On this evening before the Thanksgiving Holiday here in the States, I am really thankful for Mudcat, and especially for this thread!

I am a new-comer to Mudcat. Early in September my daughter (who lives in Manhattan) stumbled upon a reference to a weekly session at a Bluegrass Shop that turns out to be a 10-minute drive from where I'm living in Florida. She emailed me the link to the thread she'd discovered, but I didn't get to check out the session for a month or so, and forgot about Mudcat until the first week of October. So I'm about two months old on Mudcat.

In this time, I

1. got directions to the Bluegrass Shop in St. Petersburg

2. re-connected with some former northern acquaintances by posting to a thread on Fox Hollow memories,

3. re-connected with some Helen Schneyer friends and fans by refreshing a thread on her that hadn't been active for some time,

4. received really useful suggestions in tracking down the origins of "I Bid You Goodnight,"   

5. discovered that 'Catters are as articulate and impassioned as they are diverse, whether the topic is "The Plural of You," serious disagreement on the character and treatment of the Travelling People, on either side of the Atlantic, cheering up members who've shared health concerns, and/or rejoicing in the sharing of good news,

6. got shot down a few times for not knowing enough to check the old threads before posting a question,

7. thought questions I'd posted were being ignored,

8. but learned from a couple patient members that "refresh" is a way to revive a thread that's gotten buried,

9. and learned here tonight a) why so many threads are buried in the list when traffic on just one or two other very popular threads crowds them out of view, b) giving newbies like me the impression our posts have been ignored, and c) pointing out how filtering can save time and the eyestrain of having to scan all the unwanted messages to look for the ones I want.

I may not be able to visit as often as I'd like, but I think I'll hold on to my membership card for the foreseeable future.

Happy Thanksgiving, fellow Americans, and a good weekend to all others!   M.