Some things never get old.
Working with life long friends. Performing classic oldies music. Being in an outdoor setting that everyone can enjoy.
How about all of the above!
That’s how I would sum up our return trip to Taylors Beach Family Campsite.
It’s one of those events that we circle on the calendar and can’t wait to play. Everything about it is enjoyable for Carl and I. The drive, the set-up the performance atmosphere and the families.
To coin a phrase: It’s all good!
That’s why we go back. It is quite a drive, but the drive is pleasant, giving us time to catch up and focus on our upcoming goals.
The set-up is easy, since we can drive the van right up to our location in the pavilion. Just unload the equipment, put it together and do a quick sound check makes that part of the experience so much easier and convenient. At other locations we need to carry our gear a ways, and for whatever reason it just seems to take twice as long.
Taylor’s Beach is the Mecca for the campers, of course. It is the focal point where everyone seems to congregate; kids, families and pets that is. They are all active and in motion long before we arrive, giving us reason to pause.
There’s just something about seeing it all unfold before our eyes that makes it reassuring. That even with all that has transpired over the last year and a half, nothing it seems can break the American tradition of family and the great out-of-doors.
We see it all unfold before our eyes. The echos of our own lives as we reflect on memories of our children while watching the families arrive at the beach. The dads and moms carrying all the provisions for the day with the kids tagging alone behind. The excitement and drama of a day at the beach, it’s truly wonderful to witness.
We just try and add to the enjoyment while picking and performing each song. We play them as we watch the comings and goings of the water and campers, interacting in their timeless dance before our eyes.
Our music is designed to be the soundtrack to a day at the beach.
We play them all. The golden oldies, the country and the fun time songs that get you tapping your toes, even if they are wet at that moment in time.
We love every moment.
We always have a great time there and will always want to come back next time.
Just something in us boys, I think. To outside by the lake, by the trees under God’s watchful eye.
We are lucky, Carl and I. To be still doing what we love nearly fifty years after we first picked up an instrument to entertain.
Hope we will be back soon. I guess Labor Day is just right around the corner . . .
. . . and, through the woods.
Rb
