Howdy Y'all, I realized yesterday that I hadn't posted about Ozarks Celebration last weekend. I must be out of it, for I usually can't wait to do that, as you well know....LOL Despite having plans for 2 months to go with Greg and the kids, Greg ended up working and the kids ended up staying at Mom's. So I begged my sis-in-law, Sherri, and away we went, with no kids (we have 10 between the 2 of us) and no men hanging around. They had a shuttle taking you to the central area, but Sherri and I walked around the campus before going into the Student Union bldg at Southwest MO State, and seeing the exhibits. The White River Valley Historical Society and other groups all had tables with brochures and information. While most of them were Springfield/Greene Co.-oriented, it was good to get info and ideas of what is out there, period. Taney County and other counties of the WRV have so little... There were 3 bandstands, one in the Student Union, 2 outside. A lot of groups had 1 and 2 hour blocks to perform traditional songs and folk songs that I can listen to for hours. In one grounds area, there were tents displaying the crafters who made their own soap; leather goods; several crocheting, knitting, tatting and cloth weaving demonstrators; a couple of fellas from Civil War re-enactments with a soldier's tent, a couple of fires, and their own handmade sausage. They were rendering lard, which was given over to the soapmaker for her products. A man was there with a "portable" forge, crafting sconces and statuary out of iron for sale; although there wasn't a horse in site, you could "see" them and hear the horseshoes being pounded out (time-travel, you know!) Another fellow and his wife teach workshops on basketry, weapons making, medicinal and edible plants, and more. We were lucky to see the final 1/2 hour of a clogging group in the 3rd bandstand; although I guess I always knew, cloggers and square dancers have a language all their own, and it was interesting to see the dancers do certain moves in response to the caller. "Diving for oysters" and so on...I don't remember all of them. But knowing that dances happened frequently in the WRV, depending on the availability of a fiddle player and caller, made it doubly interesting. Some websites and mail addys from what brochures I brought home (if you want more info): Red Willow Primitive Skills is holding a rendezvous and knap-in in late Sep/early Oct near Neosho, in Newton Co. MO. Addy is mailto:[email protected] General Sweeney's Civil War Museum, located just north of Wilson's Creek National Battlefield. http://www.civilwarmuseum.com You can access the WRV Historical Society from the main page of the WRV site. Ozarks Studies, a department at SMSU, has a link under the "Rags, Scraps, and Patches" section of the WRV site. Historic Springfield, Inc., has a tour of Springfield's many historical places available. http://www.historicspringfield.org/ The Missouri Archaelogical Society has a site at http://web.missouri.edu/~asm/main.html The Greene County Historical Society is at http://www.rootsweb.com/~gcmohs/ We were there about 3 hours, in 100 degree or so heat--we're having one hot end to the summer, with temps in the high 90s now for over a week, and forecast to continue until next week, at least (with no rain in nearly a month). But I sure didn't notice the heat much while we were walking and talking to the exhibitors... Vonda