After spending three or more months in Newfoundland during each of the past 21 years, my wife and I finally didn't think of ourselves as CFAs ...until this year when COVID prevented us from returning in 2020. Not being in Trinity prevented each of us from celebrating our 80+ birthdays with friends in July and August in Newfoundland for the first time in 21 years, as well as our 62nd year of marriage. (Actually, we've known one another for 65 years, since we were teenagers growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y.) As a teenager, I had the good fortune to appear on stage with a number of famous actors and actresses, mostly in chorus parts, and also as a member of the NYC All City Chorus under the direction of Peter J. Wilhousky. In later years, while attending the State university of New York Maritime College, I "shipped out" each summer for a total of nine months -a requirement to become a US Merchant Marine Officer. Some of the ports abroad provided an opportunity for several of us aboard ship to participate in a concert in that country. I just came across an article which references one such concert held outside Dublin before an audience of 7000, after which we were hosted by the Lord Mayor. Perhaps that's what got me interested in thinking about Irish music and Newfoundland so many years ago. We came to Newfoundland to explore, hike, and experience this wonderful place in 1999, never expecting to live there. (Nor did we expect the falling of snow in April of that year.) After exploring St. John's and Brigus our third stop was Trinity. A small home was for sale. We knocked on the door and soon thereafter made a quick decision we have never regretted: to buy this house. We were welcomed into this small community and have remained in awe of the friendships and relationships established over the past 21 years. The biggest surprise, however, occurred a few years later when we learned of a musical group called Music and Friends, established by Maureen Howard with the great support of a dozen or so musicians, vocalists, and even a comedian or two. The group was formed to do one or more "kitchen parties" a week during the summer months to raise funds for various charities and community needs on the Bonavista Peninsula. Admission was $5 and that included lunch served at intermission. Even the performers chose to pay to play! By its 12th year, the group raised well over $100,000 for such cases as: Autism Society of NL, Dialysis Committee, annual scholarships for Bishop White School in Port Rexton, Ronald McDonald House, the SPCA, the Lion’s Club, Canadian war veterans, and volunteer fire departments. After attending a few of these kitchen parties about eleven years ago, I was encouraged to get up and sing something - maybe a couple of show tunes since I didn't know any Newfoundland songs and few Irish melodies. Acappella, of course, as they didn't know my music and I didn't know theirs! So then began my off-season challenge to learn some Newfoundland and Irish music. In that process I've received lots of help from a world-class accordion player in the group, Rob Taylor, who would send suggestions and recordings to me in Florida. We had many conversations over the winter. Well, after being self-isolated pretty much for several months, now feeling again like CFAs, my wife, Roberta- who incidentally for many years assisted Music and Friends by collecting entrance fees, selling raffle tickets, as well as joining the ladies in our town of Trinity to help support our great St. Paul's Anglican Church-suggested a way of remaining in touch with all of our friends and family. She was prompted by friends who called saying how much they missed attending the weekly kitchen parties. So one day she did a video of me doing a new song I was learning. What I did not know was that she posted the video on Facebook! After exercising some anger management, we were both totally surprised at the immediacy and amount of comments that were received from Newfoundland as well as from others in the U.S and Europe requesting more. We then began to send out a few each week. That was back in July. Since then we have done 60 or 70 additional songs, exhausting all the Newfoundland and Irish songs with which I'm somewhat familiar, so we turned to showtunes and oldies. So we no longer feel like CFAs as we constantly hear from our friends in Newfoundland and elsewhere. It never occurred to my wife that when doing the video, we were unknowingly using our kitchen as part of the backdrop for our own kitchen party. Sincerely, Len and Roberta Black   Submitted By: NULL