My dear friends and bandmates, Tom and Gayle, lost their home and all their material possessions on Wednesday night. They and their upstairs neighbor, Pam Brandon, who sings lead for Lost Weekend, were in France for Pam's parents 50th wedding anniversary, so no one was hurt, but as I said they lost everything, except for Pam's D-41 Martin.
Pam was actually at the SF airport, steamed that her boyfriend was late in picking her up. He said, "I've got worse news than that...." And she found out that, instead of going home, she didn't have one. Tom and Gayle are back with Gayle's folks in Kentucky and handling stuff by phone. Seemed pointless coming back to nothing.
They're insured and safe, and we're already putting benefits together to raise some cash. They have put in so much time and goodwill into the country scene here, and the community has rallied around them. The first benefit was last night. 77 El Deora passed the hat at their concert, and donated their take from the night, and we raised nearly $1000. More to follow.
These are three of the finest people we know, and are the heart of our musical community. And that's what we're dealing with here in San Francisco.
13 comments:
So sorry to hear that Rik. At least everyone is safe.
I'm so sorry for your friends, Rik. Terrible loss.
Wow, what a bummer, so sorry for them, losing a life of photo's, Grandmother's quilt, etc. hope pet's escaped. Life can give you lemon's, you make lemonade. Start to rebuild, hit the yard sales and thrift shops.
Think the lucky stars she had her Martin with her.
Whoops! Thank, not think.
My almost brother Tom just had part of his foot amputated and is in a nursing home for 3 weeks, lets all give him a heads up, he reads our blog. Remember Tom? He's the guy in the pic of Hank, Connie, Bob and Helen in the front of the Paradox with paint brushes before we opened. Very tall man, he also was at the Golden Bear reunion, big fellow, red beard and hat. At the time he was our Brother-in Law, married to my sister Joyce.
Maybe to much info?
Hi Tom
Hi, Tom. Get well soon!
Sorry to hear of the tragedy, but at least your friends are safe.
Our neighbors 2 houses away did a major 2 story remodel last year. While they were away on a camping trip a few mos. ago the house burned completely to the ground. Tough loss to cope with for sure.I hope all the insurance premiums were up to date.
And what about the continuation of the band?
Been busy and haven't checked in in a while. Sorry.
Sorry to hear about Tom. How much will this affect his mobility?
Our band will continue on. It's really just a bunch of old friends who hang out together, so when Tom and Gayle get resettled, we'll get back to it. We almost booked a couple of gigs for this week, but the Corey, drummer and Jon, steel player were booked elsewhere.
And Norma and I are off to New York next week to visit family and look for trouble. And to hang out with Cree, from Misisipi Rider, who lives in Brooklyn now. He's got a gig somewhere on Tuesday, and I'm invited to sit in. And Norma get to see her 2 year old grandson for the first time. She hates flying, but with that as an incentive, we made the deal.
What are y'all up to?
Me, I'm getting ready to ride out a hurricane, holed up on the 25th floor of a hotel in mid-town Manhattan.
I just emailed you, wondering if you and Norma had made it home okay. Safe weathering!
Under the "Not good news" heading... Leigh and I made friends in college with a couple of fellow folkies, Billy & Sandra Stinson. We played with them at the folk show of the City of Greenville's (NC) summer series, Sunday in the Park for many years, and we've played with this couple at many other folk venues over more than 30 years... most recently with them on a public access show they do called "Folk Seen." They're both recently retired teachers.
Anyway, these dear old friends inherited a cottage on the sound side of the barrier island at Nags Head, NC... a house built on land in the early 1900s that saw all the land eroded by the sound over the years, and has been on pilings for the past 50 years or so. The state of NC's magazine even did an article on this little place... http://www.ourstate.com/stinsons-ranch
Well, after surviving numerous hurricanes and nor'easters over more than 100 years, the high water, west wind and waves in Albemarle Sound from hurricane Irene proved too much for this special structure, and it was completely lost on Saturday.
An image of Billy and his family... sitting on the old steps, watching the sunset one more time and grieving their loss...was picked up by Getty Images, and their very sad personal story has now become very public. A search on Google Images for "Billy Stinson Nags Head" will show you some touching pictures.
At least this wasn't their primary home. A lot of people lost their homes in this storm. So sad.
Thanks for sharing that story, Tony. Lovely house. They even updated the story online about the storm.
With the ocean warming, I fear this may be but a harbinger of things to come.
Rik, I hope you are okay and headed home!
That's just heartbreaking, Tony. Norma and I feel like we dodged a bullet, in that Manhattan was spared any real damage. But all around us people are being flooded out.
We're just inconvenienced. Public transit was close for a day and we a day late getting out of here. We're waiting for the airport shuttle now. Newark to Atlanta, where we hang for two hours and change planes for SFO. Long travel day, but compared to losing a home, no big deal.
Bummed that we're going to miss the Twang benefit, but we have company. In one of those weird coincidences, I ran into Dinah Mattick, who also has a band on our circuit, Dinah and the Everlovin', at a deli across the street from our hotel. And she got stranded here, too. We may even be on the same flights home. But we'll both miss the gig.
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