TREVOR's Blog
June 2010
Archives
All photos © 2010 Nancy F. Little unless otherwise noted.
Professional gigs are in large bold in text.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
"A Good Start!"
Traditionally, June is my busiest work month of the year. So far, this year is sticking to the pattern: after months and months of less than 7 gigs a month, I have 7 gigs this week alone!
We start off the month with a wonderful event: The Peacemakers' Summit at Hampshire College. This is a conference for student peer mediators in grades 4-12. It is run by The Mediation & Training Collaborative (a program of Community Action! of the Franklin, Hampshire, and North Quabbin Regions) and the Franklin-Hampshire Guidance Association (an organization of school counselors and mental health professionals).
They suddenly discovered they had to do lunch in two shifts. This created a break in their schedule over the lunch hour. So my friend TMTC staffer Jade Barker, invited juggler Paul Richmond (below) and me to fill the gap.
So at 11:40, about 40 kids came piling out of Franklin-Patterson Hall and spilled out into the courtyard next to the lawn where Paul and I had set up. Paul had a boodle of juggling equipment all spread out and ready to go on one side;
and I had a play space marked off with cones and my parachute unpacked
and ready to go on the other.
The staff told the kids they could move freely back and forth between the activities or just hang out in the court yard. Paul announced, "Whoever wants to learn to juggle, c'mon over here." And I followed up with, "And whoever wants to play some games, come over here." About half the kids piled out onto the field, and for the next half hour there were balls and scarves and clubs flying through the air on one side, and kids playing Parachute Games, Elbow Tag, Smaug's Jewels, Everybody's It, and Triangle Tag on the other.
When the time was up, lots of kids took my website sticker... in fact, a whole bunch of them who hadn't even participated wanted one!
And then at 12:10, a second group came piling out --- this time the older kids. And we did the same stuff all over again with the big kids. What a whole lot of FUN!
The Mediation & Training Collaborative does some really amazing work, including training students to mediate conflicts between their peers. Where else have you ever seen two groups of 40 upper grade school students all hanging out together without a single argument, disagreement, or conflict of any sort? It's AMAZING!
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
"Immediate Call Back, More Gardening"
Some things just make my day. An immediate call back is definitely one of them.
Yesterday evening I got a call from Jade Barker at the Peacemakers' Summit saying that the staff and kids liked my work so much that they want me to come back today! AWESOME!
This time was a little different, though. Paul Richmond was also there again today but instead of us both working outdoors together at the same time, I was going to have all the kids outside first and then he would do a show for them all inside afterwards. What that meant for me is that I had a lot more kids in my group and that they didn't have another activity 20' away to wander off to at will. That meant I had a bigger crowd that all pretty much stayed and played the whole time. 
Shortly after I got home, Nancy and I drove to Southampton where I dug up several wisteria vines for my lovely wife, as well as some lamiastrum --- a rather pretty ground cover --- for my rock garden.
Nancy's wanted some wisteria for quite a while now, so she's pretty happy about it. I planted it along the short fence next to the rear of our driveway at the northwest corner of the house. We'll have to train it away from the gate there next to it, but that's really not a problem since we'll have to train it anyways. Eventually, it will end up look something like the picture on the right.
After supper, I went out to plant the lamiastrum in the rock garden and ended up working until after 9:00 putting that stuff in, pulling all the big weeds out of the rock garden, planting the myrtle and the rest of the sunflower shoots I got last week, trimming the dead leaves off the entire row of sunflowers, staking up the ones that had fallen over, and starting the rock border along the edge of it. It's looking pretty good out there.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
"Preschoolers are Awesome!
And so is Jeanne Chenier!"
Jeanne Chenier has booked me every year since 1991 for a variety of events: a couple of birthday parties, the South Hadley Health Fair, the South Hadley Parent Child Resource Center, the South Hadley Family Center Picnic, the South Hadley Community Supper, and this year --- certainly not for the first time --- the Plains Elementary School Preschool Picnic in, 
you guessed it, South Hadley MA.
