Howdy, Kids.
Hopefully some of you remember me. It seems that it’s been right around 2 years since I’ve visited the old message board–and what do I see right off the bat but a summons from dear Mack! Almost like old times. But more about that in that thread.
Along with growing a bit weary of all the acrimony (which seems fairly quiet today, or perhaps it’s migrated to another forum?), I can’t do message boards at work, and living on the edge of nowhere we don’t have internet at home. However, Something happened the other day that got me to thinking about all of you, so I decided to drop by and say hi.
I’m back to teaching elementary music. The first day of school, I played a bit of whistle for my first graders, contrasted with a tuba, to demonstrate high and low. The kids, of course, thought both instruments were outrageously cool–no one gets enthused about loud things quite like first graders. A few days later, we finished our lesson early, and I asked the kids what they’d like to do for the remaining few minutes.
One little boy raised his hand and said (exact quote):
“Could you play that thing…um…I can’t remember what it’s called…flea somthing, I think? Flea, ummmm, collar? Yeah, flea collar. Is that it?”
I was baffled. After thinking for a moment, I said, “Do you mean ‘tin whistle’?”
“YEAH! Tin whistle. I knew it was some thing like that.”
I agreed to play, on the condition that he never called it a flea collar again.
So, there you have it, folks. All we need now is for Mack Hoover to come up with a way to hollow out a flea collar and make it into a high G. Or have you already done it? I wouldn’t be surprised.
Love to all–
Tom
(digging toe into dirt, blushing deeply)
