Whispering Hills RV Park in Shreve hosted a music fest called Shakin' Down the Acorns. They had an open mic night on Friday where there were just a ton of incredibly talented and FUN musicians sharing old-time, celtic, folk and bluegrass music. On Saturday, we had a birthday party to go to during the day, and then we headed back to the festival where they had a band contest. There were so many very neat people there! One of the neat things that happened was that when I walked in I recognized the face of a boy whom I hadn't seen for 8 years, and then had only seen briefly. But I knew it was him! I turned to Bard and said, "See the boy in the white shirt?" She nodded. "I was there when his little brother was born!" I'm not sure she believed me, but sure enough, I found his mom, Kathy, sitting at a picnic table and, while her back was turned, sat right beside her, touching her knee. She looked at me puzzled, and then her eyes widened and she gave me a big hug. :-) Keep in mind that she and I haven't seen each other since the day her son James was born, nine years ago! It was so wonderful to see her again, as her labor had been my first and one of my favorites. I don't believe any other birth even came close to being as memorable as hers was. It turns out that her four boys, ages 14 down to 8, all play instruments and had just finished playing in the band contest, so I missed their playing. But we were able to spend the evening reaquainting ourselves with them and finding that they only live about 30 minutes from us now, farming, selling organic produce and homeschooling (organic learning). We exchanged e-mail addresses and phone numbers and I hope to invite them out so their boys can play for our open house in October.
After the band contest, there was a concert by a man named Robin Kessinger, a national flatpick guitar champion, which was really fun and inspiring. When he finished, a jam session was formed, a caller came to the front of the room, and there was DANCING. Line dancing, square dancing, reels, contradancing...it was SOOO much fun! I couldn't get Edison or Monet to dance, and Sweetheart wouldn't dance in the group, but off to the side, and Bard wouldn't dance at first. But Bohemian and I started right away and had a blast! Then Bohemian took Baby and I begged Bard to dance with me. She did, and then she didn't stop! She loved it! Given that Kathy's boys were all dancing, too, and that there were only a couple of young girls there (including Edison's fiddle teacher and her sister), Bard was a pretty popular dance partner. :-) We had such a fantastic time, I think it will be in our regular schedule to attend dances and jam sessions from now on.
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