Fine entertainment
Well, I must say we had a fine weekend party for the family clan and those in the community clan interested in kick-back musical entertainment. Generally in this column I am supposed to confine my comments to things that are "not family." And generally in this column I try to obey the rules. This time I am going to disobey those rules because I have something good to tell you.
The Married Daughter and the Youngest Child cooked up a surprise Father's Day celebration for The Mister. The Youngest Child flew in from Nashville Saturday evening (following the biggest auction we have had this season — like we had nothing else in the world to do that day). She was picked up at the airport by a friend from Newton and arrived at the warehouse about seven-ish as we were all scuttling about to hide the party preparations from Mister Mister. (Of course tables, chairs, candles, wildflowers in Mason jars, colorful table cloths, and a smoking grill might lead one to believe that one's employees have more on their minds than cleaning up the leftovers of an auction, but what did we care?)
He was aghast when she waltzed up and cried, "Happy Father's Day!" He looked around and said, "Do your mom and sister know you're here?" (Nah. No one arranged this, Bubba, it all just happened.)
So we rustled up some good grub on the grill and settled in for the evening with others who would sing along or hum along, or just go along with the local musicians performing in the warehouse yard.
This was a wonderful venue, folks. Peabody late on a Saturday night, food aplenty, stars in the sky, people around that we really liked, and musicians who could perform our favorites from as many musical genres as we could request. No wonder people love bluegrass festivals, pickin' and fiddlin' contests, country music round-ups, and other public music gatherings. It was the best. The only thing that could have made it better would have been more musicians with more musical choices, more instruments, and a fire pit.
Yeah, a fire pit would have been great. Somehow we forgot to check with the fire chief about that. Next time we will know better. And next time we hope to host a musical celebration for all of us and all of you. We will do better at getting the word out. We will plan it for itself instead of working it into an already busy weekend.
Next time we will make it a real community event. Promise me you will come!
— SUSAN MARSHALL
