Lakeside 2019, Week 9, the rest of the story

Before starting on Week 10, first I have to say good-bye to Week 9.  Wonderful closing performance of the Lakeside Symphony Orchestra on Friday, August 16 with Angelin Chang performing Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor by Camille Saint-Saens.  Then after intermission, the LSO performed Symphony no. 1 in C minor by Brahms. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhkuad0gLM4

Friday morning we had our last class on clutter (Organization 101).  One of the best stories was told by one in the audience who had collected elephants and needed to “let it go.”  He had 3,000 of them.  So he took a statue of 4—2 adults, an adolescent and a baby, all connected trunk to tail.  It weighed 1,000 pounds.  He decided to have it made into his grave marker and found a company that would do it!  In life the instructor suggested we all need to learn “Let it Go” whether that be material accumulation or personal grievances.

In the afternoon Gretchen Curtis reviewed Marilla of Green Gables which is a prequel to Anne of Green Gables.  I’d never read the Anne series, but Gretchen always does such a nice job, it didn’t really matter.  Sat with my neighbor Dorothy.

There were several friends from UALC at Lakeside during Week 9, and for the Wednesday night picnic we all gathered at Perry park (east end), along with our neighbors Scott and Carol, to share a huge table.  Shout out to Mary, Carol, Kelly and David, plus 2 of their friends from Westerville.  It was a fun evening of hot dogs, chips, potato salad, baked beans, watermelon and cookies.

I found the morning lectures somewhat disappointing for Week 9.  The speaker was Jack Barlow of Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pa.(Church of the Brethren college).  His conservative  vita looked good, Claremont Graduate School and Carleton College, but he definitely leaned left. He didn't call our Constitution "evolving" or "plastic," but that was the sense I had.  After the Tuesday lecture during the Q & A I raised that issue, and asked him if his students would feel free to disagree (virtually all institutions of high learning weed out conservatives so now there are very few among ranks of faculty, even in religious private institutions). He didn't deny being liberal, but assured the audience it didn't affect his students.  That's odd.  I picked up on it immediately, and if I were a student, I think I'd know how to frame my papers or answers to please a professor.  Anyway, after the lecture there were 5 or 6 people who came up to me an whispered they were so happy I spoke up.  The fact they had to whisper is indicative of the anti-Trump and anti-conservative bias we face here. Then as I headed home, a man caught up with me on Walnut and said he admired me for saying something.  He was not a "Lakesider" as we think of it, and was only in town two days, being a regular at Chautauqua, NY.  He and his wife talked to me for about 10 minutes, saying they were from West Virginia and had been on a very interesting trip including Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, etc., and decided to stop in Lakeside since they'd never heard of it before this trip. He too had lost long time friends and family for being a conservative and voting for Trump.

Monday night we thoroughly enjoyed the silent movie selection "The Kid Brother," (1927) with Harold Lloyd.  The organist was Clark Wilson, and he gave an intro and provided a wonderful background  for the movie.  Tuesday night was the program Bob had been looking forward to--a classical guitarist playing with the Symphony Orchestra--Colin Davin.
https://www.youtube.com/user/colindavinguitar

The opening of Week 9 (Saturday August 10) was Brian Regan, a comedian, and we'd never heard of him, but he's apparently popular on late night TV, because the place was packed with an overflow crowd standing in the back of Hoover.  Very clean, no rough language.  Nothing political.  A great show.