(One thing Jeanne has going for her is my unparalleled Repeat Client Price Policy: "If you book me every year, I'll never raise my fee." So Jeanne has been paying 1991 prices for today's entertainment! She's the senior member of a small group of about a dozen clients who book me on a yearly basis.)
So, the South Hadley Preschool has morning and afternoon sessions, so I got to do two shows for this wonderful age-group: the first was outside on the lawn by the ball field where it usually is, and the second was in the gym due to impending rain... well, actually, in half the gym because the gym teacher still had a class to teach so she closed the folding wall down the middle.
Since this was a family picnic, about 10 minutes before it was scheduled to begin, parent started showing up with blankets and lawnchairs and spread themselves out in front of where I had set up. When they all arrived and gotten settled in, I did The Outdoor Special for them... even in the gym!
Friday, June 4, 2010
"7-1/2 Hours --- 6 New Bushes"
Once again, due to the wonders of the Internet, I've added 6 small bushes to our yard: 2 arborvitaes and 4 yews. It took all day --- I left home around 10:30 this morning and finally finished cleaning up at home a little after 6:00. But in my ever-changing quest to privatize our backyard, these new bushes are going to be a big help.
These new bushes are now across the top of the hill along the side of the road beginning at the end of the little corner of the retaining wall I built last month. I put the arborvitaes on each end for decorative purposes. In a couple of years, when these all fill in, they will be a solid year-round hedge between us and the road. YAY!
Saturday, June 5, 2010
"Almost Like Old Times"
It's June, traditionally my busies month work-wise. I put in a 9-hour work day today --- seems almost like old times: back when I was working all day long, and often late into the night, every single weekend.
This morning, I was at the YMCA Camp Apex Staff Orientation leading one of my supremely FUN and 100% participatory 2-hour Cooperative Play Staff Trainings for a group of 15 summer camp staff and their director Dave Garappolo in Shelburne MA. Although most of this crew was a bit reluctant at first, they all got into it quickly and by the third or fourth game every single one of them was up to speed.
Afterwards, they gave me overwhelmingly positive response on their evaluation sheets. At the bottom of his sheet, Dave wrote: "TREVOR is the best!"
In the past, when the economy was doing well, I did a lot of work at Camp Apex. For several years there I was doing my Weekly Games Classes (where I do several 45-minute visits over an extended period of time for a very reduced rate per visit) except they were having me come in 3 times a week for most of their camp session each year.
So I've been to Camp Apex a lot! Due to the current economy, however, it's been six years since the last time I was there was in 2002, which was Dave's very first year on staff there as a camp counselor!
From there, I drove south for a brief stop at home to grab some food before driving further south to Connecticut. A few years ago, I got a last-minute call from corporate event planner Carol Boles of Carol's Main Events hoping against hope that I was available on very short notice because some unprofessional entertainer had cancelled at the last moment. Luckily, I was available. And had a blast entertaining the crowds at a company picnic not too far from home. Carol kind of gushed at me a bit afterwards about my work.
And a month ago, I got another call from her --- this time in plenty of time --- to see if I was available for her grandchildren's birthday party! So this afternoon, I entertained around 15 kids and the same number of adults at Brendan and Izabella's 6th birthday party in Manchester CT. I was primarily entertaining the children, but unlike at most kids birthday parties I do, nearly all the adults we actually watching the show, laughing at all the jokes, and having a good time during my show. I like it when that happens.
So a special thanks to Carol for booking me again. It was a joy to entertain your grandchildren, family and friends.
And on the way home, I made a little side trip of off Rte 91 to scenic Westfield MA to pick up a bunch of baby tulip tree shootlets that I got through our local Freecycle-style plant sharing group ChlorophyllPV. Last Fall, I got 5 of these these little 5" - 10" yearlings and planted them along the roadside where I put the new bushes yesterday. They're still there; I put the bushes just behind them. However, two of them died this Spring, and a third wasn't doing so well, so I was glad to see them posted for pick-up again this week.
