Theme Parties: The Blues Brother Party

     One of the more memorable parties that we attended at our neighbor’s house had the theme:  The Blues Brothers.  The Blues Brother movie that had recently come out on video tape was full of great music and a lot of laughs.  Above and below you can see the invitation to the party, and fortunately, one of the partygoers took some photos which you can see at the very bottom of the blog.

        I have been constantly surprised at how rich our social activities were in the Robson Valley during the 1980’s and 90’s.  We were surrounded by a wonderful group of like-minded friends with whom we visited, watched VCR movies, dined, played volleyball, and partied.  Luckily, we lived right next door to Kjell and Celine, whose house became the party-central for many of those get-togethers.

         They hosted many theme parties that required costumes, food, and music related to the theme.  The “Blues Brothers” party happened in 1989.  Dark suit coats, hats, and glasses, were donned by the males, emulating Elwood and Jake, the main characters in the Blues Brother movie.  The women also wore dark glasses to accent their swanky dresses.

        The on-going eating and dancing to the blues music, was interrupted by the Blues Brothers Air Band performance.  I was impressed at how much Bruce, the high school principal, (shown holding the girl) got in to the part.  When he wasn’t mouthing the words during the song, he gyrated and dangerously swung the microphone around by its cord. 

        The women performed as a dance troupe named  “Ruby and the Red Lips” and grooved to heavy beat of a driving blues song.  It was a wonderful party of abandonment with our alter egos, and I am sure it is remembered fondly by all of the participants.

        Ah, to be young again.

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Theme Parties: Come As You Were

    Another one of the many “theme” parties that was had during the heyday of our social life during the 1980’s and 90’s in the Robson Valley, was the “Come As You Were” Party at Monroes.  The idea was to dress as some historical figure you might have been in a past life.  I really don’t remember who I went as, I think I went as Mark Twain, but I see on this invitation it has me down as Sigmund Freud.  I don’t really think that is how I came as, because making a beard would have been a problem.  Being Mark Twain (one of my heroes from the past) would have been more logical, since I often used the long white mohair from my Angora goats, to make a mustaches and hair for costume parties.

    I do remember making a dance tape for the party, because one of the songs on it was Dire Straits, “Money For Nothing” which had just been released, and was was a big hit during the party.

    Our large group of friends sure had some stellar times back then.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Theme Parties: The Jamaica Party

     In the late 1970’s we moved into the small and isolated community of McBride, in BC’s Robson Valley.  For 4 years, my wife and I had been living in even smaller places without any friends our own age, so we hoped that in the Robson Valley, we would develop friendships with people who had common values, and fortunately, that is exactly what we found.  For us, the 1980’s and 90’s became the Golden Age of our social life.

    One big reason for all of that exciting social life was our neighbors Kjell and Celine.  They were very social-oriented and who were constantly organizing “theme” parties, where party-goers were expected to dress up to fit the chosen theme of the party.  The food, music, and entertainment were also expected to fit the party’s theme, and were always wonderful.  We were amazed at how the participants could always come up with, and create; unique costumes for the theme, from items they found in our tiny one-horse Village of McBride.

    This morning while going through one of my old file folders, I found the invitation I created for the “Night in Jamaica” party that our neighbors put on.  I was always given the task of creating the invitations to the parties and you can see what I came up with for the Jamaica party.  This was before you could do much on a computer, so I had to use pen, photos, and a black and white photocopier.

     I think I dressed up as a plantation owner to the party.

    

Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

View From the Tete Jaune Bridge

     Yesterday we took Kona to Valemount to get a haircut.  The Village of Valemount is about an hour’s drive from McBride.  Quite often when we go, instead of taking Highway 16 to cross the Fraser River, instead we cross at the Old Tete Jaune Bridge because it offers such a spectacular view of ragged peaks of the Cariboo Mountains.  I rarely cross the bridge without stopping to take a photo.

    This is how it looked yesterday.  The sun was blasting on the mountains, whose tops were completely blanketed with snow.  I thought it made for a stunning shot.

My paintings can be seen at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Snow-Capped

      I always have my eyes on the mountains, watching the changing light.  Here is a shot I took the other evening from Hinkelman Road of the snow-covered peaks of the Park Range of the Canadian Rockies.

