“Déjà vu All Over Again”

“Déjà vu All Over Again”

(Quoted from New York Yankee Great, Yogi Berra) 

This past weekend was truly one of those where the whole was much greater than the parts.  In an attempt to put it all together I must go back to February of this year.  My Wetumpka friend, Peggy Blackburn, Managing Editor of the Wetumpka Herald as me if I would be willing to officiate at her daughter Amber’s wedding on August 4^th in Albertville, Alabama, my home town.  Since I like Peggy and since I travel to Albertville twice a month to visit my mother I readily and happily agreed.  About two months later I was visiting my mother and dropped by Christ Episcopal Church to visit my friend the Reverend David Kendrick.  David asked me if I would be able to preach and lead worship on August 5^th at Christ Church when he and his wife, Laura, were going to Washington D.C. for their son, John’s wedding.  Since I was going to be in Albertville anyway I readily agreed. 

In June, my brother, Pat, sent me a Face Book Message telling me about the Main Street Music Festival which was going to be held in Albertville on Saturday, August 4.  He told me that included in the festival activities was to be a History of Sand Mountain Music led by Jim Connor, legendary banjoist and writer of “Grandma’s Feather Bed,” and my long time friend, Gary Pledger, descendant of the Johnson Family of Johnson Family Band fame.  Talk about “synchronicity 

Fast forward to August 3:  On the way to Albertville I meet long time friend, Cheree Collins Carlton catching up on the 42 years that had elapsed between our last visit in 1972 and our reconnecting in late June of this year.  After lunch I stopped by her home to meet her husband, Eric, whom I had never met.  What a wonderful, energetic man who, as it turns out, shares my love for the outdoors, backpacking and Mission projects in Latin America. 

Arriving in Albertville just before 5:00 p.m. I stopped to visit briefly with friends Anneva and Richard Hard whose daughter, Amy is very, very ill and then headed to the Assisted living facility to have a catfish dinner with my mother.  As it turns out it was only my first catfish dinner of the evening.  After a wonderful time with my almost 90 year old mother, Eunice, I headed down the road for the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner for Amber Blackburn and Chris Rogers.  What a wonderful evening, what wonderful young people and what a great (second) catfish dinner of the evening, made even better by being topped off by homemade vanilla ice cream.   

August 3 continues with a celebration for the happy, soon to be married couple.  As family and friends begin to arrive I become aware that the unifying factor in this group is Jacksonville State University in Jacksonville, Alabama.  The bride met many of the wedding party at Jacksonville, some of whom were from Albertville and introduced her to the groom.  And “the rest” as they say, “is history.”  As I began to meet the young “wedding partiers,” and their families I found that the parents  our host’s girlfriend were in high school with me at Albertville High School and that one of the groomsmen was the great grandson of a couple who lived a block from me and my parents when I was growing up.  His grandfather and my father’s youngest brother were best friends growing up and played football together at Albertville High School.  I am beginning to get a sense of family and history and the connections that join as together. 

The most exciting part of the evening was seeing the love and friendship these young people have for each other and how much they enjoyed being together and how few (like none) of them were on cell phones or texting.  They were actually there for each other and enjoying each others’ company and companionship, their new wives, husbands, boyfriends, girlfriends and babies 

“Déjà vu” part “Deux” will pick up with the history of Sand Mountain Music.