Monday evening finds us relaxing after a fun day in downtown Waynesville, NC. We drove through there on Sunday evening, and decided to come back today to window-shop and enjoy the unique atmosphere that Waynesville seemed to offer. We weren't disappointed!
We had lunch at Headlights Restaurant, a nice bar/grill type place that reminded me a whole lot of Macados, one of my favorite restaurants in Boone. We stopped in at Town Hall in Waynesville and chatted for a few minutes with Town Manager Lee Galloway and his assistant, Alison Melnikova. I met Lee as an undergraduate at ASU, and have always looked up to him as I have begun my own career in the Public Management profession. We enjoyed our talk, including talking about how my job has affected/will affect Kris, and also where the best places to see and eat are in the area! Alison also gave us a bag of goodies promoting businesses in the downtown area--that was much appreciated!
We did some shopping for the afternoon, and re-booked our train trip for later in the week. We finished our day in downtown at the Mast General Store, one of our favorite places. We have been to the ones in Valle Crusis (the store and the annex), Boone, Asheville, and now Waynesville. Such a fun place with so much to offer!
We came back to the B&B where the hosts had prepared a snack basket that we ordered, and enjoyed cheeses, sausage, crackers, grapes, sodas, and cookies. We decided we would stay in for the night, as it is cold outside, and forecasters are even calling for snow! Wouldn't it be nice to wake up tomorrow to some snow on the mountaintops?!?!?!?
Kris is napping now, so I thought I'd blog about the day. Other fun notes are to come, especially when Kris gets on here and writes some!
I wanted to take a few minutes to Blog about the wedding gift that Kris suprised me with on Saturday. Kris took the time to secretly commission Bo Limbaugh, a friend of mine who lives near Tulsa, Oklahoma to make a powwow drum for me to have for a wedding gift. Wow...just wow! I could not have imagined such an incredible, personal, thoughtful, powerful, amazing gift. Kris understands how important powwow singing is to me better than I ever thought she did, as she knew that something like that drum would mean so much to me. The gift brought me to tears for yet another time that afternoon, unashamedly, yet weak in the knees to see that outward sign or symbol of how much I am loved by the woman I married.
It was especially cool that she had Bo make it, as Bo, along with others, lit a fire under me to begin learning how to sing back in 1996. Bo and his wife, Kim are great people, and I look at their marriage as the example of how a marriage should be--fun, uncensored, a partnership with your best friend. Bo is a telented singer and drum maker, and I could tell that he put a lot of thought into making a drum especially for me as a wedding gift from Kris. Thanks so much Bo--it really means a lot!
After Kris suprised me with it at our wedding, I had the opportunity to break it in with my best friends in the world outside the tent and near the fire where everyone was gathered. This was especially unique, as there were many friends and family there who had never heard Southern Plains Indian Singing before, who probably never even knew that this was what I spent the majority of my free weekends doing--travelling across the country singing at Powwows.
Ridgie, Daniel, Michael, Chip, Matt, Travis, Justin, Harry, and I (with Rene Tucker in the background) sang 6 or seven songs Saturday night with several folks watching and listening, and GOOD GOD did that drum sound incredible! It had a pitch that made the singing that much better, and the power of those songs grows stronger with their age, I am truly convinced. We sang a couple of straight intertribal songs, some Veterans Songs, and a Ponca Prayer Song--one of Yellow Bear's (an old Ponca man, who was described as not a singer, but a religious man, best as I can recall) songs that is a pretty song, and very appropriate to the occasion. No matter how long between times that group of guys gets together, we enjoy singing together and enjoy singing well! What a cool aspect of our wedding--the groom and three groomsmen and the grooms best friends singing together and enjoying ourselves on a new drum--signifying a new beginning for me and Kris together, but acknowledging that our uniqueness, our friends, hobbies, interests, and passions are still important as we begin our life as a family together. Maybe some folks there thought it was strange, but most seemed to enjoy it, and thought it was pretty cool.
It also made me think of people that I have learned a lot from over the years, people who live all over the country, people who I count as my closest friends, especially those of them who couldn't be there for the wedding. It was an opportunity to reflect, and think about those people and relationships that I hope I never take for granted. I hope that I have the opportunity one day to sing with them around my new drum, and that it will give us the opportunity to share many more songs, stories, laughs, and the power of song for many, many years.
