My Day in Newport

On Tuesday evening I left home with a vehicle loaded down with no less than 24 autoharps plus teaching aids, a cooler, laptop, clothes, personal items, sleeping bag and pillow, stool, amp and case with sound system details. About an hour and a half later I was in Newport moving into the bunk house on the Orthey farm. I turned out the light fairly early because Wednesday morning I got up at 6am. I was due at Newport Elementary School at 8 am. When I got there some students and the student teacher helped me unload all the 'harps etc. I was sort of an artist-in-residence for the day focusing on Appalachian music. I think I saw 5 or 6 classes. I talked briefly about Appalachian music - played a fiddle tune for them, sang a "funny" song for them involving the class with refrains etc, introduced them to the autoharp of course and also each had a chance to play with a limberjack. We sang such songs as Rabbit in the Log, Mole in the Ground, Fly Around and Good Bye Liza Jane. I got them all playing autoharp using Row, Row, Row your boat and Skip to My Lou. I used hand puppets with the first graders. They got to reach in the bag and pull one out then we sang a song as I played with the hand puppet on my button hand. It took a while but each child got to choose a puppet. I taught the elementary chorus to sing the refrain on Down the Road. We had 5 children playing autoharp, and 4 with limberjacks. We performed this in the evening concert with only about 20 minutes rehearsal time! When school was over, we loaded the stuff back into my car in the pouring rain. Then I went to the high school where the concert was to be held. They did a sound check etc and we decided where I would be in the program. Then I went back to the bunk house and took a nap! I was at Liz Sufrin's house at 5 for a nice meal. I reported to school and was part of a very interesting concert. First the high school band played, then I performed, next were several vocal groups from the high school, middle school and elementary. We did our Down the Road and then I finished off the evening with several more tunes and songs. The auditorium was full. I'm not used to playing for such a large group but I didn't worry too much about it and it went well. I had practiced a lot and it paid off for me in that I felt I did as well as I am able. When the evening was over I was pretty tired. I spent some time at McDonald's with my new laptop but didn't have much luck because I wasn't doing things right. Wireless at this Micky D is still free. After a good night's sleep, I packed up, visited a little with George, and headed into the metropolis of Newport visiting the Goodwill Store and the public library which has free wireless. It was here that a librarian helped me discover what I was doing wrong. Then it was on to a neat little restaurant for a hamburger. I went to Harrisburg where I had some business to attend to, then headed home. Mission accomplished. All went well and I had a good time. Thanks for reading.