Nice to hear from you John.Hi!
My name is John Dalton, and as you can probably tell by my chosen user name, I am the "Son of Leo". First off, I want to tell you all how much discovering this thread has meant to me. Obviously, it's been about two months since my fathers passing, and in the hustle and bustle of estate, funeral, family, paperwork and small business ownership etc, it's taken me a while to get affairs in order.
But I will tell you all one thing... Discovering this thread and this community has really touched home in a way that I had not expected...
Allow to explain:
My father was, by trade passion and sole existence, a pilot. It was his first love. That's who my father was! "Captain" Leo F. Dalton of USAirways. It was all I had known him to be growing up and all that he had ever done!
About 10 years ago, he could no longer fly due to some medical issues that he was having. He was put on long term disability and that was essentially the end of his aviation career. For the past while he moved from hobby to hobby, keeping himself busy and learning what he could about whatever he could get his hands on. First it was trap shooting, then it was astronomy and then somehow, he got into Concertina's.
Perhaps it was remnants of his youth in which he played the Accordion, or perhaps the fascination with such a simple and elegant instrument appealed to him. To be perfectly honest, my father was not what you would call "musically proficient". But I'll tell you what, he simply loved playing the little that he could on his Concertina, as well as the community on this forum. He would tell me, from time to time, the people whom he had met. Professionals in various industries who you would never expect to find here (I believe there was a developer for Power Point as well as an Animator from Pixar who hang out here). Stories of the various styles and his annoyance at the so-called "ornamentation" in certain players (He called them intentional mistakes).
As I stated, my father was not exactly a musician, which in all honesty is why he posted so many videos. It was his way of contributing and being a part of this community of players. He really loved scouring the internet, finding videos and how too's and sharing knowledge. That was my father, really... Living by the adage and creed: Those that can, do, and those that can't, teach. He was a teacher. It had always been said that if you asked Leo the time, he would build you a clock and tell you how it worked and WHY it was the time in which you were asking for.
It really wasn't until I stumbled across this thread, that I had realized how much HE had meant to the community by his contributions. I had initially sent an email through my fathers email account to the admin of the site informing him of his passing in hopes that the word would get around. Being on a great deal of modding and hacking forums, it's always a bummer when some major contributor just ups and disappears leaving everyone wondering "what happened". So I had sent out the email before I even knew there was a thread dedicated to my father! Finally a few days ago, I checked his e-mail account and remembered that I had sent the initial email, which in turn led me to this thread. For some reason, it just hit me at the right time and really made me go "Huh, cool!" at the admiration that my father had earned on this forum. I had no idea how popular he was, or his contributions to this community.
It was because of that, I decided to create an account and just kind of give him a send off and say "thanks" to all of you for the kind words towards him. It really honestly and truly meant a great deal to know how much he meant to all of you. It was like discovering another world of my Fathers that I had never really known about!
If you folks have any questions, or just want to share stories of him, or whatever you like, feel free to "AMA"! I'll be happy to supply any details or information that I can, and perhaps some of you can convince me to pick up ANOTHER instrument to my collection!
And who knows, perhaps I'll learn a bit more about my father in the process!
I hope this adds a bit of closure for some of you, if any was needed. I just felt that you all should know my father just a bit more :-) Feel free to crosspost this to the "passing of Leo (He Posted Youtube Videos) thread. I just chose the thread with the most posts for this.
Thanks again!
-John, Son of Leo
Here is a little musical tribute which I did for your dad and you will see that Dirge in New Zealand has played a a rather nice fresh version of Nimrod, without the summer day background noises!
http://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=14384
