1. Sitting Down to Wait
“You can sit right here,” we said, and I motioned to a man with a dog.
“Ok,” he said with a glad look on his He had been walking back and forth evidently looking for a place to sit, for a while.
The people at the table next to us were a bit alarmed, because two of their group had gone in to order another beer. But they eventually offered to move over themselves so that this guy and his dog could slide in at the picnic table.
A woman joined him just as we were all sitting back down. So we were two full tables amid the many other tables of happy, loud, talking people waiting for the bluegrass band to return from their break.
2. A Young Crowd
The two of them were bluegrass fans. They said they regularly visit St. Elmo Brewing Company on Thursdays for bluegrass night. Indeed, as it turned out, they play bluegrass themselves.
They talked about a bluegrass jam they have at their house with a couple of retired guys. They talked excitedly about a festival they’ll be playing at in the fall. And they told us about each of the musicians when they returned to the stage.
At some point one of us asked, “When did you get here?” You know, the where are you from and what do you do in your day job conversation.
Trudy answered, “I came to Austin in 1991.”
“Oh,” the woman said with wide eyes. “You win!”
Trudy threw a glance my way.
“But he,” Trudy said, pointing at me in a J’accuse! kind of way. “He has been here longer.”
They looked at me.
“I came to Austin in 1982,” I said.
The woman’s eyes opened even wider. And the man shuffled their little dog in his lap, turned to me with a smile on his face.
“I came here in 1982, too,” he said. He paused and added, “I was born in 1982.”
Let’s just say, that it was a young crowd. (As it turned out, the music was dang good, too.)