I only needed 3 but the lady kept on digging up more and more. When she got to 7, I had to tell her to stop. It was a tough call where to put the extras, but I ended up planting them along the back just inside the new holly bushes there.
They'll be awesome in about 5 years!
Sunday, June 6, 2010
"Another Great Party!"
Before leaving for work this morning, I heard tornado warnings on the radio for the entire length of the 100+ miles I was going to be driving each way today. But I only got sprinkled on twice for a few minutes on the way down 91 and west across Connecticut on the Wilbur Cross and Merritt Parkways to Easton CT.
When I got to my destination, things were already set up and hopping, most of the guests had arrived, and everyone was ready to celebrate Johnny Cusmano's 2nd birthday! 
The little guy didn't know what to think of me and pretty much just stared at me wide-eyed through the entire stilt show.
But when I pulled out my parachute, he just couldn't get enough of it and ran laughing on top of it every time it touched the ground! That little birthday boy sure was having a BLAST doing his own version of Parachute Play!
As we were finishing up the final parachute game, the rains began. It wasn't perfect timing --- all we asked for was an hour and a half without rain --- but it could have been way worse. We actually got to finish everything that really had to be outside before the wetness arrived.
Everybody was really helpful about helping haul my equipment into the garage. Johnny's dad John brought out a table for us to use for Project: Ribbon Dancer, and right there in the garage I began churning out ribbon dancers for the kids to decorate and play with.
By the time I'd make maybe 5 or 6 of them, the rain had stopped and the kids who were done with the art part went out on the driveway and began playing with them. By the time I was all done, there were about a dozen kids on the driveway waving their new creation all in the air! What FUN!
Monday, June 7 - Thursday, June 10, 2010
"A Working Vacation"
My lovely wife and I are very involved with our church's family camp up in Maine, the Fryeburg 
New Church Assembly. She's been the camp Registrar for at least five years now; I've been the camp Activities Director and on the Board of Directors for over 30 years; and together we run the camp's Outreach Committee.
As Registrar, one thing Nancy's in charge of is room and cabin assignments. It's a big juggle every year to match all the people up with the spaces available. This year, one of the cabins needed a major (I can only call it) "purging". It had over 60 years worth of accumulation in it from the same family and their offspring, and for the first time ever someone else was going to be using it this summer. So we needed to clear out some of the accumulated detritus to make it comfortable for the older couple that was going to be in there.
Nancy knew it was going to be several days' work --- there was a LOT of stuff in there! --- and she wasn't able to get to it at all over Memorial Day weekend when she was up there for the traditional FNCA Work Weekend, so we planned a trip up this week to get the work done: she was going to spend several days clearing out that cabin, and I was going to spend the time doing basic cleaning in all the bedrooms in the Main Building.
She obtained her objective during our four days there... and I helped: I spent over three hours the first day just unscrewing useless stuff from the walls! But I never even got started on my intended assignment because the night before we left, my son Jason, the camp web host, sent me the new template he put together for creating a brand new website for the FNCA.
Remember when I mentioned above that Nancy & I run the camp Outreach Committee? Well, last Winter at the Board's mid-winter meeting, I took on the task of being the camp's webmaster. The previous webmaster had started a website for the Assembly and had all sorts of stuff up, but it was very incomplete with lots of links that didn't go anywhere, and it needed a lot of updating. I tried unsuccessfully to find a free web editor that would work. I finally found one but even with the help of my extremely web-savvy son couldn't figure out how to edit all the links that didn't go anywhere. So we decided that it would be best to just start over.
Now Jason had already provided me with a terrific template for creating and editing this very website, so I already had experience creating a large website. But time was of the essence: I had dragged my feet on this for so long since agreeing to do it last winter that it was already time for people to begin registering for camp for this year. So I had decided that as soon as Jason put together the necessary template that I'd dedicate myself to it full-time and get this baby done!
