North Fork singers lighten the mood

Normally, North Fork winter and early spring social activities are confined to private homes. These activities involve dinner parties, football and basketball parties (not everyone has satellite TV) and occasional card parties and book-lovers doings. Not this year. Last Wednesday a new group, The North Fork Voices, hosted the first potluck dinner of the year and, according to Lois Walker, gave spring a joyous welcome. The dinner was followed by a performance by The North Fork Voices choral group.

The tables were beautifully decorated with yellow tablecloths, spring plants and flowers provided by Alice and Jan Caldwell. A crowd of 30 enjoyed the food, which was plenteous and tasty, as usual. Afterward the chorus, accompanied by John O’Hara on guitar and Lois Walker on keyboard, offered a program featuring patriotic, folk, traditional and inspirational songs. To further lighten the mood, John O’Hara performed a special rendition of “April Showers” with North Fork appropriate lyrics. A great time was had by all and I hope we hear a lot more from them in the near future.

John’s version of “April Showers” garnered some good laughs with his references to grizzly bears, bugs and bear claws, road dust, and tourists but my favorite verse follows:

“And when you see clouds above the trees

You soon will see crowds of tourists’ knees.

So do us all a favor … say no to those pro-pavers

Whenever April showers come along.”

As far as I am concerned we all too often take ourselves too seriously. It’s great to sometimes laugh at ourselves and the emotional issues a little bit. I am glad to finally see a new North Fork  group dedicated to having fun and entertaining others.

On a more serious note, I thought the columns about Bob Grimaldi’s stance on paving and my thoughts about the Whitefish Range Partnership would generate a lot of comments. So far, no comments at all about the paving issue. Maybe everyone is locked into their own opinion and feel more comment is unneeded or everything has been said and we don’t need to discuss it further since nothing will be done anyway.

I did receive three comments about mountain bikers. I consider all three to be mostly or entirely agreeing with me.

I found one to be particularly interesting. He felt that in the years to come there would be thousands of mountain bikers where there were few today. Furthermore, he has actually ridden the route I mentioned in the column. He rode from Frozen Lake to Thoma Lookout and from there down the mountain to Trail Creek Road. In addition he did not wear body armor. I don’t know if he was alone or in a group, but I would be happy to buy him lunch for the opportunity to talk with him in person. I can be contacted at Box 3, Columbia Falls, by email at lwilson@aboutmontana.net or by phone 892-5951.