Hey, howdy! Well, I've slept some, my legs and feet are not quite so sore, and I'm sad but relieved it's all over...<BG> "Law Day 2001: Outlaw Roundup" was a success by nearly every standard of measurement. We learned a few things on what to do and what not to do, and now we're taking a deep breath before plunging into "White River Valley Homecoming", to be held 25-28 Oct. I spent 12 hours in Shadow Rock Park on Friday, getting things ready and going through the motions of watching rehearsal of the Bald Knobber Re-enactment, "The League: Taney County Justice." At one point, I made a mad dash through the park--a distance of about 1/4 mile--because I was waiting for the Forsyth Lions' Club concession wagon to pull down and get hooked up, when I saw the Coca-Cola guy fixing to deliver my 30 cases of water and soda. Problem was, the Coke guy was driving an 18 wheeler, and started to pull in up at the jail, which has absolutely no room for a big truck. The other problem was that I was wearing a sage green tank top, and blended right in with grass and etc. I was waving my arms (which are still sore) and hollering and talking into the radio with Greg, who was driving the van that direction. The third problem was that I haven't moved that fast for that long since high school, and don't plan to ever do so again--I was wearing my good cowboy boots, and I didn't fall, but I never won any prizes for speed or anything else remotely resembling athletic stuff (and I ain't about to start doing so at this point in life). Only about 6 people saw me do it, and that in itself should have made their weekend fun. Rehearsals went okay, but rain off and on all day made things a bit difficult. I've been saying for 8 months it wasn't going to rain Saturday, and it didn't. But I forgot to mention Friday. Turned out okay, we needed the rain anyhow, but it made it muggy for our 1880s-era clothing on Saturday... Forsyth was having its city-wide yard sale Saturday, and that hurt us this year. In the past, simply opening up the Old Taney County Jail on that day made it worthwhile, but we had kids' activities planned for the morning, and the yard sales made it rather difficult. By 10:30, I was worried--the visiting historical and genealogical societies were set in the big tent, music was going on, the guys I'd been lucky to find for parking were standing around, but few visitors--so I had another brainstorm. We got one of the hayride guys to hitch up the wagon to his truck, tied one of the banners from Coke on the side, and took a bunch up to the town of Forsyth to whoop and holler at folks and invite them down to the park. Traffic was horrible in Forsyth--one of the few times you'll see bumper to bumper there--but we had a blast on the trailer. It was so much fun that some of the first group took another bunch of our folks in costume up a little while later, wearing Bald Knobber hoods and doing more whoopin' and hollerin'. LOL I didn't get to go on the 2nd ride. Traffic started pouring in about 12:30 PM, and we had a whole bunch of folks sitting in anticipation of the play, which began shortly after 1:30. No one seems to have done a head count, but we figured it to be about 300 people sitting in lawn chairs and on straw bales, to watch the play. Greg's dad came down from Kansas City, as did my uncle. Fact is, I had so many in-laws and family members at Outlaw Roundup, some folks might get to wonderin'.... Now...I can't say enough about the people involved with Roundup and the play. They are incredible, wonderfully talented folks, and the play went so smooth, our guesstimate of 2 hours only lasted one hour and 20 minutes. This cast of people came through in the best way you can imagine. One couple did the backdrop for the stage (saloon and general store) and brought many of their personal belongings for props. Several folks took off work to help with the set-up, and 3 of our young men, who are Civil War re-enactors, slept on the grounds Friday night for security (I use the term "slept" loosely--I heard they went fishing, and shot pool on the saloon's table until after 3 AM, and they didn't much like me waking them up before 6:30--but they did it, anyway.) Friday night, because of the weather, the planned sound-check rehearsal, with body pack mikes & etc. didn't go. So the actual play was when this wonderful group worked with sound the first time. LOLOLOL It was great! Ingrid had done a wonderful job with the costumes--every one looked authentic and what's more, enjoyed dressing up as well. I wore my tear dress all day--it's bright red, making me rather easy to find...<BG> I got to meet Pat Terry, a list member, but didn't have much time to visit with her. I am glad she came! After the play, the park emptied out again, for the most part. We didn't raise quite enough money to pay for Outlaw Roundup--admission was free, we sold 20 oz sodas and tickets for donated door prizes--but "Aunt Jo," Jo Stacey Albers, president of the historical society, was quite pleased with how it went. Jo is Ingrid's mother, and Ingrid's brother, Dallas Wayne, came from CA to be in the play and do DJ duties for the day. One thing we won't be doing in the future is having a big event like this on the same day as city-wide yard sales...it hurt us, especially in the kids' activities, which I heard they had fun, but not a lot of children. I forgot to put a map in my letters to the visiting historical/genealogical societies, but they found us anyway, and when I visited with them, all seemed happy to be there. The Family History Center from Branson's LDS was there, as were members of the MO State Historical Society; Newton Co. AR HS; Greene Co. MO Archives; the White River Band of Cherokee; and of course, Viola Hartman held court at the White River Valley Historical Society's tables. Barbara Wehrman, the owner of "Ozarks Mountaineer" was there, as well. I hope they all sold lots of books--I saw quite a few people leaving with armloads of stuff. Many people visited the jail, and hopefully, those that weren't members will join up. The Old Jail looked quite good. I have to comment on one more thing...when we initially started working on the play, we wanted to do it so that the audience could follow the cast to various sites at the east end of the park. Rick Swan, my and Ingrid's partner and the director, simply made the whole east end of the park the set, which is about 200-250 feet wide, and includes the Pioneer Cabin, a "cemetery" we put in on the north end of the set, and a big shelter we turned into the store/salooon. Rick didn't think the audience would need to get up and move, and they truly didn't. But we had a large number of people so caught up in the play, that they followed the cast from one end of the set to the other ANYWAY. Especially when the Taylor brothers were hung--a trick that we really enjoyed seeing. There were over 20 men, most of whom played dual roles and changed shirts or donned masks as needed. Poor Greg--I have a wonderful husband! He filled various roles in rehearsals for absent cast members at times, and he worked his tail off helping with set up and tear down. He was totally exhausted yesterday. I don't think I could have met a nicer bunch of folks. I am truly humbled by the wonderful people I've met in relation to Outlaw Roundup. Many of them left before I could thank them, but we're sending them Thank Yous this week. Y'all...it was a lot of work, but I'm ready for the next one! <VBG> Vonda ListMom for MOTaney and MO-AR-WRV http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~moarwrv/ http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gregvonda/