tonic nora

I’m always overwhelmed and so dang tired after the Tonic Ball that I never write about it properly.

It is my favorite day of the year. The day that I feel the most complete. A day of generosity, good will, community and music. It is the one day of the year where almost everything that I hold dear is in one place. The day when I feel the most like myself.

I am thankful that founders Ken and Becky Honeywell invited me to join them after the first year. I get to soak in all of the bigheartedness from the musicians and fans. It just blows me away that over 30 bands donate their time and talent on a Friday night. It amazes me that I’m able to convince a few musician friends to lend their equipment for unknown people to pound on their drums and plug in to their amps. I’m stunned that we can convince over a 100 musicians that they can do 10-minute changeovers and hold them to it. I am humbled that people will wait in line to get in to the venues – and pay a $20 cover charge. I stunned by all of the love the media gives to the event.


This year I was also a financial sponsor. When I committed to it this summer, I was feeling flush. Pre-mortage. Before I knew that I had to empty my savings account for the down payment. But when I wrote the check for $1000 it felt good - because I was giving 'til it hurt and I knew the money would be used wisely.

We got to set up all of the back-line equipment at Radio Radio on Thursday night, which was a huge weight off of my shoulders. That saved a lot of scrambling before the show on Friday.

Tonic Week started off in a great way with the Barfly cartoon. On Tonic Ball morning WTTS (a local radio station) arraigned to have Mick Jones of the Clash give a message to the Tonic Ball musicians, “don’t murder his songs.” It was really cool and he talked about Second Helpings and how great he thought the Tonic Ball is.

I worked most of the day and ran home to change. I was nervous about it, but I wore a short black dress, fishnets, biker boots and the same black (heavy in weight and with zippers) leather jacket that I wore twenty-five years ago.

The Tonic Gallery was a blast. The bench that Dad made sold right away for $400, the “buy it now” bid price.

The Tonic Ball was a blast. Over 600 people poured in to the two venues. The enthusiasm was palatable. I got to be in my best “Nora” mode – project management. Making sure bands were in the right place, volunteers were doing their thing and everything was relatively on time. I got to run around like a nut for a good cause.

Tons of my friends (bloggers included – Kim, Bad Influence Girl and Jerry) were there. Another friend from Evansville surprised me by coming down. Dean emceed the Madonna room and did a great job – even introducing me from stage and announcing that I was single (I don’t know if I could have blushed any harder). I got to announce the bands in the Clash room a few times. It is such a rush to hear all of those people cheering for something as simple as “I’m Nora Spitznogle, director of operations for Second Helpings and I have the best job in the world.”

The icing on the cake was when Barfly gave me the artwork from the Tonic Ball cartoon.

Yes, it is the day that I feel the most like myself.