That person on the right with the bedraggled hair is meeeee, summer of 1971 at the Interlochen summer camp (and yes we had showers in our camp cabins and yes I had taken one that morning). The Interlochen all-state program was two weeks a summer and pulled in kids from all over the state.

The program was coveted by most decent musicians in the rugged northern outpost of Sault Ste. Siberia. I got to go the last two summers before I graduated from Soo High. I got first “seat” (chair) in the flute section. Man oh man, I cannot remember the name of the girl next to me (second chair) but I liked her so much I think I wanted to name a daughter (eventually) after her. John was third chair. He actually got first chair on audition day but at mid-week challenges, I beat the hell out of him and kept my first chair seat at the next week’s challenges. Oh, don’t get me wrong. He was a good friend and though I haven’t interacted with him personally since then, we both belong to the internet floot loop groop. He posts. I don’t. He has a PhD. All I can say is bravo!

The thing about all of this is that I was competing against flute players from all over the state including many who had access to lessons with Umich profs and even Detroit Symphony players. I had exactly ONE year of lessons from a flute professional. I was in 8th grade when Mrs. Boland moved to town. Her husband was an Air Force officer at Kincheloe and they rented a small house across the Lincoln school yard from my shabby little Superior Street bungalow. My parents always encouraged music lessons and jumped on it to sign me up with her.

I remember being a bit reluctant at the time. Until I met Mrs. Boland. Oh man, she GOT me and she was soooo sweet to me. Like, this little girl can go somewhere with this (if she wants to). She immediately came up with a whole bunch of music for me to order, which my parents would have to pay for (of course). Guess what? They ordered it without question. Imma gonna guess all these years later that The Commander said something like, “We’ll pay for any music she needs.” I know my mom. A couple years later when I *re-started* piano lessons (on my own volition), she paid Mrs. Diabeck more than the asking price.

Mrs. Boland and her husband moved on (as Air Force folks often do) after a year and I was flute teacher-less again until I went to Interlochen and then college. Mrs. Boland had somehow given me enough flute repertoire for me to forge on without a decent teacher. And so, at Interlochen (and at college) and with a lot of practicing and love of music, a kid (meeee) from the yooperland beat out kids that had top-dollar teachers.

Partita? I finished reading it (audio book) today and there is so much to unpack between my life and the protagonist’s life and the author’s life. I may (or may not) get back to this thread some day. I *loved* the book and I have a hangover from it.

Here’s an interview transcription for Barbara Kingsolver on NPR. It may be tldr but it’s good. Dupuytren’s contracture makes an appearance in this interview. I don’t have Dupuytren’s contracture but I sure know about it.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 18th, 2026 at 6:51 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.