I was at Barbershtock 2011!

My name is Peggy, and I am a Sweet Adeline. Hi, Peggy.

What?! You don’t know about Sweet Adelines?! We are an international group of women who sing 4-part a cappella barbershop harmony. We have LOADS of fun, but it is LOADS of hard work. I joined the Top of the Rock Chorus about seven years ago. I get to sing with my mom. She joined the chorus a few years before me.

Here’s a picture of me and Mom at one of our Christmas programs.

We even sang in a quartet together. Sorry, the best quartet picture I could find was one that was taken by a professional photographer. I don’t want to get in trouble with the picture people.

Anyway…blah, blah, blah. I really am going somewhere with all of this. I just felt like you needed a little background.

Last weekend was our regional competition weekend in Richardson, TX. Top of the Rock is part of Region 25, which includes choruses from Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Missouri. Since we were the reigning champions (hooray for us!) we didn’t compete this year. Being the champs means you get to go compete in the international competition. So, we will compete in Houston, TX in October. ANYWAY…this was our year to do all the behind the scenes work. I was the Audio/Visual gal. I got to look like I was really busy by wearing a head set all weekend. Sorry, again, no pictures. That’s ok, you really didn’t want to see my head set hair.

There are strict rules about taking pictures or video taping any of the competition. I’m sure it all has to do with music copyrights and such. There is always a paid professional photographer and videographer for the weekend.

This year the region brought back the Family Chorus. Since the kids were on Spring Break they, and hubby, got to come with me. So we made plans to sing in the Family Chorus along with Mom-3 generations-woo hoo! The regional theme was Barbershtock, a play on Woodstock. All the non-competition stuff centered around this theme. The Family Chorus song was “The 59th Street Bridge Song” aka “Feelin’ Groovy”. I never knew it was called “The 59th Street Bridge Song” did you?

Well, to make a long story short, Mom and Dad got stuck in the Caribbean due to some fire fighter’s union strike at the airport, so they didn’t make it for the Family Chorus, or anything else that weekend. There are worse places to be stranded I am sure. We missed her, but the girls and I had a blast singing together.

Here we are getting ready to go to the Regional Annual Membership Meeting (RAMM).

Yes, Katie is trying to be cool. Thus the weird expression.

After we finished at the RAMMeeting we all headed outside for a mass sing.

We sang “We are Family” and a couple of others, which I cannot recall at this moment. Where’s Waldo? Not everyone got to be part of the Mass Sing. Lots of competitors had to go get ready to hit the stage.

Darlene Rogers directed us. She is an incredible musician!

While I was hard at work, with my head set on, the kids got to swim in the indoor pool. They loved that. Now they are ready for summer to start, so they can swim outside.

After all the competition was over, it was finally time for the Family Chorus. Boy, we were ready!

We begged and borrowed all kinds of clothes from various people just to have something cool to wear on stage. Thanks Melissa, Angela, Judy and Kathy Z.

Again, no photography during the performance.

When the program was over, we headed over to the afterbash for free pizza and cake! You talk about some excited kids-FREE PIZZA AND CAKE at 10:00 P.M.!!!!

Just look at the fun they were having.