So many memories...And Lee could be such a quiet presence that I'm not sure any of them can touch his contribution to the partnership that is Folk-Legacy (which, in turn, is a state of mind - and heart - as much as a recording company...at least as much). I'm not sure any of them can touch his contribution to friendship. So many friendships.

Anyone remember the old ads with Sandy and Lee aboard the old Huntington village firetruck (subscript "These are Vermont record company executives")? Shoot! Ben and Jerry weren"t out of grade school yet, had years to go before they decorated our consciousness with holsteins and our waistlines with ice cream. And Folk-Legacy's perpetrators were exporting Vermont Mystique with every vinyl disc!

When Vaughn and I moved to Vermont in 1964, we sought out the Patons who - in turn - introduced us to Lee...who - in turn - introduced us to single malt Scotch (Glenfiddich).

Good talk, though, affectionate talk about the music and its people was what made Huntington a magical place. No other substances required.

I think it was Caroline who said it (maybe), but they all lived by it: "We don't really collect folk music; we collect friends who sing folk music".

Friends who travelled to a spot no more common on Vermont maps of the time than Doolin was (at the time) on Irish maps, to sing, to talk, to record...Howie Mitchell...Rosalie Sorrels... Lawrence Older...Sarah Cleveland...Grant Rogers...shanghied from festivals to record in Vermont. Frank Proffitt...driven back to North Carolina in Lee's "bathtub" Porsche No room for the fretless banjo Frank brought up. It stayed in Huntington until Sandy sold it to me and sent Frank the money. Still got it. Be harder to part with it now.

How many nights with one or two or three of them in corners of the state I now only dimly picture...no idea where they were... some gig at a sugar-on-snow at an old church with a two story outhouse...a night at a civil-rights rally somewhere when we sat and talked until who-knows-when with a very young Julian Bond...There's lots more. Just takes a while to bring it back. And Lee... rarely in the foreground...always somehow a part of it all, sometimes as if by telepathic connection from his own house, tucked back just a bit further in the hills.

What I hear are not words, but his voice...often querulous and always committed. It saddens me that I'll miss it more than he knew. That I suspect I'm not alone in that. Does the stone cast into still waters know how far the ripples spread ?