So what I did the four days we were up in Maine was glue myself to my laptop in the Dole Wing and spend 12-16 hours each day working on creating the new Fryeburg New Church Assembly website!
Wowie zowie!
Friday, June 11, 2010
"Fryeburg.org Goes Live!"
Got home last night. Worked all day today (another 16+ hours) on the website. Finished getting all the basics up, so shortly after midnight tonight, the brand-new FNCA website went live!
Saturday, June 12, 2010
"Gorgeous Gardens"
Had a wonderful time (and a wonderful break from the website, too!) with Nancy and our good friends Don & Barbara doing the Forbes Library's annual Garden Tour in Northampton MA. Nine wonderful home gardens are opened to the public as a benefit for the library. It takes most of the day to see them all.
A couple of the gardens had been on the tour several years ago, so it was especially nice to see how they had grown and developed over the intervening years.
These flowers pictured above are actually Nancy's red Asiatic Lilies from her flower gardens at our house, but she's done such a fabulous job with the flower beds that our place could easily be on a garden tour in our town.
After D & B left and Nancy went to bed, I did 4 or 5 hours of work on the FNCA website.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
"Children's Sunday"
Over the past 15 years, it has been a real joy to entertain the children quite a few times at the First Congregational Church of Chicopee's Children's Sunday 
in Chicopee MA.
They have a BBQ lunch together after the Sunday Service, and when the kids are mostly done eating, we gather all the kids together in the corner of the big dining room in the basement and I do a show for them while the parents all watch from the dining area... I know they're watching because they always laugh at all the jokes intended for adults!
One delightful thing is that I've done this gig so many times now that some of the kids I entertained my first time there have become parents and I'm entertaining their children now!.jpg)
Monday, June 14, 2010
"7 Great Guys"
At the regular monthly meeting of the Hats Off Performers Guild today, all seven of us were there for the first time in months and month and months and months. When you take 7 full-time presenters, it's often very unlikely that we'll all be available on the same date. We gave when our numbers grew from 6 to 7 a few years ago, the odds got so bad that we just gave up and decided to meet the second Monday of each month no matter what and whoever could make it that's who would be there.
It was terrific to have this great bunch of guys all together again. Most of us have been meeting together for most of our careers. It's such a fulfilling, useful, appreciative, honest, and helpful bunch of people; and I'm just so grateful to be a part of this group.
We start our meetings with "check-ins" where each of us in turn has 4-7 minutes to fill the rest of us in on what been going on for them. I really look forward to this part because I don't see these guys very often and am delighted to get regular updates about their lives.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
"The Last Day of School Forever"
UMass-Amherst decided a while ago that this was going to be the last year for their "teaching" school that they've been running on campus in Amherst MA, so it was a very bittersweet event when I performed for the Marks Meadow Elementary School picnic today.
For me it was quite a bit of a blast from the past, too. When I first moved here in 1982, I immediately landed a job working the Amherst Leisure Services After School Rec Programs in all for Amherst Elementary Schools, so I was at this school once a week for an hour and a half every single school week from 1982-1989. That's nearly 300 times I was leading games at this school! So to be back again on the last day ever was probably as tough for me as it was for everyone else.
There was a huge crowd with picnic blankets spread out all across the back lawn, and a pretty good spread of food available. There were a few speeches, and they gave out some awards. And the dunk tank was very, Very, VERY popular!
"River Valley Market Ice Cream Social"
From there, I drove directly to Northampton where I had originally agreed to entertain pro bono from 5-8 at the River Valley Market Ice Cream Social, but because the Marks Meadow event had been rained out the day before, I 
wasn't able to get to the Co-op until around 7:00.
