Monday, November 25, 2002

Well here I am in a 19th century farmer’s hall listening to a rehearsal of “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens while Lois’s recorder group plays period music. I’m amazed how well the cast is doing with a number of quite young actors and actresses—kids, really, but they know their lines perfectly. It’s quite powerful being acted in this fashion, I think. So the spirits are taking Scrooge on his parlous journey and we are sincerely hoping for his ultimate redemption.

All in all, it’s been quite a day. We were up bright and early this morning for a Slim Slam breakfast at Denny’s followed by a quick pack and go from the motel. We drove down to Lockport, near Joliet, to take the Volksmarch there. It was a very scenic (but cold and icy) walk along an early 1800s canal and towpath. After a mile walking along the canal we turned left to climb up the bank into the small town of Lockport and quartered the town from stem to stern, so to speak. We found several nice-looking churches and a handsome City Hall building with, thank goodness, nice restrooms!

After our walk we drove up to Debbie’s in Buffalo Grove for lunch and a visit, but we got lost at the very end and had to call her for directions! She made some super-sized tacos, and we all had a nice meal. Although Rob had to work, it was good to see her son Karl (he wasn’t in school that day) and hear all the family news. We all looked through our picture book for the year before leaving to drive north to Lois’s around 3:30.

Traffic on the toll road was light, so we arrived at Lois’s dome home before 5, which was nice as it gave us daylight for the last part of the drive. That being the case, we were emboldened to take rural road route back to her place south of Burlington. That route is quicker than the main highway because it doesn’t pass through any towns and just has 2 or 3 stop signs for the whole distance. When we arrived, Lois wasn’t there but had left the door open so we could unpack and settle in. Her recorder group had a rehearsal scheduled that evening. They were accompanying the play, “A Christmas Carol”, at Old Wisconsin, an open-air museum focused on Wisconsin’s past. We drove a circuitous route up past Mukwonago to find the place, and only got turned around once. When we arrived I knocked on a door to rouse a ranger and he drove us over to the meeting hall, where we found the rehearsal in progress. They courteously shifted the rehearsal to the sections where they needed the accompaniment of the recorder group, and the quartet tooted their way through the music. It did seem appropriate that something from Dickens would have this style of music for the festival scene. Copyright 2002 by Robert W. Holt