Sunday, July 1, 2007

my new favorite thing

Last night when it finally stopped raining, we meandered into town to see if we could get close to the Riverfest fireworks. After taking a few turns down dark alleys and around the back of old warehouses, we joined a small colony of firework fans parked next to some railroad tracks.

We had 45 minutes to kill, so we turned on KCUR, which was airing the Saturday night Fish Fry with Chuck Haddix.

While the slow trains ambled by, we listened to Ella, Bill Robinson, Bonnie Raitt, and even a guy singing "Kosher Gospel." One sad, beautiful song after another, deftly narrated by a knowledgeable but unobtrusive host.

Cool breeze blowing, clouds cruising by overhead, two old sweethearts holding hands and talking.

Heaven.

Until it got crowded, and we got "parked in" and I started wondering what was in those railroad containers. And if it was flammable, what if a stray firework trail made everything go kablooey?

We apologized our way out of the back alley and found a less threatening vista in an empty parking lot just uphill from the river. We saw half a dozen guys who'd just gotten off work leaning on parking meters and watching the show. It would have made a great painting.

There's a ton of serendipity out there on an aimless summer night. And the Fish Fry is its perfect soundtrack.

http://www.kcur.org/fishfry.html

2 comments:

Oz the Terrible said...

Never got too much into the Fish Fry myself, but it beats the Retro Cocktail Hour, which my old boss famously described as "not as cute as they think it is."

Jasph said...

Hey, here's one of your non-celebrity things...

I used to work with the wife of Chuck Haddix, or Haddock, the fish-fry guy. She was a delightful, exuberant, big-boned babe named Terri Henges, single at the time, and we had a lotta laughs in the Park College registrar's office, where my job was translating military credit into academic credit for Army guys pursuing degrees.

That's as close to combat as I ever want to get. But I wonder how Terri's doing?

Anyway, it was rockin'. It was rockin'. You never seen such paper shufflin' till the break of 5:00.