Tour-ette from a gas station on Lancaster Pike on a sunny Tuesday morning! 5/4/2021

… and finding loveliness in the most unexpected places…

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Sybil Bruncheon's "Aren't People Fascinating?"... Melanie Cutterbert.

Melanie Cutterbert of Mozelin Falls, Tennessee had come from a large family of extraordinarily gifted musicians. They had attracted attention as early as the 1930s on the local talent shows that were broadcast on the radio stations around that part of the Western Tennessee junction with Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, and Mississippi, and by the 1950s, all of the Eastern Tennessee region knew about them too. They first appeared on Major Bowe's Amateur Hour in 1934, as did their children in the 40s and as their grandchildren did on television on The Ted Mack Amateur Hour. Together over four generations they played over 23 different musical instruments, and most of the Cutterberts played more than one, sometimes simultaneously!!! They were always introduced as the "Mozarts of Mozelin Falls", a title they were so very proud of ...and that was why it was imperative that they kept Melanie's terrible secret... a secret!

You see, although she was as gifted as all her cousins, her maiden aunts, a step-sister, a half-brother, an uncle who was also a third cousin twice removed, etc., etc. She also had a strange idiot-savant thing going on. She had perfect pitch and could play seven different instruments, but she couldn't name them!! And they had to be taught to her as something other than what they were... She learned the contrabassoon as a "floor-to-ceiling piccolo", her balalaika was a "really fat ukulele", and her beloved piano she referred to as her "paralyzed accordion". Melanie went so far as to spend some of her contest winnings on a visiting nurse service which would come by on Wednesday afternoons to take the "patient's" blood pressure, temperature, and other vital signs to make sure it wasn't getting "sicker". The nurses who came knew what was going on and even let Melanie listen on the stethoscope to see that the piano's "lungs" still weren't working...at all. She was heard on occasion though to scold her family if she felt their accordions were making fun of hers because of its handicap, but they loved her dearly and went along with her peculiar obsession. On some evenings, they even wheeled the piano through the garden before dinnertime with a light blanket on it while neighbors came to pay their respects... it all made Melanie very happy... especially if they brought candy and flowers with their "Get Well Soon" cards...

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Tour-ette on a rainy Thursday evening.. (part II)... when the colors in a garden literally quiver..

… even as it gets dark…

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Tour-ette on a rainy Thursday evening... (part I) April showers! 4/29/2021

… a storm heads our way at my favorite time of the day…

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Tour-ette from my little driveway-garden... onward and upward! 4/24/2021.

… and some new residents too!

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Tour-ette from the Di Bruno Bros. for a world of delicious delicacies! 4/23/2021

… I put on 12 lbs. just browsing… JEEESH!!!

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Sybil Bruncheon's "Fashion Facts and Fun!"...

Yes, fellow Fashionistas, it’s Spring and time for all of us to flaunt our finery! And did you know that some very famous folks in the celebrity world started out their careers in the lesser known backrooms of the fashion industry. For instance, here’s a photo from quite a few years ago of the founder of Father Francis Frocks and Finery!… he was a young priest who subsidized the collection plate in Little Chapel of the Frisky Shepherd with a side-line of sweet cocktail dresses that he and the holy sisters sewed for young hip girls on the social circuit. His pieces were reasonably priced too! This little number was only $29.99 at Brocklemann’s Discount Dress ‘n’ Dirndl Depot… and it was made from over 12,000 communion wafers! Talk about “Holier Than Thou”!!! (model unknown… but she’s a sassy little minx, isn’t she?)…

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Sybil Bruncheon's "Let's All Meet The Neighbors!"... Quinton “Perky” Parkelfen...

