John is the one-time Irish button accordion champ and composer of "Simone," a tune commissioned for my wife's 50th and recorded on one of John's best CDs.
Yesterday was John's 50th. Musicians and neighbors arrived all rainy day. Sometimes 3 flutes, 5 fiddles, multiple guitars, multiple banjos, a drum were all playing the same song in a circle under the tent. Tables bowed with food. We talked to the guy who plays the bones, and he showed us how it's done. Simone talked to the guy in the kilt with the jeweled knife stuck in his sock. And some Irish celebrity musician showed up whom everyone rushed to greet. One tall man reeled away from the mob, saying over his shoulder, "Ah, a man such as yourself is busy." Too busy for the likes of me, was the implication I heard.
Every day has a little adventure. While Simone spoke with her mom by cell phone, I pulled into a highway rest area to, you know, rest. On the way in, a middle-aged white guy in a Yankees ball cap leaned toward me and asked quietly, "Can I talk to you for a second?" He closely resembled my brother-in-law, Larry Kramer. My defenses shut off. The guy told me his car had unexpectedly run out of gas, some gauge wasn't working; his parents were waiting for him to pick them up at Logan airport; and he'd forgotten his wallet at home. "This is very embarrassing." He looked it, too.
"Will twenty do it?" I fished one out.
"I'll send it back to you!" he insisted. I said no. People have done me favors all my life. Scam? Sure, could be possible. It felt good anyway. Helping always does. MRIs prove it.
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