“Country music is Irish music. Appalachian music was brought over by the Scotch
and Irish. I think the minor chords in my music give it that mystical feel.”

- Eddie Rabbitt, 1989
(27 Nov 1941 - 07 May 1998)

According to music historian Fred Bronson, "I Love a Rainy Night" was 12 years in the making. Rabbitt had a collection of old tapes he kept in the basement of his home. While rummaging through the tapes one day in 1980, he heard a fragment of a song he had recorded one rainy night in the late 1960s.

"It brought back the memory of sitting in a small apartment, staring out the window at one o'clock in the morning, watching the rain come down," wrote Bronson in The Billboard Book of Number One Hits. "He sang into his tape recorder, 'I love a rainy night, I love a rainy night.'"

Upon rediscovery of the old lyrics, Rabbitt completed the song (with help from frequent songwriting partners Even Stevens and David Malloy) and recorded it.

The end result included vivid descriptions of a man's fondness for thunderstorms and the peace it brings him ("I love to hear the thunder/watch the lightnin' as it lights up the sky/you know it makes me feel good") and a renewed sense of hope the storms bring ("Showers wash all my cares away/I wake up to a sunny day").

The song's other mark of distinction is its rhythm pattern of alternating finger snaps and hand claps, which was included with the help of percussionist Farrell Morris. Morris — according to "The Billboard Book of Number One Country Hits" — mixed two tracks of each to complete the record.

"I Love a Rainy Night" came in the midst of Rabbitt's peak popularity as a crossover artist. The follow-up to "Drivin' My Life Away" (No. 1 country, No. 5 Hot 100), the song was Rabbitt's only Hot 100 No. 1. However, he would continue having crossover success with the follow-ups "Step by Step" and "You and I" (the latter a duet with Crystal Gayle).

On Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart, it was his eighth out of 17 career chart toppers, spanning from 1976 through 1990.

"I Love a Rainy Night" was certified gold for sales of 1 million units by the Recording Industry Association of America.^[1]

Gayle Fallin Harris ('57) AND   Domi O'Brien ('64) of NH!

   Happy Birthday this week to:

Wednesday, Nov. 27, 1861
TRENT TALE TENDS TO TURMOIL

The mail packet Trent docked in London today after a voyage from Havana. It had not been a usual trip. She had picked up six passengers in Havana, who had made their way from Richmond through the Union blockade: commissioners Slide, Mason, their wives and their secretaries. They had then been stopped in the Bahama Passage by the USS San Jacinto and compelled under threat of arms to give up the four males in the party. Such an offense against Her Majesty's ship outraged all of London. Eight thousand troops were immediately dispatched for Canada to fortify the border, and orders went to the shipyards for construction of new warships. Queen Victoria was not amused.

Thursday, Nov. 27, 1862
BURNSIDE BACKS BOLD BLUFF BATTLE

Abraham Lincoln and his general of the Army of the Potomac continued their conference at Aquia Creek, Va. today. This was going to be Burnside’s first battle since he had been assigned to replace George McClellan, and Lincoln was already getting vexed with him for moving too slowly. To assist, Lincoln had brought along a battle plan: the army would split in pieces, cross the Rappahannock far up and downstream from Fredericksburg, and attack the forces of Robert E. Lee from the sides and rear. Burnside turned the plan down flat. He had resolved to take the entire army straight across the river, through the town, and up the hill behind, known as Marye’s Heights.

Friday, Nov. 27, 1863
MEADE MAKES MINE MISTAKE

The Mine Run Campaign was, in a way, the last gasp of a string of events that had started at Gettysburg, when the Army of Northern Virginia had withdrawn at their own pace from the field. U.S. Gen. George Meade had first been hailed as the savior of the Union, but his failure to follow and crush Lee’s forces soon made him the target of intense pressure from Lincoln. Thus the continued pursuit in this venture when most armies were already in winter camp. Meade was heading for a small valley called Mine Run. Lee knew this and fortified it heavily. U.S. Gen. William Henry French’s corps was vital to Meade’s attack, but they took the wrong road and ran into Jubal Early’s men, which occupied most of the day. Meade later blamed French’s mistake for the failure of the entire project.

Sunday, Nov. 27, 1864
CONFEDERATE “COAL” CAUSES CATASTROPHE

It was an ideal target: the steamer Greyhound was heading up the James River from Bermuda Hundred. It was the headquarters ship of Gen. Benjamin Butler, one of the most hated men in the Confederacy, and he had just taken aboard several other high Union commanders, including Adm. David D. Porter. After steaming five or six miles, the unexpected occurred. “The furnace door blew open,” Butler wrote, “and scattered coals throughout the room.” Porter suspected immediately the source: a Confederate “coal torpedo.” These metal devices were stuffed with explosive, then machined and painted to look like a lump of coal. Porter sounded almost envious when he said “In devices for blowing up vessels the Confederates were far ahead of us, putting Yankee ingenuity to shame.” Although no one was killed, managing to get ashore or to other ships, the Greyhound was destroyed.

Thanks for all you do and be well!!

Mike Leonard "68"

http://nnhs65.com/SITE-MAP.html

     http://nnhs65.com/old-stomping.html

          http://nnhs65.com/OOSG-S-Z.html

               http://nnhs65.com/Shackelford-Auto.html

Thank you so much for helping me out. I greatly appreciate everything that you and your friends did for me. I will print these out for my family and me to share. Great find and I really appreciate it.

Thanks,
Trent

   Certainly, Trent! Say Hi to your brother     Ricky (Sturgis - '66) for me!

   For the Christmas season, I really wanted a gigantic snowman to hang on the wall over the loveseat in my hearth room.  This    Jolly Snowman stocking design by Cylinda Mathews (which I thought I shared earlier, but apparently only imagined that part!) was just perfect, except it was only 16" tall.

http://www.crochetmemories.com/patterns/jolly-snowman-holder.php
 

   To give homage to my 35-year old interest in crochenitting, and to reinforce a red and white crochenitted stocking hanging nearby (Christmas Stockings), I replaced Cylinda's beautiful crocheted lacy red thread scarf with a crochenitted hunter green and white yarn one.

http://www.crochenit.net/

   Finally I added Suzetta Williams' Holly Embellishment (see the Newsletter of 11/23/11) to his hat band:

http://suzies-yarnie-stuff.blogspot.com/2009/11/holly-embellishment.html  

Make sure you read all the way down to the last sentence (most importantly the last sentence).

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.

The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper.

The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. But It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound will still be there. A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one."

Remember that friends are very rare jewels indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear, they share words of praise and they always want to open their hearts to us... Show your friends how much you care. Send this to everyone you consider a FRIEND, even if it means sending it back to the person who sent it to you! If it comes back to you, you will then know you have a circle of friends.

YOU ARE MY FRIEND AND I AM HONORED!

Now send this to every friend you have - and to your family (they need to know that you love them too)...

Please forgive me if I have ever left a 'hole' in your fence.

   Thank you, Dools!

Check out this video!

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/lXKDu6cdXLI?rel=0

   This is just crazy! Thanks again, Dools!