Golden Moment
On a pleasantly warm January day, we headed to our local micro-distillery for some live acoustic music by our friends, Mark Bilyeu and Cindy Woolf. By 2pm the room was packed with about 40 people sampling the moonshine, vodka, and rum, and noshing some chili and beans.
A table was still empty just in front of the musicians and we took it. As he came in, Mark brought in a large cake carrier and announced that his wife Lizzie had baked me a birthday cake. I was charmed and taken aback. We usually do the surprising and this was a new experience. Liz's spicy cake with nuts was a big hit with us and our new special friends.
At our table only 3 feet away from the microphones, we could joke around and share some private moments with the performers. The small room holds an assortment of tables and chairs arranged as needed to seat everyone. The hard walls reflect all the bar conversations back to us during the music, but that's my only complaint.
As always, Mark asks what I would like to hear, and, as always, I draw the proverbial blank, but he had done an all Woody Guthrie show the evening before and offered us some well-traveled Guthrie tunes. Cindy was singing her original song wonderfully with Mark playing his remarkable guitar solos, as they have done on each other's tunes for many years. Their duet of the folk tune 'Handsome Molly' is one of Sue's special favorites.
Sue and I sampled Jim's rum and ate Liz's fine birthday cake. It felt like a birthday party for both of us since Sue's birthday comes next Friday. Through the magic of facebook, I hoped that I could get Mark to hum a few bars of Paul McCartney's "When I'm Sixty-Four", my new age. To my amazement, he sang and played the entire song on his Martin acoustic guitar. We laughed, we all had fun, we celebrated together. He threw in 'Big Rock Candy Mountain' for me at no extra charge.
Despite the chill outside, we left with the sense that something wonderful had happened, a sharing with friends. Warmed by the rum and thrilled by the music, we stumbled to our car and headed home into the night.
This day will be remembered with love and affection for a long time.
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