Mountain Music

Twelve of us just spent a wonderful long weekend in Mountain View Arkansas.  The town was full of musicians and music-lovers.  The courthouse steps, the park, the street corners and the front porches were full of musicians of all ages just pickin' and grinnin' and entertainin'.  Those of us there to listen could roam from group to group with our camp chairs and enjoy the great sounds - and stop off at the food booths for delicacies like fried green tomatoes!  I don't even have a picture of the tomatoes - they went too fast!

Here's Jane and Joe on the front steps of one of the old B&Bs in town...

Most of the music was "old-timey" - lots of fiddles, mandolin, banjo, harmonica, bass, guitar.  There was a great bass made from an overturned wash bucket and one string.  It sounded fantastic!

 This group had several young players - both were just great!  Too shy to look up very often.  This kind of music gets passed down from generation to generation - so it was wonderful to see these young guys.  We saw lots of kids - singers, players,dancers.

 

These little girls were so cute!  And the guy got up there and danced to every song!

This was one of our favorite groups - Gone South.  They have all known each other for years and come to this festival every year.  This bunch of old hippies now includes bankers, pediatric cardiologists, pilots, you name it!  There are several more members of the group who don't show up in this picture (sorry!). 

The parade was Saturday morning - it was quite the event!  Kids, politicians, animals, marching bands, floats, flying candy and old-timey music!

 

I loved this old car - that's an early version of an auto air-conditioner in the window.

This guy walked this poor cow all over town.  Here he is in the parade.  As you can see, the crowd loves it...

And what's a parade without a kangaroo...

 and a firetruck...

and horses...

Here's some of our motley crew right after our spontaneous rendition of Happy Trails to You at the end of the parade.  Somehow it just seemed right.  Accompaniment by Becky and Carol on the kazoo.  I see Ray, Joe, Joe, Mike, Beck, Bobby, Kay, Melva, Jane and Carol.  Where's Fred???

Saturday afternoon several of us went out to Blanchard Springs Caverns which is nearby.  Mike and I chose to explore Mirror Lake and the stream, springs, and waterfalls.  The water is kind of tidy-bowl blue in the lake - apparently an effect of the bat droppings in the cave.  (You can't drink this water.)  Fisherman were pulling trout out of this lake by the handful - guess it is OK to eat the fish???

Here's Joe demonstrating the true meaning of boot-legging.  Mountain View is in a dry county!!!  So, you gotta do what you gotta do - or drive over to Fifty Six (that's the name of a town), in the next county!  We did not go thirsty.  Some of our rooms at Jack's Fishing Resort had adjoining screened-in porches so it was a great place to gather the group - like to discuss boot-legging.

The guy a couple doors down had two baby raccoons.  They were really adorable, at least for now. 

Many Thanks to Becky and Ray for all the planning to get us all there!  Hope to be back next year!