A Byte of a Peach

Chapter One: It Begins

Greetings from beautiful Montage Mountain near Scranton.  I am at a 4-day music festival, and I will attempt to blog it as I go... the perspective of a 53 year old woman diving in head first to a weekend of fun.  

I have been to festivals like this before, but usually I go for one day, the day when my favorite bands are all neatly lined up in a row.  I knew what to expect, as much as anyone could without having been to this site, as far as the "scene" was concerned, and I'll try to describe that to you.  And full disclosure, I am not camping at the concert site itself, but staying at a very comfortable, clean Marriott with shuttle bus service (we hope!) to and from the venue.

The author and her husband take a selfie.  Yep, having fun so far.

So why now?  Because it's the anniversary of Woodstock? (It is, but no, that's not it.)  Because we can suddenly afford to do this kind of thing? (No, not really, in fact, I don't get paid during July and August and we need a new roof. Frankly things are quite tight in the Barr household!) Well, then, it must be because we are empty nesters and we are living the dream! (Again no, and not a midlife crisis thing either.)  It's because of the line-up of music at this particular festival and the perfect timing of it as well.  I have come to really love the Allman Brothers (over the last 15 years) and my favorite, Mr. Bob Weir and his band Ratdog are headlining this mighty event.  Not to mention Rusted Root and the Black Crowes and a host of other bands that I either like or am destined to like! (Click here to see what your are missing while you are reading this blog.)

So here's my thinking.  I am here, and experiencing this great, exciting, exhausting, exhilarating experience for the first time.  Mixing it up with the teens, the Deadheads, the Allman Brother fans (who are not exactly the same as Deadheads, though there's an overlap), the locals who are just here because, well, why not and the families who came to Montage Mountain to take their kids to the water park and are probably wondering, WTF is going on here! I'm here with some good friends and my husband. There are people of all ages, and to be sure, we are among the older generation, but certainly not the oldest. 

I will try to update this blog from an app I have on my phone, and include pictures.  

Of course this means finding my reading glasses and increasing the font on my iPhone.  
But I think it will be a fun experiment in live-blogging.   Did I just invent that?

Rock on.
Chapter two

Strangers stopping strangers, or "Are you Juliet?" 

I guess it's not too surprising that at an event like this, I'd run into one or two people that I know. And it's been happening at an alarming rate! A religious school principal from Long Island that I've gotten to know from Jewish education conferences, a 21 year old friend who advised me on what to pack (who I saw about 15 minutes after I arrived), a guy we met on a Jamaican vacation, and the most surprising: A woman who said : "Are you Juliet Barr? "

Me: "Um, yes..."

I know for a fact I don't recognize her. Could it be? The blog????

No...

The woman: "Didn't you go to the Grateful Dead Movie recently? Sunshine Daydream? At Clifton?"

I did in fact. Yikes. A stalker ?

She continues: "You commented on that website and asked where people were meeting up. You look just like your picture! I'm Kari!" 

She did not look like her picture, which was a kitty wearing a tie-dye bandana. 

Ok, back to the music. 

Chapter 3: 1:09 am Saturday 

Wow! What a night of music! I'll write more tomorrow from my computer but while I'm still buzzing from the hours of dancing to great guitar gods, here are some highlights: 

•Railroad Earth and Cabinet! Great bands that I had never heard before and will absolutely go hear again! These guys can really play, harmonize and both bands bring several genres together.  I am excited for the future of live music when I hear this kind of stuff. 

•Bob Weir's set was AMAZING!! "Althea," a favorite of mine, did not seem to be a favorite of his, but he was just great on everything else. " Easy to Slip" may have been the most special surprise. Most annoying was his flirtation with Grace Potter, when he called her out for "Dear Prudence" and "I Know You Rider."  Still sporting the man capris, but he looks great to me!

• Allmans were great, especially when Greg let Warren take the lead. A nice surprise came near the end of the set when they invited Bob Weir back out for a very bluesy "Good Morning Little School Girl." 

And remember in chapter two, I mentioned an educator friend that I had run into here? Amazing karma connected us where we needed to be. Her seats were right next to mine! I enjoyed the show with her tonight and look forward to spending time with her again tomorrow. I still can't get over that! A photo will be coming soon of the two of us. 

I can't wait for tomorrow!!

Chapter 4

Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes, and Steve Kimock. Yea. 

Chapter 5

Different font to show that I am no longer at the festival. Yes, that's right. It's Sunday night, and I'm home.  You know how they say they have charging stations? Well, they CHARGE you to charge your phone at those charging stations.  Big scam.  So my brilliant plan to live blog while at the festival... well as brilliant as it was... turned out to be a good old fashioned plan to keep a hand written journal which I am now transcribing into my blog.  And it's probably better this way.  I can edit.  I can add photos. Did I mention I can edit?  So here we go.

Chapter 6:  My husband sometimes sleeps at concerts.

Deadheads are very forgiving about this.  Looking back, he has a long history of concert-napping, and if you've been a fan as long as we have, then you might even kind of get it. Remember those old shows?  Come on... there were about 20 minutes between EACH SONG!! So think about the second set of a Grateful Dead show in about 1979 or 1980... drum solo followed by a really long instrumental tuneless jam ... some of us might go use the bathroom and get a snack.  And others, MANY others, I might add, would use that time for a quick (30 minute) power nap.  (Except we didn't call them power naps back then.  We called them Drums ->Space, but not the point.)  

As I mentioned earlier (chapter 3) we had assigned seats for the headliners of the show on Friday and Saturday nights at the Peach Fest.  I sat next to my new/old friend Karen, from the education world, and my husband Michael found himself next to a great guy, Mick, and Mick's friends Pat and Amy.  (Those ARE their real names.  Hi if you happen to read this! The friends we came to the show with were in the next section over.) Somewhere during the Allman Brothers' set on Friday night, Michael dozed off, as he is wont to do. Mick gave me a look, I smiled back and asked him to please keep his voice down, so we wouldn't wake him.  When the music picked up, Michael woke up and rocked on 'til the end of the show.

Fast forward to Saturday afternoon.  Michael and I are hanging out by our car, enjoying cocktail hour before the show.  Along come Mick, Pat and Amy... another great coincidence in a huge parking lot that they walk right past us... and Mick makes a few jokes... about Michael being awake long enough to finish his beer and so on. We go back and forth at Michael's expense, and throw in a few barbs about Greg Allman and say good-bye until later.

Now, to steal a line from Ron White, I tell you that story, to tell you this one... As I say, Deadheads are much more forgiving than other fans.  

Several years ago, I'll guess '93 or '94 (I could Google it now that I'm home, but I don't feel like it) we went to see the great and wonderful Eric Clapton. The show was in the never wonderful Long Island.  Getting there from New Jersey is horrible.  We got there, it was a Friday night so OF COURSE there was traffic.  Michael had been up since 5:30 am, worked all day, and, okay, let's put it out there, has never been a huge fan of the the Mighty Slowhand.  So at a certain point in the show, he dozed. I was up and dancing, and a few guys were yelling.  I suddenly realized that they were yelling at us.  Actually they were yelling at Michael.  

"Wake the fuck up! You can't sleep during Eric Clapton!" 

"How can you sleep? What the fuck is wrong with you?"

And other things as well.  Worse things that I won't type.

Then they started throwing things at him. 

Luckily he slept through all of this and has no memory of it at all. 

Well of course he does now because I've told the story about twenty times.

So, okay. He falls asleep during concerts sometimes.  If I feel like he's missing something crucial I wake him up. It doesn't bother him and it doesn't bother me.  And if it bothers those "Clapton is God" guys... well... they need to wake the fuck up.

Chapter 7: How to Pack for a Four Day Festival 

You need to know this about me.  I'm the one who needs a suitcase just for my shoes. I'm a low maintenance kind of person, but I like to have a lot of stuff to play with.  I have my hobbies, I like my music, and I enjoy eating and drinking.  So when I don't have to get on a plane, and there are no passengers in the back seat, I tend to fill the car up until there's no more room.  So, you might want to take these packing tips with a grain of salt.  Actually, I brought salt and pepper, of course, to season the food.  I also brought Krazy Salt, a 50's throwback seasoning that helps a hardboiled egg become delicious. 

Funny that I have not uploaded any concert pix yet, but I manage a photo of Krazy Salt.

So, here you have the step by step instructions for packing for a festival, for grown-ups:

1. Do all the laundry in the entire house.
2. Call Text a young person who has actually been to a festival. Ask for some tips.  Edit that list so it's appropriate for someone your age.  Add it to your list.

(My list had a baby list, which went on to have twins. I needed a small suitcase just for my list.)

1. Take the day off from work to start getting ready.  
2. Deal with your kids/pets. (If you are bringing your kids/pets to the show, please see my next entry about concert etiquette.)
3. Clean up your entire house, or do the best you can and prioritize.  For me, it was kitchen, cat boxes, bedrooms, bathrooms.  NEVER leave the washing machine or dishwasher running when you're gone, by the way.
4. Now you can (and really should) start packing!
5. Sunscreen, bug repellent, flashlights, citronella candles, beach chairs, lawn chairs, coolers, ice packs, ice, beach blanket, beach towels, hats, sunglasses, raincoats, umbrellas, shoes that can get wet, shoes for walking, sandals, extra sandals just in case, long pants, shorts, t shirts, sweatshirts, toiletries, medication, jewelry, i-stuff (pod, pad, phone and cords), laptop if necessary, little bluetooth speaker, corkscrew and bottle opener, books and magazines.
6. Food and drink... this is your choice of course.  I hardboiled eggs (as noted above) and brought bread, cold cuts, mustard, tomatoes, hummus, babaganoush, 4 different kinds of pretzels, including the stale kind, pita chips, 2 different cheeses, yogurts, and cottage cheese. I had bananas and peaches which got kind of mushy, but we ate some of them.  We had beer and tequila, and our friends had wine and vodka.  I packed 2 knives, a cutting board, napkins, forks, spoons and plastic knives.  I did forget plates.  We managed to get all of this in my little red Prius, and I was still able to see out the back. 
7. Things I brought that you might not bring: My bead box, so I could play and create. My laptop to upload photos and to write.  My husband also brought his laptop because he had to do some work on Friday and he wakes up much earlier than I do. (See chapter 6!) We had a lot of limes to go with the tequila.  You may not need to bring limes. That could save you some room.  It also turned out we did not need four chairs, but we had no way of knowing that.  

So, how would YOU pack for a 4-day festival?  Did we NEED all that stuff?  Well, now let's not confuse want with need, okay?  We did not need the flashlights, bug repellent, or citronella candles, but I think it was a good call to bring them. 

And it could be argued that one pair of sandals might have sufficed. After all, Bob Weir wore the exact same outfit all three days he performed.

Continued in the next blog entry... with photos and picasa link ...

