Dear Friends:
As I promised last month, here’s the history of how our Campouts began. I can take no credit for this popular and successful series of events, the idea for our first camp-out was entirely Suzanne’s, I helped move it through the Board meetings, but it was Suzanne’s idea alone. As I recall Suzanne and I had been somewhere that winter and had stopped at the Grass Valley Fairgrounds on the way home to rest and enjoy the nice weather we were having at the time. We both enjoyed the evening and the next day even without having all our friends there with us. Suzanne said to me that evening, “wouldn’t it be great if we had a Camp-out and picking party, we could have a pot-luck supper, or not depending on what folks wanted to do”. Suzanne, myself, Mary and David Runge, Bob and Dorothy Gillim, Hugh and Sadie Portwood and many others all agreeed that it would be lots of fun, and would be relatively inexpensive to produce. There was some minor opposition
from a few who wondered who would come without a band to play for us. There have been times that we have hired bands for these events, but the focus from the start was fellowship and jamming. We found that there were competeing events on these first weeks of reliable good weather as well as Mothers Day that we had to schedule around, there was rain before and after the event, but only a few short and light showers that didn’t slow down anyone until we had packed up to go home, it was a beautiful weekend, everyone had a wonderful time, and not only was it fairly inexpensive to produce, festival coordinators and workers got a chance to check out the grounds and make plans for the festival. Our first few campouts were in the Spring, and at the Grass Valley Fairgrounds.
We were, back then, having some difficulty getting enough voters for a quorum for the annual election of officers, so recognizing the popularity and good attendance of the camp-out the Board utilized the idea for the Annual Election of Officers that was expanded to include a campout, sometimes with, and usually without a featured band. I remember it was, on our first Fall camp-out in Peteluma that I met John Cornhauser, he participated in the Open Mic event made possible by the loan of Lolan Ellis’ sound system. We had substantial rain that weekend, and the Open Mic feature was popular. Suzanne, Mary Runge and others made a huge pot of soup, and we all had a wonderful time. We did make quroum requirements in spite of the rainstorm, we did have to go round and remind people to vote as they were having such a good time jamming. Our Campouts have proven to be popular and well attended events, with or without featured bands. We’ve used a variety
of sites, and I don’t think we’ve used the Grass Valley site in many years, perhaps it is time to consider it once again.
Suzanne’s idea of a comparatively simple social event featuring fellowship, and jamming has proved a poppular concept. The truth be known, many of the popular and successful ideas, were the ideas of my wonderful wife, some of them were improvements to the Breakdown, others were ways to ensure that everyone felt welcome and had a good time because they attended one of our events. We are fast approaching our Fall Campout, I don’t know how many we’ve had now, but this one will be on or near the third anniversary of Suzanne’s death. We all owe a debt of gratitude to her memory and the good idea she had about this popular event.
On a personal note, I hope you all will forgive the misspelled words and typo’s, I have rather quickly developed vision problems, and can barely see the screen. Hopefully the cataract surgerey I have scheduled for early October will fix these proplems. It is inconvienent not being able to drive or read, but I am assured that all will be well. I hope to see many of you all at the Campout, God willing, I should be recovered from the surgerey by then.
Don
