Another great year at
Clifftop. On Saturday, July 26th Leslie and
Rosemarie headed off for Clifftop to stake out territory on the
festival grounds and start erecting the FOB hamlet. They set up
the kitchen tent, the jam tent and some of the sleeping quarters.
This year we added solar powered lights which gave the FOB Hamlet a
glow at night. Our 5-gallon bucket lantern covers were big hits,
with many people stopping by to inquire about them. Bill L. and
daughter Emily (our PA FOB Contingent) came in later in the evening.
On Sunday through
Wednesday more folks pulled in ~ Barbara from Santa Barbara (our CA
FOB Contingent), Kevin and Jan, our Barbara, Paul and Virginia ~
doubling the size of the Hamlet with more sleeping tents, canopies and
vehicles. And of course we were an additional home base for
Howard and his friend Jim A., Jim G. , Hubie, Katy D., Mary, Keith S.,
Rich and Katy C., Mike... We had our largest compound to date
this year – including two canopies set up as a sound studio for Hubie
and Katy to record some Clifftop musicians for Hubie’s radio show Old
Time Jam on WAMU in Washington DC.
On Monday we had our
annual Clifftop kick-off dinner and jam at the cabin. We were in
cabin 8 this year which is a bit smaller than cabin 4 but we all
squeezed in. The weather was rainy but Barbara (she is woman –
hear her roar) braved the drizzle to cook mounds of shish kabobs on
the outside grill for everyone, including a marauding raccoon.
Everyone brought goodies to fill in around the main course. It
was delicious. Since we are already planning dinner for next
year, we think it is now safe to say this is a tradition. Good
food, great friends and lots of music!
We all hope that Kevin
& Jan realize that they too have created a tradition. The
wonderful breakfast at their cabin on Wednesday morning cannot be
outdone. They had piles of homemade waffles, mounds of eggs,
countless strips of bacon, yogurt, fresh blueberries and, of course,
Howard brought the mimosas.
This year Leslie, Jan,
Emily and Virginia were joined by Pam, a friend of Jan’s, for our
annual wildflower walk. Barbara and Virginia took advantage of
the craft workshops. Emily, at Clifftop for the first
time, discovered the vendor tents and wiped out Bill's retirement
funds with a new school wardrobe. BAS (banjo acquisition
syndrome) was rampant as usual as new banjos were purchased this year
by Leslie 2, Rebecca 2, Jim 1. Jill still holds the record for
the most banjo purchases at one Clifftop with her 2007 spree.
Who knows what would have happened if she had made it this year.
Paul was busy making field recordings both down in the swamp and at
the WAMU recording tent where he audio-documented Clifftop's music for
Hubie's show.
Bill L. organized a
field trip to the
Isaiah Morgan Distillery which he had read about in Goldenseal
Magazine. It was about an hour away in Summersville, WV.
We happily sampled the wine ~ some interesting offerings were
dandelion wine, ginseng wine, ramp wine!!!! and moonshine. We
stocked up and headed back to the festival grounds.
Paul spearheaded most
of our midnight ramblings of “the swamp.” We saw some exciting
jams, perhaps one of the most memorable included Rayna Gellert, Bruce
Molsky, Mac Benford, Rafe Stefanini, Christine Wheeler, Paula Bradley,
Meredith McIntosh and Phil Jamison. We had a good system this
year. Paul would scout the territory and then circle back with
news of any sightings.
Rebecca and Dave
completely surprised us all when they showed up with a car full of
brand new camping gear ready to join in all the fun. And
Steve (the FOB DE contingent) and his daughter showed up on Wednesday
night. His daughter and Emily hit it right off and took off to
the swamp for Cajun music.
This year Barbara
represented for FOB at the “No Talent Show.” The rules are you have
one minute, no old-time, no bluegrass, no cajun, and no talent.
People with talent were run off the stage area with shouts of “Too
much talent! Too much talent!” Ever looking for ways to make a fool
of herself, when the MC asked for more performers, she announced she
had no talent and so was invited to the stage. She was not run
off the stage. ;>)
Saturday morning
started with a terrific thunderstorm, bad enough to send many campers
to their cars. Those of us who were staying at the Hamlet
weathered out the storm under our new jam tent. Paul invented the
magnificent "Umbrella EZ-UP Rain Pool Pusher" on-the-spot and
busily keept the 10 by 10s from collapsing. The 10 by 20 kept us dry
and made it through the wind with the small aircraft tie downs
anchoring it to the ground.
The jamming was great
as always. Uncle Henry was “the tune” this year.
Barbara from Santa Barbara patiently fiddled it for us at every
request. We made new festival friends ~ Bob from MA and Marynell
from TX felt like FOB family right off the bat and we look forward to
seeing them next year.
So many good memories.
We are all counting the days till Clifftop 2009. Are we there yet?
This year's essay was
written by Barbara and Leslie, photos were taken by Leslie and
Bill L. Fun was had by all. Thanks everyone!
