What do Chuck Wiser and Willie Nelson now have in common? Playing music with Dave Mason!!
From Chuck Wiser, I Write the words to share what my eyes see and my heart feels
By the time you read this I will have embarked upon a new journeyfulfilling another of my dreams and life’s ambitions. I have written before about my early childhood musical performances with Tex Warner of the Allegany Ridge Runners square dance band. I have also been a part of two separate adult life musical ventures. One involved singing with the Genesee Valley Chorus, and the second as having been a Barbershop style singing member of two organizations, the latest of which was with the Maple City Barbershop Chorus out of Hornell.
A few weeks ago, Curdie Gardener representing the Alfred, NY branch of the Office of the Aging, reached out to me asking if the Genesee Valley Chorus would be interested in performing for one of their luncheons on May 21st. I presented that to the chorus but unfortunately, with the performance time and date being at lunchtime on a weekday, there weren’t enough singers that were available to put anything together. I very much wanted to be able to satisfy the musical needs of the Alfred group so I reached out to a couple of musicians that I had recently become acquainted with.
Fortunately, Dave Mason, a well-known local musical performer, was indeed both interested, and available to join me and to put on a short musical performance for the luncheon. As luck would have it Dave’s extraordinary musical experience and style included songs of a type that I was very familiar with having also come from the generation that was blessed with their exposure to the music of such famous 50’s, 60’s and 70’s performers as the Beatles, Mamas and Papas, John Denver, and many others of that venue. Our opening song is going to be Sentimental Journey, as that is exactly where we will take our audience. Coincidently that particular song is one of the very first I played whilst learning to play the harmonica, and also to have been sung in my other musical ventures.
Pictured here are the Office of the Aging personnel at their May 21st luncheon, Dave Mason and Me entertained them as they partook of their meal.
My age-old mantra has always been in my signature notation but I may have to update it to;
“I write the words and play or sing the songs to share what my eyes see and my heart feels.” I just hope that the readers and listeners enjoy this as much as I do while presenting it.
If you have never performed before, or shared with a group a musical experience, then you couldn’t understand or believe the euphoric feeling that it gives you. I’m not sure I would enjoy doing what I do in a “professional experience” if solely for the payment. During my teaching career, and now in a miniscule way by performing or sharing, I feel, and say, that I would do it without compensation, as my personal enjoyment of sharing is worth many more times that which I ever earned by doing it.
As the country begins to celebrate its 250th year, the Genesee Valley Chorus is working on its own special Anniversary celebration in that this is our 50th year. When you stop to think about it, that’s an amazing length of time for a volunteer organization such as the chorus to have remained intact and thriving. There aren’t many of us left, that were “Charter Members” and those who do remain are still not just singing but serving in supporting ways. Of course…the chorus could not have survived this long without the generous support of many benefactors and contributors. There is a gaping hole in my longevity as I had to take a couple of years long breaks as I embarked on my teaching career which started in 1983, and continued until my retirement in 2008. By that time I was fully involved with teaching, and/or as a consultant, for a significant number of regional companies, sharing the knowledge I had gained, often specific only to them, to help educate not only the employees, but also the management staff.
One area company stands out in my memory, as exemplary toward providing useful, hands on education and experience in the development of their staff. One, of several companies, that stands out in my heartfelt memories wanted very specific “hands on” education for the operation of their computerized “wood machining operations.” The Gunlocke Company” in Dansville, sent me to their machine manufacturing company to learn not only how to program their CNC (Computer Numerical Control) wood cutting machines, but also how to set up the tooling and the machine for their complex “tool path” operations. At about the same time Corning Glass needed a trainer for their product machining operations cutting “glass.” You can’t imagine the subtle but very significant differences between machining glass and machining wood. If you pause a cutter’s linear motion cutting wood, you scorch it. When machining glass you might want to dwell the cutter to burnish the finish. Corning glass doesn’t advertise the fact that many of their glass figurines are (or at least were) machined rather than hand crafted, as it is their trademark and which it is actually famous for.
I did not learn any of this “in school,” and particularly not in any “Mechanical Engineering” programs. I fell in love with teaching based #1 on the personal interactions with the students, but also with each and every manufacturing process utilized in the production.
I apologize for that trip down my memory lane but I used that to illustrate how much fun you can have learning something new, nearly every day. I won’t even attempt to explain what I taught at the Stauffer Biscuit company located (the last I knew) in the back woods near Cuba, NY.
One of the most heart-warming teaching experiences came via training for the Acme Electric company where battery chargers were made, when my cadre of students had also been work mates with my mother, a 38-year long employee of theirs. “I knew your Mom,” was music to my ears.
My wife’s mother was often heard to say that she had seen snow (and/or frost) on Memorial Day. Now mind you, that was when Memorial Day fell on a certain date every year. For over a century (1868 to 1970), Memorial Day was permanently observed on May 30. In 1971, the observance shifted to the last Monday in May to create three-day weekends for federal employees. With date flexibility, weather patterns and climatological challenges these days it’s hard to tell whether to plan a picnic or a sledding party. Memorial Day was always a special Holiday for my family as it was the first of a very few large family gatherings shared amongst us. Our family gatherings were set in stone. Memorial Day was for one aunt, Fourth of July another and Labor Day of course had to be spent in Rushford as they had the best summer ending holiday, which also included a racing event, especially after we became a “racing family.”
That word “climatological” used above became today’s Grammar Groan, as there is no longer any “logic” in our weather patterns.
Families, at least ours, don’t seem to want to share “family-hood” anymore. I miss them but considering the burden it places on some I can understand. Growing up in my youth I often spent the “haying season” of late summer helping out with the harvest. That seemed to coincide with the Rushford Labor day festivities as their farm was in the boonies somewhere between Centerville and Rushford. Perhaps in another Wrambling I can share a story or two about my visits with my grandparents. One features my teaching my grandfather how to do a “wheely” with his Ford tractor.
I suppose I could stretch this out with a couple of other Groans, or “blatherings” but as Bob Stahlman, my former teaching professor and colleague taught me early on…If you’ve covered the planned material and did so before the class period was done, don’t drag it out. Say; “That is all” and let the students escape.
As usual, if you have any comments, cares or concerns please feel free to reach out to me at im.wiserdad@gmail.com.
Here’s hoping that you have a joyous, and if possible, family gathering on this coming Memorial Day. Thanks for indulging me the pleasure of communicating with you.
Chuck Wiser is a kid from Nile NY, a former Alfred State Professor, a musician, and weekly contributor to the Wellsville Sun since we started. You can reach him anytime, IM.Wiserdad@gmail.com
