Rounds on Six

Last night at the St. James' regular Monday evening practice, a group of ringers rang rounds on the back six of the eight bells. "So what?", you say. Well, these rounds were a bit different - ringing the fourth of six was Jay Williams, one of our learners. He's been working with Derek Wilsden for a couple of months, along with assistance from Cathy Brown and Kathryn Tucker. He's learned handling, ringing one bell while listening to rounds on Abel, and has even done a bit of plain hunt on six with Abel. He's intelligent, funny, creative and is wildly enthusiastic about learning to ring.
And he's blind. Since birth.
He got his first pull on a bell at Grace Church, Charleston, courtesy of David Porter. When Jay and his wife moved to Marietta, he found out that a local church had change ringing bells and inquired about learning to ring. Derek was consulted, and after some discussion, it was decided that we would give it a try. And last night was the happy beginning of what we all hope will be a long and fruitful ringing career for Jay.

St. James AGM

Despite a small group, the St. James AGM was very productive, though there was so much food on the tables that we were tempted to set up an ad-hoc restaurant outside the church! Lots of business was discussed and most importantly, elections were held. The officers elected for the year 2009/2010 are as follows:

Tower Captain: Mary Platt
Ringing Master: Kathryn Tucker
Secretary: Alice Heilker
Treasurer: Chris Brown

Thank you to the past officers, Derek Wilsden and Diana Witt (Ringing Master and Secretary, respectively) who stepped down after much hard work. And thank you to Chris Brown who, despite his protestations that he'd be ever so willing for someone ELSE to be treasurer, just keeps getting elected year after year!

We very much missed the presence of Derek Wilsden, Jan Wilsden and Alice Heilker. Alice continues to recover from lung surgery, and Jan Wilsden was taken ill on the day of the AGM and was in the hospital with her husband at the time of the meeting. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Heilker and Wilsden families. We treasure them dearly.

Surprise Major Weekend Workshop

St. James and St. Luke's jointly hosted a Surprise Major workshop over the weekend of Feb. 27 to March 1. Out-of-town folks gathered at St. James on Friday for an open practice with locals; many went to the Marietta Diner afterwards for a bite to eat - as always, those who have never been there before were astonished by the size of the menu and the size of the cakes!
Early on Saturday morning the attendees gathered at St. James for the serious work of learning Surprise Major methods; one group focused on Lincolnshire, Cambridge and Yorkshire, the other on Bristol and London. Paul Graupner (he of the 'bunny ears' in the photo above) led the first group and Alan Regin (the tall man in the back right of the picture) led the second group. Much ringing was done, though a mid-afternoon funeral necessitated a break in the course. A very nice quarter peal of Cambridge Major was scored after the 5:30 service and a Chinese dinner was enjoyed by all at the end of the day.
On Sunday, a surprise snowstorm hit Atlanta, and the ringing at St. Luke's, as well as a peal attempt at St. James, were canceled. Both groups stayed at St. James, though three helpers hightailed it early out of town by car - many flights were canceled that stormy day!
We may try again next year, and will endeavor to make the weather behave - naughty, naughty weather!

WOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOO!

Sawyer Gosnell, Alma Johnson, and St. Luke's bells

[February 8, 2009 excerpt from "Bob!", Alma's ringing blog. Click on title above to see the entire piece, "Hunting Season."]

Today I received permission to set my bell.

In my tower, this is a right of passage. Permission is granted when the ringing master determines a learner's skill has reached the point where they can be trusted to handle bells without further close supervision, and are ready to handle the responsibilities of being a learner on their own. So today after the first round of service ringing when the conductor called us to stand - I did!

WOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO!

Yesterday morning I went to practice at my tower, and did a respectable job of tenoring for a method, I think it was St. Simons or maybe St. Martin's. I don't remember, I was just keeping time while everyone else rang the method. And it was fun. Really fun.

Then I had a chance to lead rounds and some call changes. Well, I thought I was being asked to lead because I knew I had made errors in tenoring and maybe the ringing master was trying to find something else I might do better, but I should know better than to listen to my inner monologue. It's a paranoid and neurotic product of Catholic Schools, whose first response to almost anything is Mea Culpa. Anyway, I said the magic words: Look to which means ok, everyone, pay attention, we're about to ring, Treble's going which means get your bell to the balance and get ready to pull off, then, Treble's gone as the bell comes over and the rest of the band cascades into place after you, into rounds.

Now, there is this thing you do in ringing called the "handstroke gap". Everyone does it all the time anyway, it's just how you ring. You pull the sally, the rope goes up, then you pull the tail, it comes down and you catch the sally. There is a little pause right there, before you pull the sally down again, and that is the handstroke gap. When you don't have that little gap in timing after that second stroke you end up with this continuous ringing, called cartwheeling by some, which can be a real problem sometimes but is always technically incorrect. If you ring by ear at all, it makes it really tough to know where you are, and it plays merry hell with timing. And if you're ringing call changes, it can make lots of different bell combinations sound indistinguishable from each other. But when you ring it is the most natural thing in the world to have that little gap, and it is what you want to achieve especially when you are ringing lead.

I have been told that some people find it difficult to establish and maintain the handstroke gap and don't lead well, or just don't like leading. But nobody told me it was difficult before I was asked to do it, so not knowing any better I just did it. Oh, it was off at first, but then I realized that no matter where in the order I rang it was how I had always rung, so then it fell into place. If you don't tell me something is difficult and it truly is, I will find out for myself shortly. But if something is difficult and you tell me, chances are it will be, whether it truly is or you just think it is.

It is pretty cool to find out whether you can do something or not without having pre-conceived notions affecting you. I will have to remember when the time comes for me to pass my knowledge on to another learner not to burden them with my prejudices or limit them before they show me what they can do. I'll be a better teacher one day for it.

Update on Katy Idle

Alice Heilker recently got this update from our old friend Katy Idle. The following is from Katy:

“ I've graduated last week from Sheffield and am going to grad school at Loughborough in September. If you're interested, pics are on the link below.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2226321&l=1083a&id=61106717 “

I already got my Masters in ME - am doing another one in Renewable Energy!

We wish Katy the best in her graduate studies, and hope she can visit us again soon.

New Year's Day Date Touch

What kind of photo is that?? Well, it's the kind of photo you take when there isn't an extra person to take the picture, and you can't figure out how to use your camera's auto-timer! This crazy picture was taken just after completing a date touch on New Year's Day. Here are the details:


MARIETTA, St James
1 Jan 2009, 2009 Doubles
(4m: 2 ext Stedman, 4 ext Plain, 4 ext St Simon's, 6 ext plus 89 changes Grandsire)

1. Derek J Wilsden (C)
2. Mary Platt
3. Charley Heilker
4. Kathryn E Tucker
5. Cathy Brown
6. Judith Smith

To welcome the New Year.
Most changes of doubles all ringers.

Cambridge Minor Quarter Successful!

A successful QP of Cambridge surprise minor was rung at St. James on Tuesday, October 28, with British visitor Jeremy Warren conducting. Cathy was spot on at treble; Lyn rang the #5 and Jeremy the #6. Kathryn, Charley and Derek also rang in on the 2, 3, and 4 -- not sure of the order. See the StJ QP book for details!