Important Things

You may not remembet this, but once you didn't know how to tie your shoes, or jump rope, or read three-syllable words. There are so many important things that a person learns when they are six and seven years old. And everything is new. Making a paper snowflake for the first time, by folding and cutting and then opening up the paper - it is like magic! Or learning how to cut a paper heart by folding a paper in half - not too easy, really. We take these things for granted. How about swinging without getting a push? An amazing feeling comes over you when you realize you can get so high on your own! So many things that give us a sense of independence that are sheer delight when first achieved. That is my world. Sheer delight. This is Madison. She knows how to jump rope. Not everyone in the class does yet. Do you remember when you first learned to jump rope?

Back to School

This is my great friend Giovanni. He is one of six students that I get to teach every day this school year. Giovanni is my only returning student. He is also the only second grader in my first and second grade class. I was very happy that Giovanni came back this year. One reason is that he is so creative with paper and scissors and tape and glue stick. I give out different things to work with at story time after lunch. We call it "rest and read" time. Giovanni can do the most marvelous things with a paper plate! Here he sports a fine crown that he has made. He is the paper king!

The Original Two

I once was Peggie Quick. Then I met Ken Balcom - he bacame a very good friend and we enjoyed our time together very much. It is a story that has been told many times, and I don't think there is the time right now to tell it, but in 1984, when I was twenty, and Ken was 31, we were married in Felton, California. We are the "Original Two" of what is called the Balcom Family, or the Balcom House. This is important to remember, as we are nearing those days when we will be back to the original two, because our children are nearing the nest-leaving phase. Ken and I are both teachers by profession. He has taken a job in the White River Apache Reservation, teaching math at the public high school there. It is three hours away. We, being the flexible two that we are, have decided that for the school term we will be apart during the week, and together on the weekends. I have a feeling that in some ways it will focus our relationship, and sweeten it. He is far away, but we are together. After nearly 25 years of marriage, and 27 years of friendship, we can be flexible with what life brings us. This is the first week apart. He is getting started at his new job and I am getting ready to start teaching first and second grade at Providence Classical School, where I have taught for the past four years. So, really, this is just an update about why I haven't written anything in a week - big changes here! I was hoping to give a good picture of what goes on here at the Balcom House in the summer time, because that is really most interesting. I will catch up with that soon, and tell the story of how Ken and I didn't end up just being friends, and all of that. Thanks for dropping by! Don't give up on me - I do have some interesting things to relate about life in the Balcom House!

Fiddle Guy

Here is a picture of the Fiddle Guy in front of an art gallery.

The Music - Fiddle Guy and Harmonica Guy

As I have said, there was music everywhere in New Orleans. We were part of the music there, on Saturday, but on Sunday afternoon (after church and a long Sunday nap) we went into the French Quarter for our first day of city walking. On our way to the Clover Grill, (where we were to have the best burgers ever cooked under an American made hubcap) we ran into two musicians that looked like they might have been done for the night. Both of them played for us because we asked them to. The first one was a fiddle player. He was really good. I think that there is some special bridge on a fiddle that is different than a violin that helps you play "double stops". Anyway, he was very talented and entertaining. We listened awhile to "Fiddle Guy", and of course we threw some money in his case. Then we crossed the street to hear the harmonica guy, the best I have ever heard!

He was an old blind guy with a charming air about him and WOW could he play! He was missing his front teeth - I wonder if that helps? Then he would sing - acapella - I think he sang "If I Loved You" from the Rogers and Hammerstien "Carosel" (which, by the way is a really weird story!). We were entranced. He was solid cute and talented! He could play any note from a keyed harmonica - in other words he played it like a chromatic by bending the notes to get the notes that would not have been there. Amazing! And he got the rhythm and the melody and harmony all going on in a way that made you feel like he was a one man band! It was my favorite music of the whole trip. He calls himself "Grandpa", or he says that is what people call him. Solid cute.