Didn’t We Have Fun?

Words and music by Bruce O’Brien
© 1991 Bruce O’Brien

Bruce says, “I had been involved for a few years in the 1980s with the Midwest People’s Music Network (MWPMN), a regional version of PMN, the People’s Music Network (the “mother” organization of CMN), with a few current CMN members you may know (Tom Pease, Stuart Stotts, Kristin Lems, Barb Tilsen). We took turns running an annual gathering, and in 1991, I was the coordinator of a session near Eau Claire, Wisconsin. At that gathering, Stuart told of his great experience at a recent PMN conference, where there was a time for children’s musicians to song swap and share ideas. Stuart announced that since CMN was forming, he found that group more in keeping with his interests and talents. He felt he couldn’t be involved in both CMN and MWPMN, so he would drop out of MWPMN, concentrating his energies on children’s music. He had a good point, and right there and then I decided to attend my first CMN gathering in Connecticut in the fall. But first we had a song swap with children’s songs, and to close that workshop time, I composed ‘Didn’t We Have Fun?’ right on the spot with just a few verses summing up our weekend conference. It was a keeper, which later I fleshed out a little more.

“Going to the 1991 CMN gathering was so inspiring I decided to share ‘Fun’ at the close of that event too. I made up a new verse, “Okay, okay / Let’s go to LA,” naming the site of next year’s conference in 1992.”