Hi Everyone-
Sorry to have missed getting a message out to you last week. I had high hopes of getting my new Foredom drill all set up so that I could start drilling some of the beautiful beach pebbles I've gathered and been given. Alas, the new drill is much heavier than the little, old Dremel I have been using, and when I hung it on the same aluminum pole stand I had been using on my workbench, it bent rather precariously. Not good for my peace of mind while sitting at the bench. Not good for the new (and not cheap) drill if it crashed into my skull and onto the floor. So anyway---I have a nice beefy stand on order and as soon as it gets here, gets bolted to the bench and the Foredom gets plugged in, I'll have some beach stone items to show you. In the meantime---
On this day in history, October 3, 1941, Ernest Evans was born in Spring Gulley, South Carolina. Ernest was the son of a tobacco picker whose family later moved to Philadelphia. As a young boy in Philly he held various jobs--shining shoes, selling ice and working in a butcher shop. While working to move crates of vegetables at Anastazi's Produce stand, his thick and burly frame earned him the nickname most people know him by to this day.
Ernest grew up singing in the church his family attended, but he was also influenced by other musicians of his day such as Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley, and eventually formed a group of his own called "The Quantrells". His group caught the attention of Philadelphia record executives, and was signed to a contract in 1959. They had a couple of early hits: "The Class" and "Dancing Dinosaur" (every heard of either of these?), but it wasn't until Ernest did a re-make of a song originally performed by Hank Ballard that he became popular enough to be invited to appear on American Bandstand.
The song he performed on Bandstand spent 18 weeks at #1, and a total of 49 weeks in the top 10. The dance associated with the song was a pop culture revolution in that it gave couples the freedom to break away from each other on the dance floor. So popular was this 1961 hit that it spawned 2 movies starring Ernest, one in 1961 and one in 1962 and 3 'sequel' tunes, the last one as recently as 1999.
So, since it is Ernest's birthday today, I thought I'd create a new design in homage. Go to the website for a photo of the "Let's Twist" earrings, hot off the bench this very afternoon. And until next week--
HAPPY 71st BIRTHDAY, CHUBBY CHECKER!! 
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