First Days of Fall/Fall Break

It rained a lot here last night. I stood staring out the window blinds for a while just watching it make circles on the deck puddles and spacing out, unfocusing my eyes after a while and lapsing into my old habit of kinda going numb for a while. Well, not really numb, not literally, just more unfocusing for a bit, sort of my safety valve to take off the pressure. While I stood there it sunk in that it is Fall break at ETSU and I don’t have class until next Wednesday. That means no seminar class next week, no mad dash for me this weekend to finish the next Keynote presentation. So that’s where the safety valve kicked in and the mental rambling took over for a while.

Seems like I’ve just gotten here in Johnson City, TN and set up working at the college. The days blur together with a mix of fatigue, anxiousness, bewilderment, excitement, reward, aggravation, caution, talking to myself, laughing at myself, appreciation for the local scenery and thinking about all the fun stuff I’ll do like biking and hiking and exploring the Tri-Cities area, going and hanging out in Bristol and spending a long day at the History of Country Music Museum, maybe calling up Mr. Doyle Lawson beings he’s so close by and having a tune if he was agreeable to it just as soon as I get the time…the list goes on. Mainly I feel like I’ve been rowed out into the middle of one of the Great Lakes and thrown out the back with a hearty, “Good luck, see you back at the house”. The class I’m teaching is not a lecture, not necessarily a class meant to teach any particular information but as I’ve been told, a class that asks questions that have no particular answers. Uhm…huh? We’re seven weeks into the Fall 2021 semester and I’m just starting to feel like I might get this thing by the horns and whipped into some sorta manageable and recognizable shape by Xmas Break, but I’m not really sure of that either.

I was asked the first day by one of the graduate students who’s auditing the class to show the class my creative process so that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing, talking about (and trying to illustrate in some discernible and understandable order) rhythm, old tunes and their more modern variations, chord substitutions, the Nashville Number System (NNS), and some up and coming topics revolving around black string bands from the past, common themes in old country music, taking a common tune (this time it’ll be “Soldier’s Joy”) and writing melodic variations off it based on rhythmic variations, taking care of yourself on the road, booking a road trip, EPK’s, and so on. But some of it has been changing since I made the list originally and I suspect it will keep evolving based on what feedback I’m getting back from the sea of eyes in the room. Just eyes and sometimes a nod or a faintly audible “yes sir” is mostly what I’ve got to go on so far though the last couple weeks it’s been better and more interactive. It’s hard to teach to a sea of eyes, the lower half faces covered by the ever-present masks we’re all wearing these days. I’ll say that eyes say a lot if I’m paying attention especially when that’s mostly what I’ve got to go on. Oh, and lest I forget to mention body language, I’ll mention it now. Eyes and body language can be a potent combo. They can feel relaxing, stiff, closed, menacing, gentle, deadly, friendly, confident, approachable. Thankfully for the most part the class is populated with positive vibes.

I noticed yesterday that some of the leaves are beginning to turn up on the ridge in the distance behind ETSU . The persimmon trees along the roadway here have turned orange and red and dumped the majority of their fruit in the road before I realized they were persimmon trees. If I’d known they were ‘simmons I’d have went down religiously every day with a bucket to scoop the harvest all up instead of it just being flattened by the local parade of traffic sporting loud-mufflers and subwoofers. Oh well. At least I got a couple’o three tomatoes today at the farmer’s market. That and some apples to make apple butter with. That’s cooking now. 6 more hours and we’re golden. The farmer’s market seems to really be winding down in the last couple weeks. No surprise considering it’s this late in the growing season. But I have taken note that there are a few local farms that offer beef and chickens, pork sausages and eggs. Seems those are going to be in supply for the asking. And the tamale man was there again. His product is by far some of the best I’ve ever had and I need to make sure to get his card. Otherwise it will be a long, tamale-less winter in Johnson City for Professor Taterbug. There was an ‘oldtime’ band at the market today. Possibly the most polite and hesitant oldtime music I’ve ever heard. The scene seemed to be more about the outfits and types of shoes being worn and less about the music.

I guess this rambling seems a lot disjointed and so be it for now. I suspect like everything else I’m involved in that if there’s any part of it that I’m feeling disenchanted about it’s because of the energy I bring to the mix and I’m willing to recognize that what I have is what I’ve chosen and influenced and accept it as is. I don’t wish to sound like I’m not finding my time here unenjoyable or uninteresting. On the contrary, I feel more alert and creative than I have in a long time. The reason I’m so weary is because my mind has been racing since I got here and I just cannot make myself sleep more than about 6 hours a night. I have good intentions to go to bed at a decent hour but I have not gotten laid down before midnight since I’ve been here unless I’ve gone to sleep in the chair I was sitting in. So that’s all good. I’ve learned a lot of things, am continuing to learn. One of the most important of those is that I’m learning to trust my own thought process and intuition instead of always asking somebody else for help. Learning when to ask for help. I feel rewarded by this and it gives me confidence to do more and better. And I’m enjoying the youthful energy the students bring to the days, the hope. It seems that they are starting to be more comfortable with me in the room and I take that to mean I’m on the right track. Plus, I have a batch of apple butter in the crock pot. So all good things, yes?

Life is good. MC