2 Years Later in Anytown USA

Ok, well the pictures are lousy because it was getting dark and oh, right, I am a terrible photographer, but one of the reasons I blog is to journal what we do with our time, so I'll post them anyway.
On Friday night, we recycled a date night from 2 years ago, picked up pizza to go, and ventured back to Pickin' on the Square. I don't know why we haven't just made this a yearly summer tradition.

It is rad.
I live in a cool place.
Every Friday night from March until the first frost, local musicians show up to jam. Little groups form on every corner and pocket in between, and play a little bit of everything. It is mostly folk, country, and bluegrass. People bring lawn chairs and just float from group to group to enjoy a sampling of each.

This time, we left the girls home with a sitter and brought baby guy along. The cicadas are so loud right now that it was difficult to hear some of the groups over the screechy buzzing (the sound of a cicada can't be described with words, you just have to experience it for yourself. But they are like alarm-clock-going-of-in-the-dead-of-night-loud.
We know now that the younger crowd shows up a little later. At first we were kickin' it with a bunch of blue hairs (not that we really mind, they oohed and aahed over the baby every 5 seconds). By the time the sun went down there was an even mix of old and young people there.

These guys did a lot of Simon and Garfunkel and John Denver. During a couple of songs, a guy in the back would pull out his harmonica and chime in. I love that it's a total free for all. Even if your voice is crap, if you know the song and "got the spirit"...you join in. There were several young kids there by the end of the night with banjos and guitars. What surprised me most about them was their song selection. Gospel. And not because they look like they're from one of those bizzaro families where the girls wear pioneer dresses and they get up to milk cows before bible study and then marry their cousin kind of families...but because they actually enjoy the simplicity of the traditional tunes.
Yeah. That kid is whistling. He danced a lot, too...and it reminded me of the scene from Forrest Gump when Forrest discovers Elvis.

And for your viewing pleasure...some video goodness. I probably SHOULDN'T post this because pickin' on the square is really so much cooler than the video depicts. I took this early in the night before the groups that we enjoyed most showed up, but these guys were pretty funny. They did "On the wings of a snow white dove" and "Polly Wolly Doodle" and a couple of other songs that they insisted everyone within earshot sing along to. I pulled out the camera to tape everyone joining in on "You Are My Sunshine".

The camerawork is bad.
My singing is worse.
Lucky for you it is only 12 seconds long.
But it's worth posting to prove that I live in the coolest place in America. This kind of stuff just isn't goin' down in the parks where I grew up...and there certainly isn't a 80 yr old man playing the spoons on his lap either.

That's the original Walton Five and Dime (first walmart ever) and civil war statue/fountain in the background.
Oh yeah, see the guy on the far left with the acoustic guitar? He rode his bike with his kids to the square because he only lives a few blocks away. He brought his guitar and his 2 boys, ages 7 and 4, with him on the bike.
How sweet is THAT ride?!