I made it there just in time to see my nominee for this year's RVM Co-op Hero Award for an Individual be presented to my nominee: our founder David Gowler, without whom there probably wouldn't be a River Valley Market today because getting this started was his baby back in the late 90's. He originated the concept of a new food co-op in Northampton, spearheaded 
the movement from its inception, organized the people interested in helping, and served as our very first President of the Board. These days, David is content to just be an employee there (he's a rather humble guy!) so unless you were around at the beginning you'd have no way of knowing that this is the guy that River Valley Market owes our existence to.
After the formal part was over, the band started another set. Swing Caravan plays Gypsy Jazz a la Django Reinhardt: part swing, part dixie, part jazz, all toe-tapping can't-hold-still music. Once they'd gotten started, I pulled out my parachute and we played some Parachute Games right there in the parking lot while the band played some really catchy tunes. It was wonderful!
"Two Arborvitae Trees Yesterday, I dug up a free arborvitae tree through Freecyle. I was going to get his brother, too, but it started raining. So this morning, I got the other one. They're now anchoring the southern end of what will eventually be a yew and arborvitae hedge along the eastern edge of my backyard.
The photo at left shows how I strategically placed the tree on the left to try to block our across-the-street neighbors' view into our back yard. As they get bigger over the next few years, they well be even more effective in this. We like our neighbors, we just like our privacy more.
I really like arborvitae a lot --- we have two HUGE arborvitae bushes in the back yard, so I'm glad that we will also now have two arborvitae trees.
I also got several dozen 2' tall sunflowers that I'm going to put along the bottom of my new retaining wall.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
""Graduation""
(Those double quotation marks are appropriate.) Went to Windsor Locks CT this afternoon for Rhys Mendoza Villa's kindergarten "graduation" party. They saw me last October at Brown's Harvest Pumpkin Festival in Windsor, so it was great to see them again! There were about 15 kids and a whole bunch of adults there to enjoy the show.
Sunday & Monday, June 20 & 21, 2010
"A Little Vacation with Pete's Family"
Nancy's brother Pete and his whole family are at his cabin in Island Pond VT way up in the Northeast Kingdom. They live in Michigan, so whenever they come east, we arrange things to go north for a visit.
As usual when we go there during warm weather and Pete's there, we pitched our tent tucked in under the birch trees at the bend in the top of the driveway right next to Hole #5 of Pete's 18-hole disc golf course.
It was great to see Pete and Ivy (pictured left) and Pete's soon-to-be wife and her two great boys.
Nancy really needed a little vacation, too, so this was a great excuse to go north.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
"Batchin' It"
My dear, darling wife left for our national church convention in St. Paul this morning. She'll be gone until Sunday, so for the next five days, I'm batchin' it!
She's a Massachusetts delegate to the convention as well as the president of the Women's Alliance, not only that, but everybody loves her so she'll be really busy the whole time.
She's really good about calling me when she has a few minutes to talk, and we always talk for a while each night before she goes to sleep, but I'll miss her. She'll be having a great time, though!
Thursday, June 24, 2010
"Repeat Customers are Terrific!"
Working the back end is so important in my business. For anyone unfamiliar with marketing terms, that means getting previous customers to buy again. For anyone interested in statistics, if you take how much money you spend on advertising and other promotions and divide that by the total number of customers, what you get is the Cost per Customer. Secondly, if you take your ad and promo dollars and divide it just by the new customers, it's an even more accurate representation because most of the time, you don't have to "sell" repeat customers since they already know they like what you have to offer... often all it takes is a little nudge: an email, a postcard, a phone call saying "Hey, we had lots of FUN last time: want some more?" Right now my Cost per New Customer is around $90 dollars, and my Cost per Repeat Customer is around $1. The difference is $89 more profit per repeat customer. So you can see how important it is to work the back end.
It's even better when they contact you first and it doesn't cost anything. And that was the case today when I worked at Acton KinderCare at Post Office Square in Acton 
MA. At this point, I've worked there so many times that they just call me and say Are you available on this date? and I say Yes and they say Great! and that's it!
