Old Folks made one last road trip, to
Live Oak, to the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park.
He got to the park and
paid $2 for a day pass. It was a Monday, so the place was empty.
He drove
down to the Suwannee River. To the beach, near the boat ramp, for launching canoes.
He used to daydream about paddling a canoe from the Okeefenokee Swamp down
the Suwannee River to the Gulf of Mexico, but he probably wouldn't do it, now. He
couldn't sit upright in a canoe and paddle all day, now.
Who did he think
he was? Followed by Buzzards? Lewis and Clark's sign-talker?
Followed by
Buzzards was his silver dollar.
* * *
Driving through the park he thought of all the weekends he had camped there,
with the family. Usually around the lake.
And one year, when Dread Clampitt played there, Balder got him a backstage
pass.
He thought about how peaceful it was, how good the music was, and how one
year Big Chief was a vendor, and had a booth, selling his folk art, and Old Folks
walked up-they'd corresponded, but never met-and Big Chief said, "Oh, no, a
folk art critic," recognizing him from his picture at the web site.
How good the food was. The conversation.
Old Folks's camping days were over. It was good he got his sunset cruise
in while he could still get around. Still remember things.
Now Brenda was
giving Ella a bath, in the galvanized washtub, as she had bathed Owen and Balder,
when they were young.
Now the younger people waited on them, as they had
waited on the old people, when they were young.