So I said I’d post again quickly to catch you all up on what I did in the week before the morons tried to break in.
I lied.
Basically, I did nothing in the week prior to that august event. The brass band played a concert at a church in Chamblee the Sunday before then. That was pretty much it. I goofed around with my new camera during the concert and shot some pictures when I should’ve been counting rests, but they aren’t all that interesting.
So…you’re all caught up now.
For the last week, I’ve been extraordinarily unbusy. Betsy and I 
went to Andersonville National Cemetery on the morning of the 28th and then wasted much of the rest of the day doing touristy things on the way back to her house. Stopped in Montezuma, GA, for about an hour’s worth of picture taking. Old houses, a broken-down gas station, a confederate memorial…all the usual tripe that one would expect to find in a small town in middle Georgia.
After that, we made a brief stop at the Lane Packing Company, which is a large peach distributor in Fort Valley, GA. The idea was that we’d eat there, but the cafeteria frankly didn’t look all that appetizing. Instead, we took a self-guided tour of the peach processing room, played on the tractors in the playground outside, and headed to Warner Robins, GA, where we ate at a Cuban place before spending a couple of hours at the WR Museum of Aviation and then driving around the WR Air Force Base.
I had the day off for Memorial Day on the 31st and basically slept for the entire day. The rest of the week was a typical short work week. I accomplished very little other than watching some training videos that I’m required to watch (I’m about three months behind in this task).
Wednesday night found me poking around the Marietta National Cemetery before gorging myself on Sicilian pizza at the Marietta Pizza Company, and Thursday night I headed back to Marietta to frolic in a pool and have dinner with Chris prior to a rehearsal that she had.
Worked from home on Friday and watched a movie on Netflix Friday night. Fun week, eh?
Yesterday, I left the house at around noon looking for some gravesites in two cemeteries that I didn’t know about. The first one, Union Hill Baptist Cemetery in John’s Creek, GA – about 15 miles from my house – was very pretty and quite depressing. It has been either vandalized (I suspect) or hit by severe storms or both. 60% of the stones are pushed over or broken. Why anyone would get their jollies by doing that is beyond me, but it does make for interesting pictures.
The second cemetery, Kirkland, is located right across the street from one of my old watering holes and – as far as I can tell – is completely inaccessible. 
I *think* I drove past it, but saw no way to get my car to it. If what I saw is indeed the cemetery, I’ll try parking down the street and walking to it later today. A couple of the requests in that graveyard are for members of the Medlock family. I’m wondering if they’re related to the family which lent its name to Medlock Bridge Road, near my house.
This evening, I’ve got the next-to-last concert of the season with the brass band. We’re playing at a Methodist church which has hosted us at least twice previously. Very cramped stage, but the room sounds okay. We’ll be doing mainly fluff pieces as we wind down the season, but will be premiering a work by Stephen Bulla called (I think) Decade. 
We commissioned the thing about 18 months ago in the hope of premiering it last September – 10 years after the band was founded. Unfortunately, we didn’t receive the piece until about a month ago. So we’ll still get to premiere it during our 10th season – just not our 10th year. The piece’s main little motif (if it can be referred to as such) is “G-B-B” (get it? Georgia Brass Band? Ha!) and, though it’s not something that I’d want to run out and purchase were I a brass band music director, it’s nice enough and it’s a new addition to the brass band repertoire…and it’s ours, dammit.
In a couple of weeks, we’ll finish the season with a performance at the International Euphonium Institute and then take a week or two off before resuming rehearsals with the hope of recording a Christmas CD in late August.
My plans
for next weekend are to travel to Danville, KY, to get a little camping in and to hang out at the Great American Brass Band Festival, which I’m sure I’ve mentioned in these pages previously. Those plans could change if Chris is available and wants to do something; barring that, I’m Kentucky-bound next Friday.
I think that pretty much covers everything of non-interest for the moment. If anything world-shaking happens in the near future, you know I’ll rush to write about it here.
TWD
Been visiting graveyards myself lately. Where does your interest in Civil War Graveyards come from?
Cheers………Al.
It's not so much civil war graveyards as civil war "stuff," actually. I've been interested – as have, I'm guessing, 90% of Americans – since I was a little kid. It (the war) was the most defining moment in our history. I'm not sure where I heard it, but a wonderful anecdote about the importance of the conflict was that, prior to the war, it was, "The United States are…," and after the war, it became, "The United States is…"
Plus you've got the whole historical aspect (and I realize that, to someone in the UK, a "history" of 250 years is laughable) of the thing. The conflict was the fenceline between an old and new way of thinking in the States. Slavery was ended, a strong federal government was established, women – particularly in the south – came into their own as actual sensient beings instead of pretty baby-making things, and the two sides began to see each other differently as well.
Also, I grew up in the north and thought of the war almost entirely in terms of the romanticised history of it. When I moved south, I learned that, in many ways, "The Cause"(the southerner's perceived way of life) has never really been given up. Slavery ended in the 1860's, but widespread institutionalized racism lingered for 100 more years (some would say it's still here – I disagree). The confederate flag is still revered – and I don't think that's too strong of a word – in many areas of the south. Confederate veterans are still held up as heroes in the south. Confederate Memorial Day is – to this day – a state holiday in parts of the south.
Long answer to a simple question. Maybe I should just do a whole blog entry on it. 🙂
TWD