EMPTY BUCKETS
When I arrived on Thursday morning to set up the reminder of my booth
at The Festival For The Eno's first Day (July 4th),
all of the buckets and buckets of rain that the Weather Gods seemed to have in store for us
seemed to be purged, and sitting, dripping upside down on their rims to dry.
The sun, formerly fearful of being extinguished completely,
had begun to creep wearily back out of hiding,
peeking out through the curtains of parting clouds.
After about 6 straight days of punative rain and thunder storms,
very fortunate indeed were we
that these clouds had decided to part just in time to make way for the Festival For The Eno.
It could almost be read as some kind of demonstrative warning.
It was if to say, "Whine and complain about it being hot at a river festival?
Well, lets see it from the other end then shall we?!"..
And indeed, when I approached the dam early that morning, to make my annual pilgrimage across it,
I found that these sloshing bucket clouds had left in their wake
a River Eno swollen as I have never seen it in my years.
This did not stop me from crossing, and I was forced to use every ounce of my concentration
to inch, step by careful step, across it,
as one misplaced toe on a slippery rather than mossy rock,
and the rushing force of the water would have surely swept me and my belongings over.
(Not good judgement in retrospect).
Anyways, this meant no swimming for Law Abiding Festival Goers, by decree of the Sherrifs who gaurded her edges.
And with the muddy ground, and visitors still both a bit in shock and weary, the foot traffic was indeed a bit slow, though certainly up from last year.
I busied myself getting the remaining stages of my booth in place.
However, as the day wore on, a good right many brave souls risked getting a little wet (it never Did rain, though I was always ready).
.jpg)
And by and by, the people started to trickle in.
 |
| yep, chicks dig it. |
 |
| A lovely mysterious lady became entranced with one of my plants.. |
This gal right here is Joanna, and I need to give Joanna her proper due.
You see, with her incisive wit, Joanna has cut right through all of the tire fat, and helped me to understand the very nature of my own material better...
 |
| Joanna, my new Marketing Director |
You see, early in the day, Joanna stopped in to the Reptire Hut to have a look around. Quizing her about what she saw, as I often do, I asked her what material the planter before her was made of.
And do you know what she replied?....
"Its made out of tire leather" she said.
Tire Leather! Tire Leather!!!
And she is so right.
My wares are made from tire no more than purses are made from 'cow'.
Rather, you would say cow leather, or cow skin, or cow hide.
 |
| This feller right is the King of Booch. Kambucha Brew Maestro of Buchi booch, down from Asheville. I was glad to see they had found their way down. I was right impressed by their 6 sided hand crafted test design at LEAF Festival a couple years ago. Very cool dude, and he shared a snapping turtle story of his, this still chills me to the bone to this day... |
 | ||
| This cute couple was bowled over by this Cactus Tirarium. Who can blame them?
|
As always, I got to see a few dear old friends the Festival For the Eno.
 |
| My old buddy Eric Erwin showed up in spades, wearing a new shirt design of his. As Jessica Simpson invoking Daisy Dukes said "I donow what it is, but a wownit" |
 |
| Always a pleasure to see the good Galia Goodman! |
]
And it was great to see Rebecca Connelly back on the scene!
I even got a little square dancing in again this year, to the blistering tunes of the Five Point Rounders.
They laid down the hay, and we had a good time.
Special thanks to caller Aaron Ratcliff who graciously accepted the torch from caller Anna Lena Phillips (who left us with her Beau for the coast). And Aaron took that torch and ran with it.
Also, a hardy thanks to dance partners Gizelle and Francesca (pictured here), and later Maria.
 |
| "Whoa, what's that? Nobody ever told me about these!" |
 |
| "These Neither!" |
 |
| Peregrin establishes contact with the TireSphere |
 |
| Papa Got a Brand New Belt! |
 |
| Doing The Reptire Can-Can. Blessed by good company.  |
 |
| Woman from Taiwan, totally digging some Reptire De |
I tell you what, while I was having a good old time, I just wasn't selling much!
Nobody was! And with just two days this year to make up our regular booth fee, we were all getting a little worried about loosing our shirts!
So I was especially gladdened and grateful when this sweet lady, Mrs. Wrenn, came by and purchased this Dragonz Eye, as a gift for her husband.
.jpg)
And finally at the end of my day, I had one more blessing yet,
a suprise visit from the one and only Wayne,
Naturalist, Folk Artist, Storyteller, Animal Call Expert, and many other things, I am sure!
Wayne will forever be immortalized in my own mind at least
for replying when I asked him
"What have you been up to Wayne?"
"Oh, just telling lies to the little children" :)
Walker and Lauren and I eagerly invited him to join us for a after the 'storm' rest, seated around a tire planter, on the floor of my tent, which, to my delight, he graciously accepted.
He began with a rollicking series of animal calls, each more poignant and eerie in their accuracy than the last...
Then, we moved on to other subjects, and Walker asked him about years spent as a soldier in the Viet Nam war. This was really fascinating to hear him talk about.
Such a unique pleasure, to sprawl out on a 'carpet' and be allowed to be a kid again, in the gentle hands of a master story teller. In retrospect, this is a pleasure that I wonder if ever adult kid doesn't need and deserve some time. It sure was some how nourishing to me that day. It somehow allowed me to transition to the next stage of my day.
After Walker and Loren had said Goodbye, I made a gift to Wayne of one my most lizardy coin purses.
He accepted it, and offered me quite a lot of good advice about marketing my wears.
Where this wise dude got all of expertise, I don't know.
I suspect, as he would tell it, just showing up
and paying attention.
