I guess all the tellers met at the Comfort Inn to toast JJ's memory -- and wer ethere until 2 or 3 in the morning. she is a real loss, folks; we have discussed this on the list before. Died way before her time of cancer.

None of the stories were short enough to post, Rich. I am sorry I missed Bill Harley; he is hysterical. some of you may have heard a piece or 3 of his on NPR; they buy some of his work.

The no-dry-eyes for me came when the tent I had parked in all Saturday afternoon to hear Ray Hicks discovered he was not there due to illness. (People in the tent he was to perform in in the morning knew this already.) Ed Stivener, a near stand-up comic from the Philly area filled in for him, as people had been doing for Johnny Moses, a Native American teller from my neck of the woods had to cancel due to illness (heart attack at 49, folks, if you want something to give you pause. Ack.)

Anyway, Ed did a set, and called up Ray's Wife Rosa to sing with him a bit, and as she was leaving the stage, he asked, And Ray will be all right, right? He'll be fine? I guess no one had clued him in to the fact that every year. it is the question, we have to go hear Ray because it may be the last time.

Anyway, Rosa seemed so startled by the question, she just blurted out the truth: Oh no, I think he's going downhill.

Stunned silence.

Ed said, Let us take a moment for Ray, and bowed his head. Then he quietly started in on "Hard times come again no more," with his banjo.

Think good thoughts in Ray Hicks' direction, folks.