August 29, 2008

What a beautiful morning! On the way into Washburn yesterday we noticed a sign that said “Bloomquist Gallery”. We went to see who this Bloomquist was since we had some time this morning. The house was right on the bay. We honked and out came this tall, slim, grey haired (with streaks of blond) guy. We introduced ourselves and told him why we were there. It turns out that Dave Bloomquist is a painter of outdoor scenes, rather nice pictures. He is also a boogie woogie piano player who worked for Disneyland several years ago. We had a nice chat, took a picture of him and left.
I was beginning to feel nervous about the contest at this time. We cruised up to Big Top and sat in on a workshops with Karn Maal and another with Buddy Mondlock. They were sort of interesting but it was hard for me to concentrate. Bill Staines wandered in and he and I had a nice chat about our sons. The next thing I know someone asks me, “Are you Ruth?” It was Jack Williams! He is always so sweet. His wife Judy was with him too.
Finally the time for the contest was at hand. Jack was back stage most of the time and we were talking some more. It kept my mind off the competition. When my turn came around I sang, Same Old Grind and Daddy Was An Old Man. Those things make me so nervous. The songwriters were all quite good. I didn’t win. Betty Soo won! Her songs were VERY good. OK now the pressure was off. We (the songwriters) were treated to dinner (family members weren’t allowed).
The concert for that evening was Buddy Mondlock, Karen Mol and Bill & Kate Isles as openers, Bill Staines and then Michael Smith. They were all good, but Michael Smith was brilliant!
After the show some of the songwriters got together for a song circle. That was fun and Max finally got to show what he can do. Of course it was a very large circle, maybe 10 or 12 folks so it took quite awhile to get around it. We did 2 turns then stole away into the night about 1 am.
Ruth