Clinch Mountain Music Fest 2009

This is the second year we've been able to go to the Clinch Mountain Music Fest and this year it fell on Tom's birthday. For this event the main street through Gate City, Jackson Street, is blocked off from the signal light to the courthouse, which is about 1 1/2 city blocks. A stage is set up, vendors line the street, and the whole day is given over to bluegrass music, good food, flat-footin' and people-watching. The Roan Mountain Hilltoppers took to the stage for the flat-footin' contest.A few of these folks above danced later on for the judges, but some of them were just dancing for fun. The lady in white in the middle is AnnaBell Hammonds who lives next to Aunt Monnie's house. She was our neighbor while we lived there and she taught us a few clogging steps.

The Craleys were here for the fun....in this pic Nadja and Alex goof for the camera, while Mike finishes his ice cream. Let's see....we ate a blooming onion, curly chips, hot dogs, sausage, pizza, ice cream, snow cones, and sodas. And then we came home for birthday cake! Groan!

Cait enjoys her French vanilla snow cone. I had root beer.

The Gate City Fire Department hoisted an enormous flag in front of the courthouse on its ladder truck.

One of Tom's birthday cards had a sticker, basically saying what a great guy he is - so naturally he wore it to the music fest - and collected quite a few birthday congratulations!

It's not often a person gets to sit in the middle of W. Jackson Street in a folding chair, so while one of the bands was doing their sound check, I seized the moment to look up and about. These are the "bubble" lights that line the Jackson and come on every night at dusk. It is one of the prettiest, old-fashioned things you'll ever see. I seem to remember these old lights from my childhood, but I can't say for sure just how long they've been here.

Like most small towns across America, Gate City has some nice architectural details. Here's just one.

Here's the courthouse where I spend a lot of time doing genealogical research. It's also where my mom and dad got their marriage license and where Tom and I got ours!

This is looking down the street toward the stage. The red and white tent in the middle is the Pickin' Tent where everybody is invited to bring their own instruments and play. We spent quite a bit of time in the pickin' tent last year and it was lots of fun.

We're still trying to find a home for Jake Angus McGee, the Great Pyrenees we took in from the farm next door, and so we took him along and handed out cards with our phone number. It just might pay off - Jake was a big hit with just about everybody, including these cute little twins.

The big old fella took it all in stride. We stopped off at the Scott County Humane Society booth and dropped off a card and the lady there seemed hopeful that they could find him a home. Cross your fingers!

Here is a video of the Roan Mountain Hilltoppers and some of the flat-footers and cloggers. If you listen closely, you should be able to hear the taps on the cloggers' shoes. AnnaBell is in this video. Her husband, Charles, is the man in the orange shirt. They are regulars at the Carter Fold, along with some of the other folks in this video. I have another video I'll post as well - it's just that they take so darned long to load.