Confetti Park

Tag: family

  • Charlie Bush recalls the earliest days of his lifelong relationship with music

    Charlie Bush recalls the earliest days of his lifelong relationship with music

    Charlie Bush is a guitar player, drummer, and a retired chef from Shreveport, Louisiana. His childhood was imbued with music, as he had an incredibly wonderfully large musical family, with all the siblings having particular instruments they played and a personal repertoire of songs they were known for singing in their family ranks.

    Charlie’s brother Bill Bush is a Louisiana legend who led a musical combo for fifty years. (Learn about the Bill Bush Combo) He operated a club in Shreveport called the Moulin Rouge, where members of the family honed their performance chops. Eventually, Charlie and his sister Rebecca toured New Zealand as a duo singing folk and rock songs.

    Charlie’s mom Ruby had a big impact on his appreciation of music (and that of his siblings).

    “It started out with my mom, who was a piano player, and played for all my talent shows growing up,” says Charlie.

    Ruby is still living at 99 years young and regularly performs for her fellow residents at a nursing home in the Dallas area!

    See video

    Charlie took ukulele lessons when he was seven years old at the Shreveport Memorial Library. (Aren’t public libraries WONDERFUL??) Soon after, he started taking guitar lessons.

    “My first song was John Denver, ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads,’” recalls Charlie. “Then I learned 27 Jimmy Buffet songs because they were all three and four chords. Easy to learn…. and I just went on from there!”

    And that’s how it’s done, kids. Find an instrument you like, learn some popular songs you really love. Start with the easy ones. Once you learn just a few chords, the world of musical performance opens up to you!

    Thank you Charlie Bush for sharing your childhood music memories with Confetti Park.

  • Scenes from Family Pyrate Day

    Scenes from Family Pyrate Day

  • There be pirates in Algiers Point!

    There be pirates in Algiers Point!

    Family Pyrate Day is upon us!

    Treasures from the Point and Family Pyrate Day – Saturday, March 25
    Rain or shine! The Confetti Kids Treasures from the Point porch sale will be followed by a day-long family-friendly celebration of pirate culture hosted by Confetti Kids & the NOLA Pyrates

    Join Confetti Kids, Confetti Park and our mates of NOLA Pyrate Week for a swashbuckling good time on the Mississippi River in Algiers Point. SEE MAP There will be storytellers, musical performances, a pyrate market and cafe…games, demonstrations, and crafting, too.

  • Trombonist David Phy recalls turning sheet music for the church organist–his dad

    Trombonist David Phy recalls turning sheet music for the church organist–his dad

    Dr. David Phy plays trombone
    Dr. David Phy plays trombone

    In this episode of Confetti Park, New Orleans-based trombonist Dr. David Phy shares early music memories of learning how to read sheet music with his dad.

    David is a professional musician who has performed with national acts and jazz artists such as The 4 Tops, The Temptations, Bonerama, Delfeyo Marsalis, The Yin Yang Twins, Chip McNeil, Louis Belson, Lena Prima, Louis Prima Jr., Charo, and the Dukes of Dixieland. He has taught at Tulane University, University of New Orleans and Delgado Community College in New Orleans.

    David grew up in a musical household. His father was a professional pianist, organist, and teacher. His role as church organist led to David’ earliest interactions with written music.

    Says David: “Growing up, my father was the church organist. At the end of church, there is always the postlude, where there’s a nice big organ fanfare piece, as people are supposed to go out into the world and carry on the philosophy of the sermon.

    I remember I used to run up the stairs to the church loft where he would be playing organ, and he would need me to turn pages for him.

    As he said ‘Turn the page,’ I knew that he would be starting at the top…so though I couldn’t read music…I kind of started following along.

    I would play a game with myself, to think, ‘I bet, as I’m following along with my eyes, I can guess roughly when he needs me to turn the page….’ That was one of my earliest moments with music.”

    David explains how these early experiences led him to playing in high school, college, cruise ships, Vegas, and now, New Orleans!

    Isn’t it wonderful how these childhood musical interactions with his father led to a full, lifelong career in music? Thanks for sharing your memory, Dr. Dave!

