Happy Victoria Day

[Ranald]

"The 24th of May
Is the Queen's birthday,
If we don't get a holiday,
We'll all run away."

In much of Canada, the only country that celebrates this holiday, Victoria Day is the unofficial beginning of summer. Under normal circumstances, not covid times, it's when people open the cottage (camp, cabin, bungalow, depending on your region). Hardy or perhaps foolhardy souls will be found swimming (see next sentence). Victoria Day is also known as "firecracker day" and as "two-four day," a two-four being a case of 24 beers. (I don't think Igloolik and other northern communities follow the same swimming and planting schedule schedule.)

This is really an excuse to show off my case sticker from the Victoria Folk Club in Victoria BC, where I sang a ballad nearly three years ago. Observe that, after all this time, the sticker is still clinging tightly to the cloth-bound case that goes with a mandolin I bought during my trip to BC. I guess the stickers with Her Majesty playing mandolin had already sold out.

A Happy Victoria Day to all, or have a nice day anyway, if you're not Canadian or not an admirer of British monarchs.

[journeybear]

Well, that's all good and well, and thanks for sharing. I admit to being somewhat disappointed to see an an image of the Queen with a banjo. Surely Her Royal Highness could have afforded and even insisted on being associated with an instrument more in keeping with her exalted status. I'm not amused, more confused.

Here in the Colonies we're celebrating something else altogether - the 80th birthday of singer, songwriter, and Nobel Prize Laureate Poet Robert Allan Zimmerman, aka Bob Dylan. But you can call him Zimmy.

[Bruce Clausen]

... a two-four being a case of 24 beers

Grammar, please! In this country a two-four is a case of 24 beer!

[journeybear]

Geez! I wonder what was going on yesterday? People didn't seem to be in a celebratory mood. Nearly no response about Victoria Day, and no response whatsoever about Dylan's 80th birthday. I was busy elsewhere myself, or I'd have started a thread, or bumped up another - something! I know mandolin has never been a very big part of Dylan's music - his closest association, AFAIK, is the photo on the cover of "The Basement Tapes," in which he's miming playing a bowlback like a fiddle:



But the same isn't true vice versa. Mandolinists have been doing Dylan's songs forever. I'm more than a little perplexed that he was overlooked here on this milestone. I know there are lots of members here who revere him. Well, it's too late to start a thread now - "Happy Birthday, Bob, Belatedly" - bleah. Sorry for the hijack - I'm almost done.

I watched a two-hour documentary about his early days late last night, hoping it would put me to sleep. It didn't. It was far too fascinating. In the scenes with the Greenwich Village scene, mixed in with all the guitars and banjos, there were a few mandolins scattered about. This still showed up about 15 minutes in, while they were talking about him just having arrived and going around to the pass-the-basket places.

[Hudmister]

Having grown up in St. Johns, Newfoundland I am familiar with Victoria Day and fire cracker day it was for sure for us kids. Born in New Jersey it was exciting to live in Canada and as I recall most of the adults celebrated with spirits of all kinds. I was standing at a bus stop in the early evening (I was twelve) when a large seafaring man in a navy coat came over to me and hugged me and then started dancing a jig with me. I was afraid but he abruptly stopped and walked away. I will remember Victoria Day. Dylan's 80th birthday just doesn't seem as memorable although I'm sure his music will endure.

[Scott Rucker]

As a Rush (the Geddy, Neil, Alex group) fan since childhood I first learned about Victoria Day from their song Lakeside Park. "Everyone would gather on the 24th of May, sitting in the sand to watch the fireworks display..." Mandolin content: Lifeson played a Garrison octave/mandola on a few songs on the Snakes & Arrows album and toured with one for a while.

[Ranald]

Having grown up in St. Johns, Newfoundland I am familiar with Victoria Day and fire cracker day it was for sure for us kids. Born in New Jersey it was exciting to live in Canada and as I recall most of the adults celebrated with spirits of all kinds. I was standing at a bus stop in the early evening (I was twelve) when a large seafaring man in a navy coat came over to me and hugged me and then started dancing a jig with me. I was afraid but he abruptly stopped and walked away. I will remember Victoria Day. Dylan's 80th birthday just doesn't seem as memorable although I'm sure his music will endure.

Perhaps he was celebrating Bob Dylan's birthday! They party hard in St. John's.
Randy Bachman, guitarist (Guess Who, BTO, Ringo's All Star Band, solo) and radio host, told of jamming as a teenager at his friend's place in Winnipeg with his buddy's cousin, Bobby Zimmerman from Minnesota. Another Winnipeg story is that a homeowner looked out his window and saw a strange-looking little fellow standing on his front lawn, looking at the house. After, some time, he went out to see what the man wanted. It was Bob Dylan, who said that he wanted to see where Neil Young learned to play guitar and wrote his first songs. The homeowner invited Dylan in and gave him a tour of what had been Young's home during his teenage years.

[journeybear]

Aha! So there is more of a Dylan-Canada connection. Beyond the well-known one, that 4/5 of The Band's members were Canadian. Hey - that's 80% ... oooh, spooky!

Wonder how old Dylan was for that second story. Hope it was early on, because otherwise, that would have been kind of creepy.

[Timbofood]

I just had a crappy day yesterday and nothing seemed to get my interest!

[Ranald]

Aha! So there is more of a Dylan-Canada connection. Beyond the well-known one, that 4/5 of The Band's members were Canadian. Hey - that's 80% ... oooh, spooky!

Wonder how old Dylan was for that second story. Hope it was early on, because otherwise, that would have been kind of creepy.

That story was on the radio in 2008. I see it's a bit different from what I remembered:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...-tour-1.755913

In Dylan's memoir, if I remember correctly, he saw himself as part of a northern American culture. He felt that it overlapped Canadian culture, and saw Gord Lightfoot, from Ontario, as being part of that same world. I wasn't sure what to make of that.
Queen Victoria's bohemian daughter, Louise, spent time in Canada as Govenor-General's wife, and was well loved. Victoria's son Price Edward toured Canada. He had a reputation as a rake, and was claimed as the father of every illegitimate child along his route (including one in my family, though the timing doesn't work). So Bob and Queen Vicky both have Canadian connections, though I don't know about descendants.

[journeybear]

OK, so that visit wasn't so creepy. Pretty cool, actually.

[Sue Rieter]

That's one of the coolest stickers I've ever seen, Ranald. And it stays stuck to a cloth case, you say. Bonus.

[Ranald]

That's one of the coolest stickers I've ever seen, Ranald. And it stays stuck to a cloth case, you say. Bonus.

For anyone who was hesitant to buy, that was their selling point.

[journeybear]

Uh-huh. So, on the one hand, it stays put. On the other, there's a banjo. So you have a sticker with a banjo that you're literally stuck with. Yeah, that may be a selling point. To some ...

[journeybear]

Somewhat pertinent, methinks. From a while back, yet timely.

[mandroid]

5/25 is Towel day for HHG2G fans.. https://scontent-sjc3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...31&oe=60D1EC37

[Chris W.]

Though it’s just a memory, some memories last forever.

[Chris W.]

Though it’s just a memory, some memories last forever.

As a Rush (the Geddy, Neil, Alex group) fan since childhood I first learned about Victoria Day from their song Lakeside Park. "Everyone would gather on the 24th of May, sitting in the sand to watch the fireworks display..." Mandolin content: Lifeson played a Garrison octave/mandola on a few songs on the Snakes & Arrows album and toured with one for a while.

Sorry forgot to quote you