Quinton “Perky” Parkelfenn of Gunque, Alabama, had been raised among turnip, rutabaga, and cabbage farmers down near the gulf, but decided that he wanted something a bit more glamorous!... after all, he pointed out, not only were the vegetables his family produced ugly to look at, but they were notoriously sources of ridicule; smelly to cook and certainly the source of after-dinner flatulence! His hometown of Gunque was so successful every year at the Alabama State Fair vegetable competitions, that it was often introduced as “Stunk, Alabama” much to the uproarious delight of the crowds from other towns as the blue ribbons were handed out! Quinton’s family had won their own impressive share of blue ribbons over the years for their fresh produce, and also for the Parkelfenn womenfolks’ imaginative recipes that they had created with their vegetables; “Granny’s Garlic Gazpacho À Go-Go”, “Going Gaga for Rutabaga Au Gratin!”, and “Cabbage, Carrot, and Carob Cookie Crisps” all won special awards, and were even published in the Appalachia Homemaker’s Holiday Compendium and the bestselling “This Is Your Alabama Foods & Fancies Cyclopedia”.

And to think, it had all started with Edna Parkelfenn, Quinton’s great-great grandmother, so famous for her turnip and banana ketchup which had consoled the Confederacy through so many defeats during the Civil War. Even so, Quinton couldn’t bear being associated with his family’s vegetable heritage… particularly cabbage cookie crisps and turnip-banana ketchup. And that’s why he waited until his parents had passed away and most of his family was gone before he refinanced his farms, plowed up everything and cleared all the hundreds of acres of their crops, and planted a persimmon grove… Within the decade, he had created his “Perky Parkelfenn’s Pucker-licious Persimmon Pie” empire. And did all the commercials himself… just like his hero, Tom Carvel.

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Sybil Bruncheon's "Let's All Meet The Neighbors!"… Pete Bunkun...

Pete Bunkun of Carr, New Hampshire is the youngest of seventeen children. His parents were in their 50s when he was born, but still very fond of him, and they considered him a "miracle baby". Raised in a deeply spiritual family, he himself became a member of a monastery, the Brotherhood Of Persistently Cheery Souls. Brother Peter is the Abbot of the order and focuses all the good works of the group of men on dairy farming, cheese culture, wine making, and nude (though celibate!) gardening. He is currently at work on a cookbook, "Frying In The Friary, Pasta With The Pastor!"… Brother Peter describes it as "sinfully rich foods for naughty noshing but with only a modicum of guilt!", and includes tables of calories for each dish along with (fairly!) discreet pin-up photos of each monk at his daily tasks posed with the convenient shovel, rolling pin, or cucumber! Brother Peter claims to have advanced sales of $18.90. Best of luck, Brother Peter!

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Sybil Bruncheon's "My Merry Memoirs"... the Palladium at Easter time...

April 19th, 1987:

It was Easter Sunday at The Palladium at 126 East 14th Street in Greenwich Village (just down from the original 19th century Luchow's Restaurant which was still standing!). "Jeffrey Sanker invites you to join the newly crowned Empress of New York, Sybil Bruncheon, for her first annual Easter Bonnet Parade. Wear your favorite bonnet and Win $500 First Prize." Look at that! ...a $500.00 first prize! Can you imagine? That was more than two month's rent for lots of folks back then. My panel of celebrity judges included John Lewis, Joan Baker, Michael Kenney, and Evelyn Blair. (...and our invitation photo was by Jack D. Pedota / AVANTOGRAPHY. Thanks to Susan Suka Taylor for styling too!!!)

There was a special guest performance, and Scott Blackwell was our DJ... and the whole thing started at 12:30 AM (which meant Steve Rubell would hold us till 1:00... or later!! Jeeeesh!) But we were paid in cash!... and whenever I did a show for Steve, he’d come up to me and say, "I loved it, kid!", and press an envelope into my hand with twice as much as he’d originally offered.. I pointed it out to him the first night of working for him, thinking he'd made a mistake, and he said, "What!?! Don't ya think ya deserve it, kid??"... and laughed! Back then, I worked for all the great party promoters, and Jeffrey Sanker was one of the best! Eventually he moved to Florida and built a huge career down there! Steve died in 1989…. And the Palladium, originally built in1927, is long gone now thanks to NY University which tore it all down in 1998 (as they're tearing down so much of Greenwich Village still). They replaced it with a giant dorm... which they named "The Palladium"… nice… that’s a great consolation. Whatever.

(Sybil photo by Jack D. Pedota. Styled by Susan Suka Taylor)

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