Earl Metyes and Kevin Brodie, right, stayed busy cooridinating. Photo by Jean Metcalfe
What if it was the hottest day of the year. The lodge at George Rogers Clark Park was alive with the sound of music — original music — on the afternoon of July 27. Some thirty songwriters and friends helped themselves to ham sandwiches, potato salad and iced beverages, and reminisced as they browsed through photo albums of past events sponsored by the Louisville Area Songwriters' Cooperative and Nashville Songwriters Association International.
The lodge's air-conditioner and a couple of songwriter-supplied portable fans sufficiently tamed the 97-degree day and kept the party going until lodge closing time. Not quite ready to call it a day, a small contingent took it outside under the shade trees, where local songwriting favorite Bill Ede (fresh from Kentucky Music Weekend and sporting one of their new T-shirts) honored requests for his originals. The day ended nicely with a sing-along on Bill's popular "Brother's Keeper."
Songwriters who performed earlier in the lodge included Marie Augustine, Brian Barger (who later displayed his expertise with a push mop), Mike Boehnlein, Kevin Brodie (co-coordinator, with Earl Meyers, of the local NSAI workshop), Ray and Christy Burden, and Allen Raymer. Earl, who organized the reunion committee (and boldly risked the lodge's damage deposit), had planned to try out a new song but forgot his lyric sheet. And alas he couldn't find any takers for volleyball, despite offering the use of a new leather — not plastic — volleyball purchased especially for the occasion.
Noticeably absent (and asked about) was Paul Moffett, former president of the old LASC and this newspaper's editor. Seems he had been dealt an incredibly difficult August-issue deadline by an electrical storm that skirted the picnic site but knocked out the power in his neck of the woods.
This picnicker's only inconvenience was a thwarted attempt — courtesy of that same power outage — to end the day with a double dip of pralines and cream from the neighborhood Baskin-Robbins.
Let's do it again next year. Maybe in October.