Hardi and I hauled instruments over to a local roadside diner that is usually nearly empty from 7:30 PM till they close at 9. They'd said it would be OK to jam there. We've been working on ideas for kids' songs to do a spring kids & families concert... so we took all our songbooks over there that we had been thinking about getting songs from, and ran through about 50 pieces to see if they were working for us. Clementine, All the Pretty Little Horses, Bold Fisherman, Dan Tucker, and so forth.

One family came in and sat right next to us, looking kinda sour. I asked if we were disturbing their dinner. The dad brightened up immediately and said, "Is that what's called FOLK music?" Well, yeah, we answered. "See?" he said to his kids. "I told you so! THAT's what I used to sing and listen to when I was your age! And in school, too!" He then proceeded to tell us how awful the current school music is for kids. And the kids and their folks soaked all this up.

Then an older group (retiree+ in age) came up from the back of the place and not only oooh'd and ahhhh'd us, they hired us for two paying gigs! To play all that "wonderful old stuff we never hear anymore."

Where are the kids? Hiding inside the grownups, and sitting beside them. Waiting. For all of US. Waiting for us to just start some songs they KNOW.

~Susan