Dear Uncle Jerry

Dear OUJ,
  First of all, you know we mean no disrespect by this nickname... O.U.J.  It stands for Old Uncle Jerry.  When the kids were little, we used it to differentiate between you and my Dad's brother, the other Uncle Gerry.  He also seems old to them, but not as old as you were.  It was meant to just remind them which uncle we meant, but it became a real term of endearment, as you became more and more a part of my kids' lives.  You were really more like another "great-grandfather" to them, more than a great-uncle in the way you paid attention to them, doted on them and made them feel loved.  But this is not about about my kids (for once).  I'm writing to tell you about one of your grandkids today.
   I know how you loved your grandchildren.  One thing you never did was boast about them to me when my kids were around.  You had a way of making my kids feel like they were the most special and right now I wish I had the words then to thank you for that.
   But the photos you showed me when I visited you by myself of your wonderful grandkids, my cousins' children, showed me your deep love for them.  You and I would catch up and fill in the pieces about what we had heard about each one.   Laughing about  Alisa's sass, and how her little sister Anna was trying to emulate that.  And how Auntie Jan would have so enjoyed these two little girls who joined our family after she had passed away.
   Or talking about the three boys you probably knew the best and your hopes for them... E, A and P... and just how proud you were of the way they were growing into young, handsome men.  You never admitted it, but I saw the way your eyes teared up when you talked about the way their dad cared for you. I hope that E, A and P know how deep your love was for them.  Maybe I'll tell them.  It's that mushy grown-up stuff that I have to do once in a while, I can't leave it all to my mom.  I know you looked at all three of those boys and you saw your daughter's face in each of theirs... and you know what a gift each life is.  She and I have remained very close, you'll be happy to know.
   And then we have three more radiant wonderful grandchildren... each of whom I have been in touch with throughout their lives, but am now getting to know as young adults.
  Uncle Jerry, you would be so proud.  M graduated college and is trying to figure out what to do with her life.  This is a common theme among college grads!  I was lucky enough to see a new piece of her artwork and it was stunning.
  Her big sister Rachel lives near me, so I see her more frequently.  Rachel has become a real New Yorker, and has alluded to the fact that she's handling life's challenges. Anyone who meets her would definitely agree!  But the real reason I'm writing today is to tell you about your grandson, Josh.
  This gorgeous golden child... the middle child of your eldest, my cousin Mike.
  A people pleaser.
  I don't know whether Mike, or anyone, told you, but Josh went through a really rough patch, Uncle Jerry.  Who knows why. When you died, I think it might have been unclear if Josh would have lived to see the year 2012.   I don't know if you knew about this.  I know I didn't, because unlike some of us in the family, my cousin Mike is a "holder-inner."  So we didn't know that Josh was fighting his demons and struggling the way he was.  We saw him at your birthday party that summer, and he was delightful and sweet, as always.  I don't know where he was in his battle at that point.  I would like to ask him about his story sometime, but this past weekend was not the time.
  Uncle Jerry, I'm writing to tell you that Josh is okay.  More than okay.  This "boy" is a young man now, and he met  woman named Danica.  Danica's family is nice, warm and welcoming.  They are Jewish, and they are from New Jersey!  I think you might have liked them. I have only met them (Danica and her parents) a few times, but they feel like a long lost part of the family. There is real love there.
  And here's the last piece... O.U.J. here's why I am writing to you tonight.  As you know, Mike and his ex-wife Katie did not raise their kids with any strong religious connection at all, but from what I remember, their compromise was to join a Unitarian church, so their kids would have something.  You never mentioned this at all.  You never even spoke of religion with me, or how your grandkids were being raised.  But Josh has spent that last year studying with a Rabbi and taking classes and has "converted" back to Judaism. I just know you would be so proud to know this, and your mother, Grand-mom Mildred, would have too.  His other great-grandparents, my grandparents Madeleine and Benjamin would have also been so happy, though in their way, they would not have showed it very obviously.  I guess that's where cousin Mike gets it from.  At one point I whispered to Josh how proud his family would have been to know that he was coming home to his roots.
  He married Danica on Sunday, Uncle Jerry.  Under a huppah that was decorated by his now mother-in-law.  During the ceremony, a butterfly landed on the huppah and seemed to watch the service for a few minutes.  If I were a little more sentimental, I might even think it was your spirit keeping an eye on things, but I am not that corny.
  Josh wore a yarmulke with his Hebrew name stitched on it in white thread.  He took the name of your father, Yishai.
  During the cocktail hour, I noticed that your daughter had placed lots of great photos in the rooms of the mansion where the wedding reception took place.  The one that really caught my eye was one I had never seen.  It was you and your father, in tennis sweaters with huge smiles, and a twinkle in both of your eyes that matched that of Josh's.  Bright, alert and brimming with promise.


  I just wanted to let you know... you would have loved it.

  I've gotta get going, but know that you are always in my thoughts.  Here are a few pictures from the ceremony.


  We miss you so much,


  Love,




 Juliet

can you see the butterfly in the upper left?

Josh and Danica