Evening Memoriam

Found the Pete Seeger link. Here it is: Pete Seeger Link

There's a cool picture of the Weavers together, too!

I think that in the evening I like to reminisce. So I will tell you of the second time I saw Atwater-Donnelly.

It was a sunny day in August--pretty hot, I remember. We were in Illinois, in Rose Town, visiting Grandma and Grandpa. The day before we had flown in, but Grandma had made a bit of a mistake and had forgotten to pick us up--any one of us could've done that, Grandma, don't feel bad!

This particular day, we were driving down the Elgin-O'Hare expressway--just Susie, Mum, Dad, and me. We were all sitting there in the car, driving down a flat expressway lined with concrete walls, high and shutting in--so unlike the walls on I-5 back home short and lined with evergreen trees.

We drove for what seemed like forever and a day, and I felt a queer nervousness twist in my stomach--I mean, I trusted my parents to find the way all right; they'd been there before, but how well do things operate on memory? What if...?

We finally turned into a condominium complex--it was in here. I knew that. In fact, I had talked with the lady hosting the concert on the phone--oh, that was a funny story! But no laughter filled my heart tonight. I was worried! I knew not why--why should I have been.

A familiar face, a familiar person was all I needed to drive worries off my mind. I had seen Ms. Atwater only once before, but I picked her out easily of the blur of faces in the crowded common area we entered. Why she was at the enterance to the room and not by the stage, I'll never know--I didn't wonder then. She recognized my mother--Mum must be very memorable person--and my father, and of course she said hello. Her face was familiar, because I don't often forget a face, besides, she was on the cover of several of the best CDs we owned. Right up there with Quichua Mashis and Bill Miller and the Crossing, those groups of which I'd heard of for practically forever.

We had to split up, two and two. My family, I mean. Daddy and I sat in the back, whilst Mum and Susie sat somewhere in the middle. Ms. Atwater, meanwhile, walked towards the stage (where her husband was in the middle of a conversation), talking to different people on the way. When she finally talked to Mr. Donnelly, she pointed at something--to this day I have no idea what. The reason I remember is that it was in our direction. I'll never know if or what she was pointing at--and I don't care. It's just a detail. What I do know is that Mr. Donnelly started talking to Mum a few minutes later. Susie wouldn't say hi, he reported to Daddy later.

Meantimes I was talking to Daddy--just boring chatter, like "Yeeks, I'm biting my nails, at this rate I'll have no nails left. But, hey! I have to keep my nails short to play the..." Elwood Donnelly himself (talking to musicians who have made CDs is such a novelty!) was walking toward us and he and Daddy had a long boring conversation--something about different festivals and sawdust, of all things. That was when he mentioned Susie's shyness.

Ms. Atwater, fully loaded with guitar and ready to go, had to come to tell him, "Hey, we got a performance to do here!" Her friend had done this sound test with her--just a "testing, 1 2 3," thing.

The performance, as usual, was wonderful. I had a crick in my back from not much of a back rest on the bench, but that didn't matter. I was caught up in the music. I heard favorites old...

"And I'll shout, and I'll dance
And I'll rise up early in the morning."

...and new...

"I'm gonna put on silver slippers, some of these days"

It was amazing, the way time dragged and slipped by and stuck and flew. Before I knew it, yet thousands of years after we had left Grandma's house on a warm summer evening, it was time for a break and we checked out the display tables. We went home one CD and one songbook richer (Song By Song is an excellent book that I would not like to have missed!). And home with a whole bunch of memories.

Susie wouldn't even shake hands with Mr. Donnelly, but I tried to get her to do it. All I ended up doing was shaking hands with him myself.

The rest of vacation--and up until now, the CD and the songbook were put into use...actively.

'Bye now.
Saro