They have a wonderful little performance room with a tiny little stage at Acton KinderCare. And I mean it when I say "tiny little": it's about the size of a singly bed and has such a low ceiling that when I'm on stilts for the first part of the show, not only do I have to take the spotlights out of the ceiling tracks, but I can't wear my hat either!
Today, things were a little different than previous times. In the past, they've brought all the kids in at the beginning, and then taken the the 2-3-year-olds out about halfway through. This time, however, they brought this group in first and I did about 20-minutes just with them. This creates a special challenge for an entertainer of my stature (and I mean height!) because that's exactly the age when I'm always just way too big for a few children's comfort. When there's older kids around, the youngers can take their "safety cues" from them: if the big kids are laughing, the little kids know it's okay. But with just the youngers, it's a special challenge for me.
So what did I do? Simple: I didn't stand up. I was sitting on top of a bookcase (where I put my stilts on) when the kids came in, and I just stayed sitting down the entire 20 minutes of silliness I did for them. The staff still had to take out one small boy who was having a particularly hard morning, but my strategy seemed to work!
Then the youngers left, the olders piled in, and I finally got to stand up and do a "real" show! And after a whole lot of laughter and FUN together, we made ribbon dancers for the kids to decorate, play with, and take home as a souvenir for even more FUN later!
Saturday, June 26, 2010
"Good Friends"
Had a great time batchin' it with our friends Don & Barbara (pictured left) at their home in Bellows Falls today. Haven't seen them for a little while, so it was nice to get together even though Nancy wasn't there.
Don and I are both science fiction nuts, so whenever I'm at their house and we hang out in his library --- which is every single time --- we often end up talking about science fiction. Don seems to remember the title, plot, and characters of every s-f book he's ever written, whereas I basically only remember if I liked it or not. If I were to say, for instance, that I'm currently reading Roger Zelazny's The Hand of Oberon, which is the fourth book in the first arc his very popular series "The Chronicles of Amber", Don would immediately say, "That's the ones where the royalty can communicate and teleport using Tarot cards of themselves, right?" and he would, of course, be correct.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
"Another Terrific Repeat Customer!"
A year ago, through my fellow Hats Off Performers Guild member Henry the Juggler, I did one of my rare gigs in upstate New York. This year, all on their own and once again--- like Acton KinderCare a few days ago --- with not even a nudge from me, they called me back for a repeat performance at the Ballston Spa Fun Day at 
the Saratoga County Fairgrounds in Ballston Spa NY.
Like last year, this was a special event just for Ballston Spa residents. It used only a small portion of the fairgrounds (see map). Once again, I did two shows with about an hour of free stiltwalking in between.
And once again --- just like at Acton KinderCare --- there was something a little bit different this time, too. Last year, they had the shows set up in the pavilion on the right of those three in a row you can see on the map. It's closed in on the sides so there's no distractions during the show. This year, however, not only did they put us in the middle pavilion that doesn't have sides, but they also had --- believe it on not --- an inflatable planetarium set up behind the performers that was very distracting since there was a huge line of people waiting to get in and people walking in and out during my entire second show! Oh well. We still had a mighty lot of FUN! And I'd do it again in a flash!
Sunday, June 27 - Tuesday, June 29, 2010
"The Trip Home from Hell".jpg)
Remember when I said above in my "Batchin' It" entry for June 23 that my lovely wife was coming home from our church convention on Sunday? Well she didn't. Instead, she had the Trip Home from Hell. She left the convention site in St. Paul MN at 3:00 Sunday afternoon and didn't get home until 8:00 Tuesday morning! That's a 41 hour trip to go about 1,310 miles. If she were driving that, it would be an average speed of 32 miles per hour! I could have driven there and back driving the speed limit all the way and still have gotten here first! If you haven't heard the full story yet, you can read the whole horrendous saga on Nancy's blog post.