Rockabilly & Stay Off My…Shoes

Last weekend, I talked with a couple from the South, that was for sure.  Turned out to be outside of Nashville where they called home, but they had just returned from Sweden.  Don’t know if their deep tans were due to the South or the North, but they had them, and more jewelry than I’ve seen in a long time.  The man is the son of Carl Perkins and was in the are  to perform in Portland the next night.  I knew the name Carl Perkins when he said that’s who his father was, but I needed some Wikipedia refreshing to learn more.  For you rock-n-rollers, and for everyone else, here’s some of the info:

“Carl Lee Perkins (April 9, 1932 – January 19, 1998)^[1] was an American rockabilly musician who recorded most notably at Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, beginning during 1954. His best known song is “Blue Suede Shoes“.

According to Charlie Daniels, “Carl Perkins’ songs personified the rockabilly era, and Carl Perkins’ sound personifies the rockabilly sound more so than anybody involved in it, because he never changed.”^[2] Perkins’ songs were recorded by artists (and friends) as influential asElvis Presley, the Beatles, and Johnny Cash, which further cemented his place in the history of popular music.

Called “the King of Rockabilly”, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll, the Rockabilly, and the Nashville Songwriters Halls of Fame; and was a Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipient.”

Now, who hasn’t heard “Blue Suede Shoes”?

The Rockabilly Hall of Famer

A little bit of Switzerland & Australia, and some of the great blue sea

The tasting room had three interesting guests today, and things were not so busy that I couldn’t engage each of them in some off-wine-topic conversation.  Switzerland brought to our doorstep a recent college graduate in mechanical engineering with an emphasis in fluid motion, or at least, that’s the best of what I could make out of his specialty.  He was delightful and took all the time in the world enjoying every drop of every sample.  I think he must be one European who enjoys a long, leisurely lunch while savoring all flavors and aromas of what he is eating, much unlike most of here in the States do at lunchtime.  He was an exchange student when he was in high school and lived in Alabama.  That was ten years ago, but he enjoyed seeing all of his American “family” again on this trip.  He has spent the rest of his three month visit traveling around the country, staying in hostels, and will soon be heading home after spending a few days in Seattle.

G’day, mate….brought the owner of his own IT company to the States “for love”.  He and his American girlfriend (from Oregon) have been spending most of the past three months in Hawaii.  Although he came over only for “a couple of days” to see his girlfriend.  Wow, anyone who would fly over from Australia for a couple of days just “to be together” is…..well, someone with more money than I have.  They had just spent the past week and a half at the most expensive, swanky, new resort in Yamhill County.  Three months without working…..must be nice, but he did say it is his first real break in over 10 years.  Poor guy.

And, the great blue sea brought in the captain of a yacht who had just come in to port from San Francisco.  He captains an 80′ yacht owned by the president of a marine construction company, and they have been to Vancouver, BC, Victoria, and the San Juan Islands lately.  Somehow, even though I’ve thought of people being corporate pilots, I’ never given any thought to the fact that there are corporate yacht captains.  What an interesting life that must be.  I’ll google some 80′ yacht just to put that size boat into perspective for me.

Gratitude

Oh, the blessings in our lives seem to so often go unnoticed, and probably, under-appreciated.  It is only when we are confronted by someone else and their struggles in life do I stop and think how grateful I am for the things I have in my own life-things like the ability to walk without difficulty.  I felt that yesterday when I saw a very young boy struggling around the room, each arm in a crutch, or the frail-looking young girl in a stroller-type cart, or the woman riding a scooter with a cane across her lap.  The list just seemed to go on, and on, and those were only the scenes I saw in one single day, in one single place.  How privileged I am to have the ability to move with ease.

My gratitude was furthered, again,  a couple of days before this when I met a woman in her 30′s who came up to the wine bar. She had a limp and the fingers on one hand were drawn up to a fist position.  When she started to talk to me, she had trouble getting some of her words out, and apologized.  She had had a stroke 5 days after her ten-year old son was born.  That’s a long time to pay for the privilege of becoming a mother.  As I thought about how grateful I am to be able to walk with ease, and use both of my hands, I became especially thankful for the ability I have to speak my thoughts freely and without the constant frustration of having words and thoughts inside my head that I just can’t get to come out correctly.  It was inspiring to see the tenacity she has to express herself and the incredible patience she has had to develop. I remember watching an episode of ER that was done from inside the head of a woman who had had a stroke.  As she lay on the gurney, you could hear her “talk” to the doctors, and she couldn’t understand why they weren’t paying any attention to her.  Of course, the only talking she was doing was inside her head.  Her lips weren’t moving.  The thinking remains normal.  It was a dramatic episode and one that perhaps made me more able to understand what some of the struggles must be, and have been for ten years, for the woman I had the privilege of meeting in our tasting room.  It did bring added joy to our encounter when she brought her son over for me to meet. and somehow, it brought a sense of closure to this experience.