I have had a visited by the serendipity fairy.
My partner has been reading this book from the library lately, "Pressing On" The Roni Stoneman Story as told to Ellen Wright (University of Illinois Press).
Stoneman may not be immediatly recognizible to most people, but if you ever saw the syndicated TV show Hee Haw she was the gap toothed woman living with her husband in a shack and she was always ironing and nagging him about something. I had always described her as the ugliest one on the show, but that turned out to be makeup. She is actually a very elegant looking woman, but still as authentic as they come.
Her story, simple and direct, was taken straight from interviews and chronical she life in a travelling musical family. Pure oral narative. Her family is from the Galax, Virginia area, but she has lived all over, in desperate situations, husbands who beat her, friends who were not friends at all. She had one hard row to hoe after another. The title is a take off on that never ending ironing, both in that skit which is her greatest claim to fame and in her life, smoothing out the wrinkles. When my partner left for a trip to Wisconsin this weekend I told him I would take the book back for him and check it out myself and read it.
So with a weekend to myself, I asked about and found a friend from work, her sister and kids, and the Australian couple who are the parents of the groom from last weekend, were all going to descend on Floyd Friday night for the Jamboree (
www.floydcountrystore.com). I had not been there since the store was enlarged to accomodate more so I eagerly planned on joining them. I stopped in Elamsville at the Sage's invitation of Walmart hamburger and garden grown potatos and ended up taking her gardener, James, with me up there.
James was itching to be anywhere by Elamsville. He does not drive and being dependant on Carol for his transportation and has a bad case of cabin fever. He has recently been attempting a move to Roanoke where he would certainly have a better time of it, and detailed to me the two guys he met thru the MCC church who were supposed to help him find an apartment, but insted got him caught up in their personal drama. I finally had to tell him I had had enough personal drama myself this week and I was unwilling to listen to anymore. His tangential mind went on then to a number of other things and at one point mentioned his taking violin lessons as a child and that his 4th grade music teacher had been married to Buck Owens breifly.
"The woman with the blue fiddle who married him for 3 days?!"
"Yeah that's her! Janet Griph (?sp.) "
The crowd was pouring out into the street when we got there at 7, two or three other band were set up outside, both sides of the street.We found my friends and acquaintences and squeezed our way into the "new and improved" store. Standing room only, as usual. While James held back I twisted my way to the front with the ladies to the new laminate hardwood dance floor. Fans were trained on the floor, which was a blessing. They were all there, the regulars: Jerrold, the human question mark, Wendell, the only black man in Floyd, Turkeyhat Man, Glynnis, who always wears hotpants and who I met once at the Grand Ole Opry, and yes this would be a good night, Over-all boy was there.
Let me explain about overall boy. He is perhaps 32, about 6'2", perfect features, built like a brick shit house, always smiling, laid back, always wearing overalls and tap shoes and man can he dance. Friendly too. Of all the grain fed, farm use men in Floyd County, he is it. To be on the same dance floor with him is to have reason to grin all next week.
Having danced thru four songs, me and my new endorphins needed to go outside and get some air. I went out the front door looking for James when this middle aged blond woman comes up and starts rubbing my belly and hollers to her friends "Eat at Joe's!" and we all laugh and I add "and Tom's and Dick's" and she says:
"Awww, thank you for being a good sport, you are so good looking!" and she extends her hand and says "I'm Roni Stoneman."
I looked at her with widening eyes and the face in front of me matched perfectly with the cover of her book. "Lord God You Are! I'm reading your book!" I all but hollered.
Roni Stoneman went on to thank me and tell me all about he family. Most of her children it seems work for Nissan and she told me I looked like Tim White, an regional music promoter which I took as a compliment and then told me how I needed to get a hold of the Atkins Diet to get that gut off of me before it was too late (I thought had it not been for this gut I would never have met you!) I ended up buying a copy of her book which she autographed for me, but she declined my invitation to dance. I thanked her for telling her story. She is 69 years old now but does not look a day over 55. She was in her eliment, a minor clelbrity among friends, amonsgt people who hold her in high regard, who show her love.
I still wonder sometimes at my serendipideous good fortune. How things make themself know to me just before I see them. I am in that space right now, betwixt what I know and what I try to believe. Come again sprit of serendipity, I always love your visits.
Last night I dreamed I was back in high school again, but this time I was a teacher, not the student.