Peaceful Fridays.....

I wanted to leave you for the weekend with a happy little Irish polka and a story.

This is a video I found on Youtube showing a snippet of the Augusta Heritage Irish Week that I spoke about in yesterday's blog post. This "band" was a mini class given during the week. The musicians came together for an hour and a half for four days to learn ceili tunes for dancing. On Friday, they played for the dancers.

There are two things I'd like to mention. First, isn't it amazing what you can learn in just four days? This is only one of the many tunes sets they learned during that time. I'm in awe!
Second, I'd like to draw your attention to the short white-haired woman playing the tin whistle. They do a quickie close up of her...
Her name is Pat. I don't know Pat's age, but, I'll surmise she somewhere in her 70's.
I met Pat not quite four years ago when she walked through the doors of O'Lordans for the very first session the hubsters and I hosted. She was just beginning to learn the whistle, only had a couple of tunes, but, came anyway to learn and play what she knew. Pat comes to every session we have unless she's travelling or there is inclement weather. She travels 45 plus minutes to get there, too. Not only does she come to our session, but, we see her at other sessions around the area too. She has a drive to learn and a love for the music.
I have had the great fortune to watch Pat grow musically over the last couple of years and to be quite honest, I'm very proud of her! When the hubsters and I ran into her down at Augusta last year and saw her participating in the ceili band, I swelled with pride like a Mamma hen. So, now you know why I was so excited to find and share this video.

Pat is an inspirational woman. I hope we have many more years of playing music and friendship in the years to come. It only goes to show, you're never too old to learn a new trick. As the saying goes - "growing older is mandatory. Growing up is optional"

Have a peaceful weekend, y'all..........