    We are off to spend the day in the neighboring Village of Valemount, where we are taking Kona to the groomers for her haircut.

Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

Fortunately, I Was Wrong

     We live during a time when we are flooded with misinformation.  I hate that.  I love honesty and truth.  Well, in last Wednesday’s blog about finding $1,600 of old Canadian paper money in our safe, I went online to see if it was still valid, since the Canada now just has plastic bills.  I found the website shown in the photo above and misunderstood what it said.  I thought it meant that all old Canadian paper money no longer was legal tender after January 1st, 2021, and that is what I blogged.

    On Friday, I was paying for the insurance on my truck and mentioned my “worthless” $1,600 to Rosemary in the insurance office.  She told me that she thought that I was wrong, and my paper cash was still valid.  She advised me to ask at the Credit Union, so I drove over there.  There, the clerk assured me that those old paper bills were still legal tender.  That left me really confused, so when I got back home, I checked again on the internet, and re-read what I had found there.

    It was then that I discovered that the Canadian paper money that was no longer legal tender were just those  dominations, that had been discontinued:  One Thousand dollar bills, five hundred dollar bills, and two dollar bills, not the old paper money that I had.  So happily, the cash I found is still good.

    Like I said, I hate the flood of disinformation that is online, and I certainly don’t want to be the author of any, so I thought I should put it out there that I had been wrong, and old Canadian paper money in denominations of $1, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100 are still valid

Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

      

Disappearing Autographs: John Denver

     You really going to use your imagination for the autograph above.  I can’t even make it out anymore.  I am not even sure that this is the card with John Denver’s autograph, but I did get John Denver’s autograph, and this was the only card left in the safe.  Anyway, here is the story:

    Back in 1963-4, I was very much into Folk Music.  I was a dedicated viewer of the Hootenanny show which broadcast recordings of folk music concerts from university concerts.  I was in my 3rd year of high school, but I loved the banjos, guitars, and harmonies of those performances.  One of of my favorite folk groups that often appeared on the show was the Chad Mitchell Trio.  They often did humorous songs with social satire lyrics with wonderful harmonies.

    Peter, Paul, and Mary where a huge part of the “Folk Music Revival” although they never did appear on the Hootenanny show.  I did hear a lot of their music from albums that my friends shared.  One of the songs that became a hit for them was “Leaving on a Jet Plane”.   I was really taken by that song and in one of my folk music magazines, I learned it was written by someone named John Denver.  I had never heard of him, but loved the song, and figured that someone who wrote it must be very talented.  I kept his name in mind, hoping to someday hear more about him.

    In 1965 Chad Mitchell the “leader” of the Chad Mitchell Trio, quit the Chad Mitchell Trio, hoping to go out on his own, musically.  The remaining two members of the group renamed themselves the “Mitchell Trio and added a replacement for Chad Mitchell.  The replacement was an unknown singer/songwriter named John Denver.

    I think it must have been in 1966 that the Mitchell Trio came to my home town of Evansville, Indiana to do a concert at Robert’s Municipal Stadium.  I don’t remember if I knew that John Denver had been made the replacement for Chad Mitchell, or whether I learned it when I went to the concert, but there he was, the writer of “Leaving on a Jet Plane” there on the stage, singing in the Mitchell Trio.  He did sing “Leaving on a Jet Plane”, as part of the concert.

    When their concert was over and the audience was leaving, I bravely walked backstage, and got to talk to John Denver.  I told him how much the song “Leaving on a Jet Plane” meant to me, and that if I could create something like that, I thought I could die a happy man.  He was very friendly and I got him to autograph the backside of a card I had in my wallet.

    John Denver’s was the last of the precious autographs that I got.  Don’t get the idea that I was constantly collecting the autographs of performers, because I was not.  In my whole life I only got a handful of autographs, just from those artists whose music I had come to love.   Now I find it very interesting that when I got those autographs and got to meet David Crosby, Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Chris Hillman, and John Denver, they were all unknown performers, just members of musical groups.  It was only later in their musical careers, that they became famous and internationally known.

   Below is a photo of the Mitchell Trio with John Denver.  Here is a link if you want to see them sing a humorous song about the KKK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3TcUA5jE6o

 

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca