Today’s featured woman is Connie Barton Barba. I first met Connie in 2004 at a dress rehearsal when she was being honored as the Ball dedicatee. A little speech was given and then her name was announced: Connie. Barton! Barba!! Everyone squealed, whooped, hollered, and cheered. As this went on, I said to someone next to me, “Who the hell is Connie Barton Barba? And why is she being honored?” Little did I know what would come next. Over the last 14 years, Connie has become one of my closest friends and chosen-family members.
I can hear you all saying – just what is a Chickens’ Ball and why would you want to be honored by it? The San Carlos Chickens’ Ball is a unique community fundraiser set in the 1890s on the Barbary Coast of San Francisco and was started in 1939 by a teacher named Howard Demke to raise milk money for our school children. He modeled the show after the Chickens’ Ball in San Francisco (and the one featured in the 1934 movie San Francisco, starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert). It also happens to be the longest running PTA fundraiser in the United States, and possibly, the world, but I haven’t done my usual thorough research on that last tidbit so I won’t claim it as fact yet. Anyway, back to the Chickens’ Ball and what it is – basically community members who are willing to go on stage, act, sing, or dance, and maybe all three, to raise money for all the schools in San Carlos. Some years, over $50,000 has been raised. Shows are the last two weeks of April… hint, hint! www.chickensball.org
I can see this is going to be much longer than my originally sketched three paragraphs for these tributes!
After meeting Connie in 2004 through the Chickens’ Ball, I became her protégé and researched the Barbary Coast through every book, nook, and cranny we could find on the subject. The San Francisco Barbary Coast history is fascinating – take the audio tour in SF if you have the chance! We’ve made many costumes and hats together, produced the show together, made miles of ruffles for can can skirts, and generally hung out together over the last 14 years, sharing our love of history, photos, the 1890’s, cocktails, crazy costumes, even crazier hats, and many other things!
Getting to know Connie involves getting to know almost every service organization in San Carlos. She volunteers her time and brain power generously. She has been a San Carlos Lion and has been on the board of the Museum of San Carlos History for I don’t know how many years. She was on the planning commission for something like two decades. She volunteers at the Family Tree and so many other places I can’t even remember them all. Connie doesn’t just volunteer her time to help organizations, she ends up running them! She is definitely a well-organized leader.
She was the Executive Director at the AIA for many years until she retired recently. Her colleagues there gave her an overlock (sewing) machine as a retirement gift and we have had fun figuring out how to use it. The threading process alone will drive you to drink! We used it when she helped me teach an Introduction to Theatrical Production class at Design Tech High in 2015-2016.
Connie is from Maine and drives across country each summer on her yearly trek back to Maine. She fills her minivan with sewing projects, knitting projects, craft projects, and research projects. Yet she gets caught up in the fun of Maine and visiting family and friends that many of the projects go undone in favor of “Maine” projects. Ah, the best laid plans! I have had the good fortune to visit her there with my kids and other friends over the years. Maine is a special place and the summers are divine. One of my favorite memories is visiting her “camp” the week of my youngest son’s birthday and making him a fresh blueberry coffee cake to celebrate. The lake view is unforgettable and the sounds at night are magical.
Connie is one of those people who is quietly influential and more importantly, she is someone I learn something new from practically every time I talk with her. She has two boys who are my age and an adoptive family in Southern California. She wanted to be a dancer and a Rockette and we had the pleasure of seeing the Rocckettes from the front row when they came to town.
Connie is a confidant extraordinaire and has been a remarkable cheerleader and supporter for me. She has been amazingly caring and encouraging the last few years as I went through a lot of personal stuff. I look up to her as an amazing role model. It’s not every day that one of your BFFs turns 80. Connie has inspired me and so many others all around her, I can’t even begin to list them all. My wish for Connie is that she can see her worth – for herself or through the eyes of others! Because… She is ALL that!
Who, in your life, “is ALL that?”
Stay tuned tomorrow for the next entry in 90 Women in 90 Days!
#ShesALLThat
#Andyouaretoo
