Groom's Tune

I have been listening to Bonaparte's Retreat, better known as the Groom's Tune around here. Right after the Civil War the Groom's brothers and their brother-in-law, were rounded up, marched down the road and shot for being Outliers, men who did not fight in the war. One of the brother's was told to play a tune on his fiddle before they shot him and this is what he played. They say it was so sorrowful that dogs howled. His wife came in a wagon to get their bodies and his fiddle lay at his feet. Old Scottish and English tunes still lurk in the memories of the old folks here and so does flat footing, a sort of clogging or jigging type of dance.

Memories were how the old ones preserved their heritage, passing it on in stories to their young ones. W. Clark Medford remembered meeting a man born around 1796 in 1901. He was proud of being able to dance now that he was past a hundred. Of course now even Medford, born in 1883, has passed on. His stories are still here in the library via an out of print book published in the sixties.

People live a long time around here. The people across the street just died last winter. He was 98 or 99 and she followed him a few months later at 96. I met her several times and talked with her. She was out working in her yard the last time I talked with her. She was 95 and had just walked her customary two miles for the day. I think she just lacked the heart to go on after he died. Their children still come and work on the yard and house. I think most of them are in their early seventies.

Today Bobby let Lennon play in his pool with the hose while the dogs frolicked around the yard. When we came out Duke came slithering out from under it! I think he's a very old English Spaniel, but maybe he's really a water spaniel! He certainly loves water, to drink, or lie in, or sleep in. I came home covered in muddy paw prints, but Bobby barely made it out with his shorts. Lennon asked for his shirt and Bobby gave it to him thinking maybe he was cold, but as soon as the shirt was in his hands it was promptly dunked into the water and Lennon looked up to ask for his pants, which, to his chagrin, he did not get.

Life is easy and slow here and I love it.