We had lunch at Headlights Restaurant, a nice bar/grill type place that reminded me a whole lot of Macados, one of my favorite restaurants in Boone. We stopped in at Town Hall in Waynesville and chatted for a few minutes with Town Manager Lee Galloway and his assistant, Alison Melnikova. I met Lee as an undergraduate at ASU, and have always looked up to him as I have begun my own career in the Public Management profession. We enjoyed our talk, including talking about how my job has affected/will affect Kris, and also where the best places to see and eat are in the area! Alison also gave us a bag of goodies promoting businesses in the downtown area--that was much appreciated!
We did some shopping for the afternoon, and re-booked our train trip for later in the week. We finished our day in downtown at the Mast General Store, one of our favorite places. We have been to the ones in Valle Crusis (the store and the annex), Boone, Asheville, and now Waynesville. Such a fun place with so much to offer!
We came back to the B&B where the hosts had prepared a snack basket that we ordered, and enjoyed cheeses, sausage, crackers, grapes, sodas, and cookies. We decided we would stay in for the night, as it is cold outside, and forecasters are even calling for snow! Wouldn't it be nice to wake up tomorrow to some snow on the mountaintops?!?!?!?
Kris is napping now, so I thought I'd blog about the day. Other fun notes are to come, especially when Kris gets on here and writes some!
I wanted to take a few minutes to Blog about the wedding gift that Kris suprised me with on Saturday. Kris took the time to secretly commission Bo Limbaugh, a friend of mine who lives near Tulsa, Oklahoma to make a powwow drum for me to have for a wedding gift. Wow...just wow! I could not have imagined such an incredible, personal, thoughtful, powerful, amazing gift. Kris understands how important powwow singing is to me better than I ever thought she did, as she knew that something like that drum would mean so much to me. The gift brought me to tears for yet another time that afternoon, unashamedly, yet weak in the knees to see that outward sign or symbol of how much I am loved by the woman I married.
It was especially cool that she had Bo make it, as Bo, along with others, lit a fire under me to begin learning how to sing back in 1996. Bo and his wife, Kim are great people, and I look at their marriage as the example of how a marriage should be--fun, uncensored, a partnership with your best friend. Bo is a telented singer and drum maker, and I could tell that he put a lot of thought into making a drum especially for me as a wedding gift from Kris. Thanks so much Bo--it really means a lot!
After Kris suprised me with it at our wedding, I had the opportunity to break it in with my best friends in the world outside the tent and near the fire where everyone was gathered. This was especially unique, as there were many friends and family there who had never heard Southern Plains Indian Singing before, who probably never even knew that this was what I spent the majority of my free weekends doing--travelling across the country singing at Powwows.
Ridgie, Daniel, Michael, Chip, Matt, Travis, Justin, Harry, and I (with Rene Tucker in the background) sang 6 or seven songs Saturday night with several folks watching and listening, and GOOD GOD did that drum sound incredible! It had a pitch that made the singing that much better, and the power of those songs grows stronger with their age, I am truly convinced. We sang a couple of straight intertribal songs, some Veterans Songs, and a Ponca Prayer Song--one of Yellow Bear's (an old Ponca man, who was described as not a singer, but a religious man, best as I can recall) songs that is a pretty song, and very appropriate to the occasion. No matter how long between times that group of guys gets together, we enjoy singing together and enjoy singing well! What a cool aspect of our wedding--the groom and three groomsmen and the grooms best friends singing together and enjoying ourselves on a new drum--signifying a new beginning for me and Kris together, but acknowledging that our uniqueness, our friends, hobbies, interests, and passions are still important as we begin our life as a family together. Maybe some folks there thought it was strange, but most seemed to enjoy it, and thought it was pretty cool.
It also made me think of people that I have learned a lot from over the years, people who live all over the country, people who I count as my closest friends, especially those of them who couldn't be there for the wedding. It was an opportunity to reflect, and think about those people and relationships that I hope I never take for granted. I hope that I have the opportunity one day to sing with them around my new drum, and that it will give us the opportunity to share many more songs, stories, laughs, and the power of song for many, many years.
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