Grass Stock '09 Part Two

Please remember Gladys "Killem" Gillem in your prayers as we lost her this past week. She was one of the toughest lady wrestlers in the business from 1942 - 1962. Rest in Peace, Gladys Gillem.--Percival

Late Wednesday afternoon, Kurt and I headed down I-75 toward Findlay, Ohio, where we would turn and head south on US 23 south towards Columbus. In just a little over two hours, we were at Columbus and began the task of getting around a very huge exchange called I -270. Unfortunately, Kurt took the wrong exit and was on I-71 South before he knew it.

With a sense of direction, he wandered down that road and ended up at the US 33 exit at the same time as I did, taking the round about route that had me heading towards Wheeling, West Virginia and then South. The scenery is very beautiful on 33 if you enjoy the rustic back roads to travel on. I enjoy them a lot compared to the hustle bustle of getting run over on the expressway.

After about 30 or so miles of winding and twisting roads, we came to US 32 & 50, where we continued East towards Athens. The road had many construction areas and slowed things down a bit from our scheduled three-hour trip. After a quick stop at Wal Mart for groceries and ice, we were off again on the last portion of the 15 miles that would lead to Guysville and Grass Stock at Ron Workman's farm.

The road signs were very hard to read as a fog had settled in on the area, and we thought that we missed our turn a few times and had to regroup. Finally, at 9 p.m., we arrived at the farm and found the area we would be camping in. It was right next to Rambling Ruby's motor home. She is another friend from the World Wide Bluegrass chat room that I frequent almost every day.

In no time, Kurt had his dome tent erected and was starting to use the air pump driven by his motorcycle battery to inflate his air mattress. I was still trying to figure how my dome tent went together. The instructions say a 9-year-old can have it together in five minutes. Unfortunately, there were no 9-year-olds in the campground.

I finally got my tent upright and soon had the air mattress I brought blown up and inside the tent. It was then that I felt two of the gentlest hands on my shoulder and turned to see Heather Mandich from Australia there to greet me. We shared a huge hug as I had been chatting with her and many other friends for nearly the past year. She had been on the plane for many hours getting to the event to be held starting the next day.

Just then, Ruby pulled up in "Big Blue," her custom golf cart. She came over and said hi and gave everybody a big ole' Kentucky hug. As she was going around saying hello to all, there a very large Chevy truck pulled up with a pop up camper behind it, and there was another friend ... Fish n Chip from the chat room. He had his wife and Lab dog with him named Dakota.

Cecil and "Gentleman" Jim Chatfield from the band "Shades of Blue" were next to come over and say hi. We all jumped in and helped Chip get set up as the compound was filling up with a lot of good friends.

Ron Workman, who owns the farm, came by and said hello, as well as many of the nearby neighbors who camped out in the rolling hills. There must have been at least 50 camps set up on Wednesday in preparation of the three-day Bluegrass event. Some had been there for a day or so in anticipation of the wonderful music that would follow.

We wandered up to Heather's campground set up by Mark Brinkman, a songwriter and musician from Columbus. He had met her at the Columbus airport a few nights earlier, and she stayed at his home before coming to Grass Stock. She had a large domed style tent that could have easily slept a full family of 6 or 8, and it was beside a very large tree that had a flag from Australia tied on the limbs above. She called it the Presidential Suite. Two coolers of pop and food were also provided by Mark for her to enjoy.

It wasn't long before we were listening to a jam session made up of people from all over the farm. They had various instruments like bass fiddles ... guitars ... banjos ... fiddles ... dobros and other string pieces. The harmony that came from the group was unbelievable. It was as if they had been playing together for many years. As I looked across the circle of pickers, I couldn't help but stare at the large man with the long white beard. I went across and shook hands with Les Sears, a DJ from the World Wide Bluegrass.

I would be doing an auction with him on Saturday. As we were speaking, another beautiful lady came into the group carrying a huge bass fiddle with her. I remembered her from Medway a few months before. It was Vicki Abbott ... another of the DJ's that came over to pick and grin. She came over and gave all that were there a big hug.

As 1 am rolled into our session, I excused myself and retreated to my tent as I had been up for 20 hours at that point and needed some sleep very badly. In no time, I was fast asleep, and, at 7 a.m., I had people tapping on my tent inviting me to breakfast at their camp. What a great feeling it was to not have to cook or make a fuss over what to have for breakfast.

More to come…

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