Golden Harvest Sharp Notes

Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America

Golden Harvest Chorus meets most Monday Evenings, 7:30-10:00 at
Knox Metropolitan United Church, corner of Victoria and Lorne, Regina, Saskatchewan
Guests always welcome!

We held our annual chapter elections on June 19^th and selected your executive for 2000-2001.

Congratulations to all. With your able assistance and dedication, this will be another great year in the life of our chapter.

Well, either I'm doing a reasonably good job, or I'm a very slow learner – but here I am, back in for a third term as chapter president.

I've had fun these past two years, and hopefully we've been able to accomplish new things as a chapter during that time – and I'm looking forward to even more good things over the coming year.

Thanks to Lynn for recruiting the slate of officers, and for administering the elections. And thanks especially to all of you who let your name stand for positions within the chapter.

Although we are a small chapter by many counts, there are just as many duties and things to be done as in much larger chapters. As a result, many of you end up wearing several hats, and are often called upon over and over again to serve your chapter. Thank you all for your continued support.

And to the general membership – gentlemen, these people have taken on various tasks within your chapter over the coming 12 months – but they will require your support to accomplish these tasks, so give them your support.

Well another year of barbershopping has come and almost gone, and summer is close at hand (or at least we like to think so).

Monday June 26 will be our last regular meeting for the summer – with regular meetings resuming again on Monday September 11.

We have a number of activities over the summer – including our float in the Buffalo Days parade and singing O Canada at the Riders game.

Congratulations to all the Way-da-go award winners over the past several years. I was honoured this past month to have received this award from Lynn Lowes - the April recipient.

It's interesting to look at the names of all the recipients - and to see that many of these are still active in our chapter. I've scanned some images of the award and the names on the outside box and added these to our web site.

The Executive met Sunday June 11 at Bruce and Elaine Fish's. This was our wrap up meeting for this executive – and we'd hoped to be able to sit out on the deck (I mean this is June now) but it turned out to be another cool, wet afternoon so we stayed indoors. The meeting opened as usual, with "The Old Songs"

We often go for walks along the bike path that meanders in the field behind our house. The city has been tilling some long strips of garden alongside the path and for some weeks we've been wondering what they might be planting. This past weekend, a number of marker stakes appeared, and evenly spaced between some of these are tiny oak trees planted by various schools, groups and individuals. We were walking and reading the names scrawled on each of the stakes when we came along one we recognized – the Prairie Gold Sweet Adelines.

There were eleven of us from Regina that made the trek off to Clear Lake for the 14^th annul Mini-Hep there. It was a great day for driving, and with barbershop music playing the whole way, the drive went quickly. We were all in cabins right in Riding Mountain National Park, but I don't think any of us got to see much of the park. We were kept busy from morning breakfast through to the evening show. The chorus and the Chord Jesters both received several hours of coaching and performed on the evening show. Excalibur was great – both onstage and off. The Brandon cable station taped the show and we will be ordering a tape of this.

Sunday morning was a little slower going with everyone making plans for their return home – and the lead of Excalibur plotting his flight plan back to Minneapolis. (Must be nice to have someone in your quartet with their own private helicopter – and a snazzy looking one at that.)

It was a great weekend, and plans are already underway for next year – June 1,2,3 2001 – for the 15^th annual Clear Lake Mini-HEP.

I was fortunate enough to be in the right place (Scarth Street Mall) at the right time (one morning the week of June 5) for the kick off of National Public Service Week in Canada. The RCMP choir were gathered along with a number of other civil servants as Saskatchewan's part in this cross-Canada event. When it came Saskatchewan's turn, our own John Leitch in his RCMP "reds" was front and centre waving his arms and leading the combined voices in singing our national anthem. Congratulations John.

Our sympathies to Ron and Chris Evans on the passing of Ron's father.

I received word June 13 of the death of Bruce Odell's father. Bruce is the lead of Downstate Express. A Memorial Service is being planned for July 1st in Winona, MN. If you would like to send Bruce and Karen a note, their address is: 660 E. Sarnia, Winona, MN 55987.

Once again, we held a taping session at New Music productions. Thanks to all the members who were able to come out for this session – and who sang those same songs over and over again as we tried to get them perfect

Three of the four Hoarse Men joined up with Doug Richards to sing at a school assembly at St. Francis School on Thursday June 22. We sang a few songs for their departing school principal and the several hundred school kids in the gym. We had a good time, and I think the kids did too. Several teachers commented that this was a great idea to get more barbershop singing into the schools.

