Friendly Friday Flashbacks

Welcome Friends of the Friendless Marching Band to our 1st Anniversary party...A mist overtakes the band as we are transported back to our humble beginnings where inspiration struck a tuba player during an I Love Lucy episode. On Lucy's Last Birthday, Lucy encountered the Friends of the Friendless Band. They mistook her for a friendless drunk and asked her to join the band. A weekly mission was born.

Friends of the Friendless Marching Band Statistics: (What is a party without statistics? Fellow band member and list-maker , *-R- nods and takes the minutes for the party.)

• There have been 47 Friendly Fridays.
  
• We have visited 117 friendless sites.
• There are currently 53 FFMB members.
• (Click on the *links for party participants! I'll try to keep them updated as they roll in)
  

The bloglist fades away and the band emerges onto the first Friendly Friday.*Mompoet was the first Featured site and has been a faithful kazoo player ever since.

The first blogger to join the band was Zeb. I love his enthusiastic all night guitar playing and music lessons.

Stephen of Edge to the Center was winner of the 2005 Friendless Site of the Year. He was the second featured friendless site visited. It sure has been an experience to play with this cool baritonist.

*Barbara, our flutist, has always been an enthusiastic band member. Remember the contests? Yep, Barb has always been on top of it. Is it her competitive edge that explains why she started the Blog Olympics.

Do you remember when Kathy was just Kathy and not the Humor Queen and blog reporter, *Lazy Daisy?

Who can forget * J. Andrew's heartwarming testimony for the FFMB? Conductor has to stop for a minute...excuse me for just a moment...

Sabrina, another featured friendless blogger, hands the Conductor a kleenex and her tuba. "Will you play us a song?" "Sure!"

The clanging of pots and pans, tambourine stops the Tuba Player from continuuing. (Okay, what was that remark, Jennifer?)*Sister Celtic arrives along with Emily.
"It is so good to see you all," the tuba player smiles.

Just that moment, Dave who plays the double bass, opens his bass cover and out jumps Lucy. Everyone screams at her arrival at the party.Okay, so this is a dream sequence...


























Lucy leads the band in a fun-filled rendition of Friends of the Friendless and other various tunes. Sorry Some Person, no Nickelback today.

*Imran, guitarist, and Su, the trumpeter, transcribe the lyrics.

We are Friends of the Friendless
yes we are
yes we are
We are Friends of the Friendless
be they near
be they far
We are here for the downtrodden
and we sober up the sodden
We are Friends of the Friendless
yes we are
yes we are

*Sarah clogs to the tunes while Pat Paulk plays along with his glass armonica.

Oh, look! Wandi is here and she has brought her Grand-daughter to the festivities. Yes, we can arrange to have face painting for all the young 'uns. Where is Art Puppy, anyways?

Chrixean,piano player, rouses the band to do on an impromptu march around the room. Kai
and Mar keep the rhythm.

Then DPTH International starts a game of "What Does My Blog Name Really Mean?" I jump in with an indepth analysis of my own. *David is trying to figure out what date he joined the band. "I dunno," and try to figure out the undercurrents to the names Sugarloaf Mountain and Bad Alice.

The auditorium is filled with music and laughter. Band members that we haven't seen in ages are present..., or is it another dream sequence?

Tuba player notices Kathy in the corner conversing with her invisible tiger sidekick. He never did join the band. Pity, I hoped he would be the mascot.

Anyways, there is reminiscing about past performances. Ah, yes...remember when we were the bronze medalist party hosts for the 2006 First Ever Blog Olympics. Many of us had participated in the events.

Who can forget Barbara's Birthday Bash. That was fun with so many participants.


Now Killired knows how to throw a party, even a pink one! The FFMB had a great time playing for that one.

The Conductor gets up to speak and there is a hush throughout the auditorium.

Dear Friends not only to the Friendless but to each other, I have been looking over the sites we have visited over the past year and am still impressed by the talent and creativity out there. It has been fun to discover these blogs. There are a lot more out there. The FFMB mission is not yet accomplished. It is up to you, FFMB, to be friendly bloggers to the unappreciated out there. Smile and look outwards for there are bloggers in need of this band. As a friend has told me countless times, "Its not all about you, y'know." Ouch!

Remember that this thank you card was designed by *TNChick,in between twirls.

Mango stands up and raises her glass of lemonade hi in the air,

"Hi Carol,
My toast to you:
Here is a toast to our fearless leader- a madcap intellectual with
a penchant for showband tunes.
She has gallantly led her collection of travelling troubadors into
the true final frontier- blog space.
Under her nimble direction we have gone where no one (at least very
few) has gone before.

"Everyone has a story to tell." Carol has shown this to be true. In
a world where people want to
talk but very few listen, she and her marching band have listened.
Stay tuned.

To Carol, everyone say, "Hip hip hurrah! Hip hip hurrah! Hip hip
hurrah!"

Sincerely,
Mango Lane




*Friday's Child is hosting a feast for the occasion. Anybody hungry?