW are forging new communal memories to share in the years to come. I would just like to second DeanC above, and suggest that mentioning non-Catters you shared songs with by name is one more way to widen the circle of friends. If someone on the Cat comes to DC from out of town and sees a name they heard about on Mudcat, that spark of familiarity can start a new round of sharing.