    Learn more about David Phy

  • Storytime: Diamonds in the Rough—1800s Memories of Minnie Carter

    Storytime: Diamonds in the Rough—1800s Memories of Minnie Carter

    Minnie Maude Carter Boston, born in Nathan, Ark., August 18, 1888.
    Minnie Maude Carter Boston, born in Nathan, Ark., August 18, 1888.

    A very long time ago, my great-grandmother Minnie Carter Boston shared for posterity some of her memories of life growing up in rural Arkansas in the late 1800s, in the piney woods and rolling hills. Her daughter-in-law (and my grandmother) Gypsy Damaris Petty Boston transcribed the memories while they lived in Shreveport, Louisiana.

    Arkansas is part of an eroded lamproite volcanic pipe, which has caused diamonds to rise to the surface. I don’t understand all the geological processes, but there really are diamonds to be found on the ground in Arkansas. There is even a mining field called Crater of Diamonds that is open to the public, where you can go with your shovel, bucket and screen kit and hunt for diamonds under the hot, hot sun. You keep what you find!

    The story goes that when Minnie was growing up, they regularly encountered the rough uncut stones in their yard, and never knew that they were playing with precious gemstones. So many people in the region were poor farmers and loggers—oh, the irony! How different their lives would have been had they recognized the diamonds in the rough (and knew where to trade them!).

    I Played with DiamondsMinnie Carter printed up her memories in a little book and called it I Played With Diamonds. In the forward, she dedicates it to her grandchildren:

    “This booklet has especially been written for you. You have the story of my childhood days in the first ten years of my life.”

    You won’t find this collection of family stories, childhood adventures, descriptions of country life or particular people on any library shelf (that I am aware of), but there are a few dozen copies out there. I have one, and to me, it is as precious as any diamond.

    Within it are essays with colorful titles such as “Bath Facilities,” “Hog Killing Time,” “An Ash Hopper and How to Make Soap,” and “My First and Last Dip of Snuff.” The book is delightful, sweet, entertaining, and shows the great warmth and love her family. It’s also a marvelous snapshot of a time before industrialization, telephones, television, and Internet. It seems so very long ago.

    Here is the opening of the book, narrated by New Orleans schoolteacher Catherine Golden. It is a description of the house that Minnie grew up in… it sets the scene for the stories that will follow, about the family, friends and neighbors of little Minnie Carter. The second segment is “My First Shopping Trip,” in which Minnie must trade an old hen to afford a birthday present.

    I hope you enjoy this booklet, which I will share in segments over time.

    P.S. Consider writing a memoir for your future grandchildren, by documenting the experiences of your childhood!

     

     

     

     

     

  • Thanksgiving playlists make beautiful music memories for Rich Collins

    Thanksgiving playlists make beautiful music memories for Rich Collins

    Rich Collins
    Rich Collins

    It’s a childhood music memory from Rich Collins, a founder and front man for one of the most popular children’s music groups in the world, the Imagination Movers. Rich also has a burgeoning solo career, with a new album of songs geared toward adults. (Scroll down for music videos!)

    In this music memory, Rich talks about the music he associates with large family gatherings at Thanksgiving:

    “My family up in DC was large and we would all gather for all the major holidays, and the holiday that was at our house every year was Thanksgiving. And we had a very fun family, so basically the way every one of these gatherings ended was with all the tables and chairs being pushed aside, and we would put on records and start dancing.”

    Rich talks about how his father curated the albums that became the basis for Thanksgiving memories: “The soundtrack to my youth, and to these parties, and to these great family memories, was the Beatles, Creedence, and Otis Redding.”

    Today, the tradition lives on for Rich and his family.

    “Every other year here in New Orleans (where I’ve been for 25 years), I host Thanksgiving. And I have a Pandora channel with those three artists on it and I put it on and it’s playing the whole time that I’m gathered with my sisters and my mom and the next generation…”

    Thanks, Rich, for sharing this wonderful family tradition with Confetti Park. Listen to this extended interview with Rich Collins, all about the music of the Imagination Movers.