Friday, July 31, 2015

This and That,,,,About West Virginia!


Let's talk West Virginia today, shall we?  It's a state that is near and dear to my heart. Even though I have lived in the beautiful mountains of my present state for 32+ years and consider this home, I spent the first 24 years of my life in West Virginia. So hey, you know this girl has a soft spot for the Mountain State!!

It's unfortunate that WV sometimes gets picked on as being a backward place. There are many beautiful sites to visit and cultural events to attend there. Having grown up there, I know the many opportunities I took advantage of with music, theater and the arts. I'll try to feature more pictures of the area in some upcoming posts, but for now I found a historical map of Parkersburg, WV to show above, which was listed as being in the public domain. 

And speaking of cultural opportunities, I'm excited to share that Goldenseal Magazine, a magazine published by The Cultural Center of WV about WV traditional life, will be publishing an article I have written in their Fall issue! The article pays tribute to the GREAT music program that Mr.thisandthat and I enjoyed growing up in the 70's in WV. I can't share the whole article here because copyright will be owned by Goldenseal, but I can say that the gist of the article explains about the dedicated teachers who taught all of us students to play our instruments (mine is violin and Mr.thisandthat's is trumpet) and supported our musical growth with a variety of musical groups, bands and orchestras. These teachers gave of their time and talents and supported us as young musicians. As their students, we learned not only about music notes, rhythms and intonation, but also about how to get along and work together as a team for a common goal. Pretty important lessons to learn, right? 

Unfortunately, due to financial cutbacks, many music programs, including those in WV, are in danger of being phased out. That's why I'm doubly excited that my article is being used in support of the VH1 Save The Music Program in West Virginia. You can read more about the efforts of VH1 here. It was a happy coincidence that my sending the article came at the same time as the VH1 effort. And I'm happy to report that Mr.thisandthat and I continue to enjoy listening to and making music with our instruments all these years later!

                                                                 
                                           

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