Not to worry. I think Guest/Leo and others above are right. The young 'uns are out there and coming on strong. Sometimes all it takes is one enthusiastic person to pump it up. In Juneau, Alaska, for instance, one schoolteacher, Belle Mickelson, has made a tremendous difference. Belle teaches math in the middle schools, as it happens, but she uses music for everything from counting to theory, and when they as a class do exceptionally well they are rewarded with music.

At the festival that just ended, at least 30 youngsters that she has taught in this last year performed on stage, from different schools, in different numbers, playing mandolin, guitar, banjo and fiddle and singing songs of old as well as contemporary, and later they jammed in the halls with the old 'uns. It was great fun. And not an electric plug in the bunch.

Oh, yeah. They be fine.