We were planning an editorial to give well-deserved kudos to the folks who planned and put on the Chips ‘n’ Splinters variety show and the Frontier Sportsman’s Holiday Coronation event last Thursday evening.
Then we received the letter below, which stole a lot of our thunder. So we won’t need to go into as much detail as we had planned.
Suffice to say that the revival of Chips ‘n’ Splinters sounded like a good idea on paper, at least, when Wendy Smith and Andrea Culy first announced that it was going to happen. Well, it was.
The Wilson family, Sheila Kent, Taylor Thorpe, Cheyenne Patton, Dave Samson, Debbie Olson and the Gypsy Circle Belly Dancers came together to put on a lively show emceed by Brad and Amy Newport.
If you missed it, well, you missed out. Yes, there were a few little glitches, as could be expected in a first-time show that was hastily arranged and for which artists were harder to come by than expected. But it was a good show and nearly everybody we saw left with big smiles on their faces.
In this day of TV and computers and video games and You-Tube, we can still have fun the old-fashioned way, especially when it’s followed by great pie and ice cream.
Our only question, hopefully one that will be answered next year, is where were all the rest of the talented people who could add enjoyment to other people’s lives by sharing their abilities? We know the timing isn’t great €“ summer vacation kind of sucks the creative life out of some of our young (and older) artists. But if the older generations could put on lively, entertaining performances 40 or 50 years ago, it’s hard to believe we can’t do it now.
Next year local artists will have another chance. We’re guessing the crowd will be even bigger and that should give some of our local performers some motivation to get up there and put on a show.
Bigger and better than the great one we saw last week.