WELL ... I enjoyed the Northwest Folklife Festival today ... LIKE NEVER BEFORE ... it was the best yet ...

Friends flew down from Alaska and rented hotel rooms two blocks from the center grounds. They also reserved a conference room in the hotel. I arranged for a mini-hoot ... AND IT WAS SWELL. The best of the Seattle folkies came in and we sang, traded songs, and carried on for over two hours.

At one point I counted 23 people trading ballads, duets, silly songs, murder ballads, fiddle tunes, stories, much laughter. This was what the early days of the Folklife Festival was like. Great musicians brought together by a mutual love of, and respect for, this wonderful music.

And ... I didn't have to get closer than two blocks to the Center grounds ... we evaded the drummers and the festival police completly.

Bob(deckman)Nelson