Loose Leaf Notes

It’s a tradition that’s  been going on for at least a couple of decades.  Every year I wear a different get-up but dance in the same spot on the dance floor, as if no time had passed.

I’ve loved masquerading since I dressed as Huck Finn for Halloween when I was still in elementary school.  In my 20’s I hosted several costume parties.  Over the years, I have always managed to go to one.

Was it last year that my hair was purple and I felt like it was the real me. Or was last year the one I dressed A Little Bit Yoko and a Little Bride of Frankenstein?  It wasn’t that long ago that I was a Blues Brother Sister or wore an expressionless black mask that no one was able to guess it was me behind.

Nothing can raise my energy like dancing with friends to a good old Grateful Dead or Bob Dylan song performed by the Kind.   I first started dancing to the band when they played at the old South Main Café in Blacksburg and before band member Wendy’s daughter was old enough (or even born) to hoola hoop at intermission as a storm trooper from Star Wars

Joe got a lot of attention for his rapper outfit that I thought was “50 cent” but was quickly corrected.

One woman who was dressed as a paper doll told me she made her outfit out of recycled Floyd Press newspapers, so maybe some of my words could be found on her dress.  I called my friend Melody “Cher,” but now I’m thinking she was Wonder Woman.

Everything was decorated to the max.  At one point I tried to break of a piece of cobweb to put in my ears because the sound can get pretty loud in the front of the stage where I like to stake my claim.  My friend Pat came to the rescue with a pair of real earplugs (that I never did put on because I was afraid I’d miss something).

The grounds are always fun too. You never know what kind of ghoul (real or not) that you might bump into.

Watch a video of The Kind doing Visions of Johanna HERE.