2017 July 22, Events of the W. C. Handy Festival Saturday

I went to the Visitor Center to listen to Tom McDonald talk about three of the books that he wrote and had for sale. 

1. Promises to Keep

2. Dirt Road Memories 

3. When Memories Come Calling

I should have bought one. 

I stopped to talk to Tom for a few minutes about growing up in East Florence. 

Tom said that he grew up on Sweetwater Avenue.

I live in East Florence, but our paths never crossed. 

Tom went to Brandon School from the first to the sixth grades.

When we moved to Florence, I had already passed the sixth grade.

Tom's family moved to the Central area around the time we moved to East Florence. 

We talked about Sweet Water Creek and walking along the old railroad tracks down by the canal on the bank of the Tennessee River. 

When we lived in East Florence, my sisters and I would walk to McFarland Park to swim in the Tennessee River.

We also swam in the canal, which was not far from our home. 

Tom said once that he had tried floating down the Sweet Water Creek in a washtub and that he had hoped to make it to the Tennessee River in that tub, but it turned over, and he never made it. 

What sweet childhood memories we both could recall.

Then I went to Florence Library to read Watermelon Wine, the Poetry of American Music. 

Where I listened to Anne E DeChant, sing and play on her guitar some of her storytelling songs (she was very good)

 I left the library and rode to Jack's for lunch. There, I ordered a kids' Chicken Finger Meal, which consisted of two Chicken fingers, green beans, Rice Kirby, and Diet Coke. I also ordered an Apple Pie. 
I still had time to kill before returning to the Visitor Center, so I went back to the Library.
There was a car show that was about to end, so I stopped to take a few pictures. It was going to be long with walking, so I just took several long-distance pictures. I walked back through the Library and saw Anne DeChant and Frye Gilard standing at the counter in the Library, so I walked up to them.
I told Anne DeChant that I loved her singing and playing and that her music reminded me of the storyteller and singer Tom T. Hall. 
She thanked me and said she appreciated the compliment. 
They were getting directions to Legends, where they were going to eat lunch. I said they have good food. 

 Then, back to the visitors center for Swampfest Songwriter showcase series #2 to listen to Buzz Cason and Russell Medford sing and play. 
The audience sang along with Buzz in a couple of his songs. "Hank Williams Christian songs. One way I saw the light. Russell talked about meeting a couple of songwriters at Killen Diner (which has since burnt down) to write a song. 
The fun show ended around 3:30PM.

I rode to Taco Bell to get supper, and there was a line of cars all the way to the stop sign. 
When I got up to the window, I said, you have been busy today. The girl at the window said we have been like this since 11AM today because we had four people to call in. What a bummer!!

After my busy day, all I wanted to do was eat my Taco Salad,  prop my feet up, and watch TV.

The Stranger

Sally’s parents owned a chain of Macy’s Department Stores.

The one Sally worked at was in New York, where she had to deal with the hustle and bustle of everyday traffic and people.

Sally would take the Staten Island ferry and then the subway to Time Square where Macy’s Department was located. 

Sally loved her job and the people but deep inside she was filled with emptiness over the loss of her beloved Jim. 

Sally and Jim were college sweet hearts, they married right out of college and had planned to spend the rest of their lives together. 

After ten years of marriage they still did not have children but hoped someday day to fill that void. 

Jim was an engineer and he had designed many of the tall sky scrapers in New York. 

Sally remembers that tragic night like it was yesterday.

The knock on the door, the two policemen saying I am sorry to inform you but your husband lost control of his car and was buried in the snow.

Jim had stayed late at work and was trying to finish up one of his projects and by the time he finished it snowing up a storm. The wind was howling, it was very dark and the roads were blanketed in snow.

Both Jim and Sally loved the outdoors and they had build a beautiful home two hours away from the city.

They also kept a small apartment in downtown New York when they kept late hours at work. 

But tonight Jim wanted to be with Sally it was their tenth anniversary. 

It had been ten years since Sally was widowed, with no children to fill her days, Sally turned to books.

Bye the time Sally had the fire roaring in the fireplace she could smell the hot coffee perking in the kitchen.

Sally put on her pajamas, poured herself a cup of hot coffee, grabbed a warm blanket and went to her library of books and picked out the latest novel that she had purchased.

Sally had settled in for the night when the ground beneath her house shook. 

The sky lite up like a christmas tree, then total darkness. 

Lighting bolded one after another.

Sally put her book aside and she started to shake. When Jim was alive he would take her in his arms and make her feel safe but tonight she had no one to hold her.

One of the lightening bolts hit the house and it caught on fire. Oh my! What am I going to do? She called the fire department but she lived so far out of the city that by the time the fire trucks arrived the house would be burnt to the ground.

Sally was racing around inside the house, trying to save her library of books when she heard the sound of a car.

The car stopped and a stranger got out and raced inside to save Sally.

Sally did not want to leave the house because of her books but the stranger pulled her outside.

The firemen arrive just in time to see the sky opened up and pour buckets of rain onto the house putting the fire out. 

Sally looked at the stranger only to discovered the stranger was not a stranger.

Sally put the face of the stranger with the man she had been avoiding at the store.

Sally remembered the crazy day, that she had met the stranger.

One day at the store she was throwing a tantrum acting like a kid, she had made a horses ass of herself right in front of the stranger. 

So, every time he came into the store Sally would run and hide, she was too embarrassed to face him.

Tonight she had to face him, he had saved her life. 

The firemen made sure the fire was extinguished and it was safe for them to return inside. 

The stranger stayed the night to comfort Sally and to make sure the fire did not rekindle.

Sally went to check on her books they smelled like smoke and the pages curled a little but other wise the books were still readable.

The roof had to be patched, the walls painted but that would be another day.

The young man stayed to help with the clean up and Sally was not long ashamed to face the man.

Could this be the beginning of a new romance.

Like Humphrey Bogart said in Casablanca, “Here’s looking at you kid"