The Adventures of Fric and Frac: Adventure 287: Floyd, Va/Post C

Good Morning Sunshine

For our twenty-seventh honeymoon, we're spending five days in and around Floyd, VA. Today was Judy's day. I followed her into every store in Floyd (True love if you ask me). We started the day sipping coffee, and though she made just one purchase, she fondled every carousel full of clothes, every rack full of shoes, and cabinet stuffed with curios. We visited art stores, wool stores, free trade stores, and more. For lunch, we sat at a window booth in The Floyd Country Store where we shared a nicely prepared Reuben. And that was just the start of a really nice day. After lunch, we drove another 100 miles on the Blue Ridge Parkway down to the Music Center where we listened for a couple hours of excellent mountain music. Playing was Scott Freeman and his Father-in-Law, Willard Gayheart. If we went back tomorrow, we'd hear Scott's daughter, Dori, who has been named as the most promising country artist of the year after debuting her first album. Because of remoteness, family strength, and a fervent love for tradition, mountain music rings from every holler up and down these mountains. This evening, we returned to The Floyd Country Store to see Jesse McReynolds, an 87 year old mandolin playing legend who still has incredible picking skills. His voice was a little raspy tonight, but his band covered for him nicely, and he was so self-effacing it was a pleasure to be in the room with him. I'm not sure if I talked about the word RESPECT during my marriage discussions, but it was so evident today among these mountain people. There was respect for elders, for culture, for music, for each other. And yet it was so human, so down to earth, so sad, so strong, so fervent. It makes me tingle to think about it. I tried to record notes as the music caressed me during the day and night. I wish you all were here, but now I'm going into my free flowing Jack Kerouac imitation by simply letting my notes flow like blue grass melodies on the wind:

From the Floyd editorial page this morning-Mohammad Ali in defense of his conscientious objection to the Vietnam War: "Vietnam is just white people sending black people to fight yellow people to defend a country they stole from the red people". Early American music was originally fiddles from Europe and banjos from Africa. Jesse McReynolds, 87, has been playing music for 55 years. The first time he paid for a music show, he paid 15 cents. He says, "I wouldn't say nothing I couldn't back up." "I've been playing at the Grand Old Opry for the last 52 years." "Early in my career, Martha White sponsored me so I could go on TV." "After my brother died, I went a little crazy." "I started covering Grateful Dead songs." "I even played with the Old Crow Medicine Show for a while." "I realized as a young man that I couldn't play mandolin like Bill Monroe, so I developed a signature style of split string and cross picking." Some song lyrics that stuck: "I can't tell my pillow from a stone, so I will walk alone along the muddy black river and listen to the ripples as they moan." He said, "At 85, I'm getting a little forgetful so I went to the doctor and asked him what I should do. The doctor says, "How long have you had this condition?" I answers back, "What condition?" At the break Judy wins a drawing. She gets a T-shirt for filling out a survey before the concert began. Another lyric that sticks; "It don't matter just now if you've broken every vow, just let me take you into my empty arms." And another: "Lord, don't let me grow up to be a sweaty cotton mill man." And then the band broke in Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.

We're buoyed, my Bunny and I, by the sheer strength of purpose the people in this part of our country demonstrate. I know it's true in other areas as well, and each in its own way adds to the strength of our country. We're all so lucky to live here, and the Americans living in these mountains, though they've suffered mightily still possess enough self awareness to chronicle their lives in song. Even though I can only play the radio, I'm as passionate a fan of music as ever has been. For this I am blessed to say that "Life is truly good, especially today."