My name is Bonnie a.k.a. BB, Mama,. Granny, Sugarbean, and some I will not list here. Most of you know all about me as I am no shrinking violet and usually have something to say about everything.... whether I know what I am talking about or not. As to when I first fell in love with irises, I wrote a quite lengthy post on the thread 'when did you fall in love' on this iris forum so I will not repeat that here.
Perhaps I can tell you something about me that you do not know. Just another love of my life that is separate from gardening. I play several stringed instruments and taught my children to play them too. My children are quite talented and we became known locally for our harmonies and haunting melodies. Several people from the Smithsonian came to AR to hear my family sing and we learned that some of our songs were over five hundred years old. We performed throughout AR and then began to get offers to travel so we did. We played Scottish festivals in various places, Bear Frolics, Old Time Music Festivals in Indiana, fiddler's convention in West VA, Mountain Folks music festivals in MO and TX and in 1984 we were asked to represent AR at the worlds Fair in New Orleans. I have played and sang for the governors of 46 of our states. I have been well compensated for playing... yes playing for it seems ridiculous to pay someone for having such fun.
I heard some wonderful music during my travels. An old gnarled man in TN with fingers so twisted he could not make a fist put the bow to the fiddle strings and made that fiddle cry..... my heart wept a little too. An old blind black gentleman played the blues using a glass bottle neck over his finger on the guitar stings as he sat on a crate near a railroad yard in New Orleans. He lived there. So does his music. I sometimes go back there in my dreams.
All five of my children played, sang and three of them earned trophy's and prize money clogging (what we locally call jig dancing). I met so many great performers and musicians after the 'official' performance around campfires when we could jam. It was such a complement to me when a really great musician would track me down at a festival and want to swap a tape (later CD). I am a little bit proud to say I have an album in the Library Of Congress. Silly I know for it is full of everything in the world. LOL
The songs we sang were hand-me-down songs from my parents. Songs of hope, loss, love, murder, faith, feuds, war and jolly tunes. I sat by the fireside as a child at night, as still as a knothole on the plank floor so that I would not break the spell, while Daddy would tell stories of his family and why they came to America and how they cleared the land for the railroads moving ahead of the rail laying crews. How music helped to bond families and neighbors and comfort and console. I heard stories of strong women and brave children and the songs that keep them alive.
My earliest memories are songs. I have not been before an audience for nearly 20 years but occasionally I am still recognized. I am always asked about the children, all grown, happy and successful, and whether or not we still play music. I just smile and say yes. It don't know how to explain to them that music runs through my life like a ribbon tying all the pieces of it together. My grandchildren tell me that I sing in my sleep. I think when I am old (only 71 now) that the last words I say........ will be a song.
Sorry, did not intend to write a booklet. Anyway, back to irises.
I'll come back later and tell more.
