When I was a kid; six years old; I sang for the first time at school. The stage size seemed significant to me at the time in Nelson Miramichi. I had on a little dress (picture Hedi come down from the mountains) with a red checkered blouse. In front of me, they had placed a table, a bowl of sugar, and a spoon. I then sang "Just A Spoon Full of Sugar," and then "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious."
I don't remember being overly happy about it. So began my life as a performing bear who loved to create but had mixed emotions about the performing part, which was what it was all about back then; no interpretive dancing allowed for a young bear in 1971.
On from there, I sang at nursing homes, in the church choir, weddings, funerals, signature songs in musicals, at my high school graduation (don't remember a lot of that). Some people took an interest in me along the way and helped me out. They were my first mentors (my dad who had a beautiful singing voice, Don Rigley-now part of Frantically Atlantic and piano teacher Norma Campbell). My mother felt more like my booking agent and, my sister was my biggest fan, although she gave brutal shoulder punches. The singing part was ok; it was the people that got in the way. I hated singing in front of people. Why did the people have to be there?
Fast forward to now.
