Thank You

Subject: Thank You
From: Cats
Date: 02 May 08 - 03:47 PM

This week I managed to get into contact with a friends father who used to live in the same road as me when I was very young. I saw him last year at Bideford Festival for the first time in about 40 years and was so excited by it that I totally forgot to get his address. As I came off stage he held out his hand and said 'Didn't you used to live in Lingfield?' Ken was a great inspiration to me, although I never realised it at the time, and opened my eyes to folk music and human rights. Without him I would not be the person I am now, would probably not be singing and would have had a less rich life because of it. This week I wrote and thanked him. How about other Catters. Anyone you should thank?

Subject: RE: Thank You
From: Peace
Date: 02 May 08 - 04:17 PM

Yes. And I have.

Subject: RE: Thank You
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 02 May 08 - 04:35 PM

Me too, Peace. And please do it now while they're alive.

Seamus

Subject: RE: Thank You
From: Peace
Date: 02 May 08 - 04:46 PM

"And please do it now while they're alive."

Yeah. I learned that one the hard way, Seamus.

Subject: RE: Thank You
From: Scooby Doo
Date: 02 May 08 - 05:46 PM

Keep it going my friend.


love you loads


Scooby

Subject: RE: Thank You
From: SINSULL
Date: 02 May 08 - 08:46 PM

I tell them I love them every day - those that are here and those that have gone on.

Subject: RE: Thank You
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 May 08 - 10:20 PM

That's really neat that you were able to get back in touch with him, Cats! Good for you.

I'm kinda like Sins, I tell those I am close to, here and gone on, how much I love and appreciate them. I give some old teachers credit when it is appropriate and I wish they were still around so that I could do it in person, but somewhere maybe they know.

Thanks for sharing.

Subject: RE: Thank You
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 03 May 08 - 01:48 AM

And if you know of others who have been affected/influenced by this person, maybe organize a 'tribute' evening?

Seamuas

Subject: RE: Thank You
From: Slag
Date: 03 May 08 - 06:31 AM

What a great, uplifting story! It's not often you get to find someone who really made a difference in your life but was "lost along the way". I'm sure when we are older and wiser we try to give credit where credit is due AT THE TIME it's due. Not always possible, not always REALIZED at the moment and this is probably doubly true when we are young. Congratulations!

Subject: RE: Thank You
From: Cats
Date: 03 May 08 - 09:56 AM

Ken was a folk song collector and many of the source singers he recorded came to his house while I was there playing with his daughter. I was probably only 8 or 9 at the time but rememeber these amazing singers just being able to stand there and sing. He published books and papers on folk song collecting and was also a major mover in the CND movement in the early 1960's. The songs they sang are what I am singing now, some collected by Ken from those very singers. I was just too young to realise and it is only now, 40+ years later that I have been able to say thank you. Every time someone opens any of his books or sings one of those songs it is a tribute to him.

Subject: RE: Thank You
From: Rapparee
Date: 03 May 08 - 10:04 AM

Yes. And some years back I (literally) buried a bullet in the grave of one -- unfired; he would have appreciated the gesture. There are others, living and dead.

Subject: RE: Thank You
From: Megan L
Date: 03 May 08 - 10:10 AM

Cats what you wrote in your first post took me right back to my teenage years. I had had a flamin row with dad and lay in bed angry and crying. Suddenly the thought danced through my head "What if dad died during the night?" I sat up ans wrote down some of my feelings.

Regrets

It's often we leave it to late to say
All the things we mean to say
We wait till Mum and Dad have passed away.
We tell them when they are no longer there
Just how much we really care
We always leave it just to late.
Why oh why can we not say
Mum and Dad I love you,
While they can still hear us
After all they are
God's most precious gift.


If yer no a kirky buddy jist substitute THE in the last sentance and dinny get yer knickers in a twist.