Don't forget – the site of the Spring 2001 convention has been changed from Eau Claire to Fargo – and we're planning on being there for the fun.

As you celebrate the forthcoming long weekend, I will be thinking of you as I travel down U.S. No.2 Highway, to Michigan, where Jean and I will attend a wedding on May 27. Have a good one!

We are back from the trip we took to get Jean’s nephew married. It was a great weekend, the most memorable thing, I suppose, from the point of view of a wedding guest, is that the groom and his attendants were in kilts. The groom, Colin Campbell, wanted a Scots motif.

We brought two teenage girls back with us - a granddaughter and her friend. Driving north from the Detroit airport on I-75, at 70 mph the other really memorable thing happened. The clouds opened, and the rain was so heavy that visibility was reduced to about a two yards. Worried about being rear-ended, but frightened to proceed blindly, I braked and worked my way from the centre lane to the shoulder, and stopped. During the next few minutes we asked each other how we could be so lucky as to be still alive! Fortunately, the two kids had fallen asleep and missed all of the "fun".

"A group of frogs were traveling through the woods, and two of them fell into a deep pit. When the others saw how deep the pit was, they told the unfortunate frogs they would never get out.

"The two frogs ignored the comments and tried to jump up out of the pit. The other frogs kept telling them to stop, that they were as good as dead. Finally, one of the frogs took heed to what the other frogs were saying and simply gave up. He fell down and died.

"The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could. Once again, the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and suffering and just die. He jumped even harder and finally made it out.

"When he got out, the other frogs asked him, ‘Why did you continue jumping? Didn’t you hear us?’ The frog explained to them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the entire time.

"1. There is power of life and death in the tongue. An encouraging word to someone who is down can lift them up and help them make it through the day.

"2. A destructive word to someone who is down can be what it takes to kill them. Be careful of what you say. Speak life to those who cross your path.

"The power of words … it is sometimes hard to understand that an encouraging word can go such a long way. Anyone can speak words that tend to rob another of the spirit to continue in difficult times.

We’re sprucing up our float and participating in the annual Buffalo Days parade again this year. The parade this year will be on Saturday July 29. The parade starts by Taylor Field and winds its way through the downtown. We've taped all our music so this is an easy "sing out" and a great opportunity to become more visible in the community.

Stuart has made arrangements for us to sing O Canada for the Riders vs Hamilton game on Friday August 11. This is a fun evening as well as a great public relations opportunity. Hope to see you all there.

One of the catchphrases in the Society now is "The show ain't over until the audience sings." This is a great promotion in support of keeping the whole world singing and may just give one or two of our audience members the confidence they need to think about becoming members. So lets make sure we get the audience singing as well at all our shows and singouts.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this issue of your Sharp Notes. You, too, can see your name here in print – it's easier than you think. Just drop me a line or email and I'll see that the info gets into the next issue.

There was this guy and he had a girlfriend named Lorraine, who was very pretty and he liked her a lot. One day he arrived at his job to find a new girl had started to work in the office. Her name was Clearly and she was absolutely gorgeous. He became quite besotted with her and after a time it became obvious that she was interested in him too. But this guy was a loyal man and he wouldn't do anything with Clearly while he was still going out with Lorraine. He decided that there was nothing else to do but to break up with her and get it on with the new girl. He planned several times to tell Lorraine but he couldn't bring himself to do it. One day they went for a walk along the river bank when Lorraine slipped and fell into the river. The current carried her off and she drowned. The guy stopped for a moment by the river and then ran off smiling and singing...

COMING EVENTS

Windup meeting for the Summer Monday, June 26

International, Kansas City, MO July 2-9

Buffalo Days Parade Saturday, July 29

O Canada at Riders Game Friday, August 11

Labour day Monday, September 4

First meeting after summer break Monday, September 11

Open House / Guest night Monday, September 18

LOL Fall District Convention, Oshkosh, WI October 20, 21, 22

Golden Harvest Annual Spring Show Saturday, April 7, 2001

LOL Prelims / Spring Convention, Fargo, ND May 4, 5, 6, 2001

Articles in this bulletin do not necessarily reflect the views of the chapter. Unless carrying a byline, they are those of the editor. Items received may be referred to the executive before publication. All chapter officers and members are encouraged to submit articles to the Sharp Notes. Submissions will be credited to the author. Please address any comments, suggestions or submissions to the editor –

Bruce Fish, 2327 Brodie Bay, Regina, Canada S4V 0V1
phone: (306) 761-2503; email: bfish@accesscomm.ca.