The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #12997 Message #112657
Posted By: Nancy-Jean
08-Sep-99 - 09:35 PM
Thread Name: Helen Hartness Flanders
Subject: RE: Helen Hartness Flanders
Frank, the book is not just talk. I don't know the first thing about finding a publisher. I am in the note-taking/interviewing/research stage but something exciting is taking place. I see a message. Putting aside all adolescent baggage, haven't all of our foremothers and fathers had something good to leave us. Helen Hartness Flanders saw the big picture. I am privileged to be seeing her dream. Every day comes another bit of the picture. What you said, Frank, is exactly what I am realizing. We who love tradition have an obligation to share our discovery. We sing with each other. We sign up for folk getaway week-ends. We attend folk festivals. Sometimes--oh,wow!--we bring along a few non-folkies. But do we carry the message in other ways--to people who didn't have a singing family like I did? It has occurred to me that one way of "giving back", might be to occasionally offer to organizations out in the nonfolkie world, for example, an evening of the old songs and descriptions of the bygone days when families drew close through singing. The story of my grandmother's ballad quest and what she learned about life and peoples' thirst for music would make for a nostalgic and thought-provoking talk. Any collector's story would be a good story. So there!