William

I don’t think I’ve been reporting lately on William like I should.

After a most trying year doing his A Beka Chemistry homeschool class, where many times we wondered if we were going to make it, William wound up with a B average. Hallelujah!

William got to perform with his School of Rock band at our town’s Memorial Day Fair. He also has appeared twice at Jammin’ Java, a local coffee house which is quite popular in this parts. He got to play lead guitar on Ina Gadda Davida and Helter Skelter. They really rocked out during Helter Skelter. I had never cared for that song, especially with its association with . . . I don’t even want to say his name! But now it has taken on a much better connotation for me. It was a great moment. And he also played rhythm guitar for Magic Carpet Ride. That was really cool. Of course there were a lot of other kids on stage playing lots of music, but a couple days after his performances I went into the hardware store located right next to Jammin’ Java and I was chatting with the owner and he started talking about how this past Saturday all these kids were playing old sixties music, like Ina Gadda Davida and Helter Skelter. he mentioned those two songs particularly! I was able to brag that my son played lead guitar!!!!

Last night we had Will’s 16th birthday party. His birthday is really June 29th but he’ll be coming back from workcamp that day and will be exhausted, so Hannah did a wonderful job of planning and executing a party for him last night. So we had about 15 kids here, mostly teen-aged boys, They played pool, video games, talked and jammed on guitar. Rick grilled hamburgers and hot dogs in the pouring rain. We all sang happy birthday around an ice cream cake. Rick gave Will an electric bass guitar so there was more jamming (until about 11:30 at night). Will is trying to form his own band which he calls the Hypotheticals (since it only exists in his dreams right now). Apparently, first practice is here this coming Wednesday.

Alright, time to get Father’s Day started!