we throw a "shindig in the pasture"every year at our home...we have a mixture of bluegras and old-time music from 6 bands performing from 12noon-6pm...and we open it up to the public..FREE!we also invite concessions,crafts,whatever to set up and sell stuff...FREE!!(its our only way of having food/drinks for folks)its all free to our fans,friends,anyone....but this year was different!since taking early retirement in the summer of 1999,i have met lots of friends on the internet,,,,,,i invited many of them to come to our shindig.many of them have a copy of our cd!to my surprise,they came!they drove here from....NY,PA,MASS,GA,SC,TENN,W.VA,VA,i even picked up one lady from the airport who flew in fron OMAHA NEBRASKA....36 of them all together.not only had i not met any of them in person,but they had not met each other in person,either!i helped many get motel reservations,other places to stay....dang,it was the most wonderful experience of my life.they were all wonderful people,hard working,god fearing,many retired,many on fixed incomes,many still working and just all wonderful folks.....deciding to meet their friends at a location somewhere,not exactly centrally located for us all,but at my humble little farm here in rural hall,n.c..after the last band played,we all went out to dinner together that night at a local,Golden coral buffet restaurant...again,the fellowship was terrific and i mean after hearing all kinds of horror stories about the freaks people run into on the internet,i thanked god for blessing us with what had happened here...but then,it was over...we all hugged,cried,shook hands,said good-byes,cried again!! so what did i accomplish?well maybe nothing to some of you,but to me some of the most wonderful memories of my entire life...i'll never forget it!....a little foot note:i invited the local media to give us some coverage,but apparently they didnt think it was good enough to compete with the flash,trash and garbage,blood,gut and sex that they usually cover from day to day!!