Thanks Joe.

I came to Mudcat around the same time as you. My first post was May 1997 but I had been lurking for a couple of months before that, so almost but not quite 30 years for both of us.

I have met a few Aussie Mudcatters, including Bob Bolton and some others including a woman whose name escapes me but she was one of the first to send me a Mudcat Secret Santa present. It was a lovely scarf, just my colour preference and I still have it. I think she was related to the wonderful, sadly now departed singer Ruby Hunter. I just looked up my photos. Her Mudcat name was Hilda Fish.

I also met the amazingly talented Alison Boyd, and Spider Tom at the same folk festival in 2000. And another year I met a man who was stationed in the Antarctic and visited our city where we met each other at a local blues event, along with a now sadly departed friend who was a blues enthusiast and clever and funny writer for a few national magazines.

I have had email and PM conversations with some people here in Oz and also over in the UK and USA. Other than that I just connect here on site and also reminisce sometimes about some of our dear departed Mudcatters whose personalities really made this site zing.

Long live Mudcat!