Bill and I got home about 11:30 tonight. We definitely needed Sunday night to rest up, but we didn't need three more hours of rest that we got, sitting a mile from Mystic on 95 while a tanker rollover was cleaned up....

If I hadn't had to stop by the Seaport to look for my Mudcat t-shirt and leave my phone # in case it shows up, we might have missed the tie-up --- on the other hand we might have been involved in the crash....

This year I was working hard as a volunteer and couldn't get to a lot of music I would have loved to hear. But I didn't really mind. The volunteer work was fun and there was always some music around. And there were always friends around, it was marvelous, sort of like a huge Getaway.

My Must-Haves were Ballads on Saturday, Gospel Ship and the Flanders concert on Sunday. Somehow I managed not to have work assignments during any of those, also got to hear Island traditions, with the Georgia Sea Island Singers AND the Next Tradition. Those were all highlights of my weekend.

There were several groups scheduled with the GSI Singers for the Gospel Ship concert but they let GSI have a full 45 minutes. This was incredibly generous and a very good thing to do. The Greenmanville Church venue is beautiful and has terrific acoustics, hearing any performance there is likely to be rewarding. But with the Georgia Sea Islanders, it rang. We were just surrounded by great sound and great energy.

They made me cry on Saturday, when they demonstrated "hambone music," made by slapping different parts of one's body. The reason this music developed was that slave owners in the islands realized their slaves were using their drums to communicate and took away all the drums. Music, especially with percussion, was so terribly important to the slaves that they invented many ways to create percussion with their bodies, foot stamping, clapping, and this elaborate "hambone" music.

The Flanders symposium presentation and concert were also terrific. Dan, Bonnie and Nancy-Jean really made me realize what a treasure that collection of recordings represents. Nancy-Jean is a dynamite speaker, very witty and informative. Best of all, she sang in the Flanders Collection workshop. Have known her a long time and she's always been a bit shy about her singing, but she looked and sounded like a pro, no signs of nerves (very impressive N-J!) It made me so very happy to see her singing at the Mystic festival.

Had a chance to meet Danny Spooner. Look forward to having him visit here in July. He's planning to drop by the Royal Mile shantey sing on July 1, then will do an FSGW house concert here (our house) on July 31 (plug). Boy, am I looking forward to that after hearing him at Mystic.

There are two sides to any festival, the music and the people. Mystic is such a high, everyone is having a great time and you can't help feeling friendly toward the people you're sharing it with. One volunteer who was a total stranger, hugged me at the end of the Friday pub sing. We looked at each other and just grinned and she said, "I know. I dont even know you. It's just like that here, isn't it?"

This year I knew more people, and met even more. As Mmario says, Jim Rockwell of Ship's Company was there, plus Brian/Wotcha and another singer who comes to the Royal Mile Shanty Sings, with Bill that made five of us just from that one shantey sing in Wheaton, MD.

Then there were the Mudcat people, and the Getaway people, and the folks I know through mutual friends in D.C., and the folks I met while I was working, or chatted with on the Village Green, or just had to talk to because their music had said something special to me this year or last year, it goes on and on.... and each person looking so bright and shiny because they're at Mystic and having such a great time. It's really something.

Dick & Susan, thank you, thank you for talking us into going last year!

Saw a young loon near the docks, watched it dive half a dozen times, then saw it "walk" on the water and windmill its wings as it took off. We don't get many real loons -- the avian kind at least -- around D.C.!

I flat didn't want it to end. Dinner with Mmario was just right, kind of made the festival feeling last another couple of hours.

Well I feel like I should scratch all this and start all over, but I guess nothing would be adequate.

Rita Ferrara