A Week in Appalachia

Have been too busy lately to get this post up in a timely manner, but felt the experience was significant enough to go ahead and put it together for my many followers (heehee?)
Mid August we attended the annual meeting of the American College of Veterinary Radiology (ACVR). It was a must, to keep my certification current. There were so many facets to the trip that I'm sure I'll leave out something significant, but I'll go  with what I remember. Because we can't travel fast and far, we broke up the 11 hour drive to the meeting in Asheville, NC by stopping in Berea, Kentucky. In many of our trips since 1969 from Georgia and Florida to Indiana and Illinois (and back) I remember seeing signs to Berea and it always struck a note. I knew that it had something to do with Bible scholars, then later a Christian bookstore came to Champaign, Il named the Berean Bookstore.. I also knew that was some kind of special college there. As I prepared for this trip, I stumbled onto the "Boone Tavern" which is a historic hotel in Berea.. Finding that they were advertising the first annual Celtic Arts Festival in Berea for the weekend after the ACVR meeting, I booked a room there for the return trip.  More of that later.

View of Grove Park Spa from our window

View of Sunset Grill from our room at Grove Park Inn

As I have been attending the ACVR meetings only every 3 years for some time (the minimal requirement). I was looking forward to renewing relationships with collegues from around the country and World. I saw Dr. Graham Allen from Austrailia and Dr. Chris Lamb from the British Isles along with a lot of people I had worked with in the past and a bunch of people I had helped train in Radiology. The highlight for me, however was to get to have breakfast with Dr. Bob Lewis. Although many veterinary radiologists have influenced my technical skills, Dr. Lewis has probably had more influence on me than any other person aside from my own mom and dad. Dr. Lewis was one of the pioneers in Veterinary Radiology who with 10 or 12 other people formed the "Educators in Veterinary Radiologic Science" (EVRS) and later the ACVR. I have the dubious distinction of being the last secretary of the EVRS before it was disbanned in leau of the emerging ACVR. However his influence was more than that. When we started in vet school, I thought it was to care for hogs and cattle and a few horses. I didn't even know they x-rayed animals. During the last 3 years of vet school, I worked for Dr. Lewis as a work study student while attending school. In addition, Georgia and I sat for he and Mary Lu's children, Mona and Paula. I found I really enjoyed being a "shadow chaser", probably a lot due to his apparent peace and confidence coupled with  a reality based approach in this diagnostic specialty. He, like me was from a small Indiana town (Mitchell; where the school bus factory functioned until 1995. It is also the birthplace of Gus Grissom.) Back to Bob Lewis; When we graduated from vet school, we looked at some radiology training positions, but decided to join a general practice in Parker City, Indiana (See previous post "How do you hug a house")... It wasn't going as we expected and Dr. Lewis told us about a radiology training position opening at the University of Georgia. We took the position and believe it or not, a year later, guess who joined the radiology faculty at the University of Georgia to help oversee my training!!!! Yup. None other than Dr. Robert E. Lewis. I think he came to Georgia to finish the job in my development.  I could go on and on. I could not have found a better mentor if I had sent out a notice and combed through hundreds of applications.  I have included a picture of myself, Dr. Lewis, and Dr. Bob Badertscher at the meeting. Dr. Badertscher was the 3rd and last ACVR diplomate Dr. Lewis and I trained together after I joined the UGA faculty and before I left for the University of Illinois.  Not only are we influenced by those who "train" us, but by those we "train".  (Thanks to both BOBS.) Renewing old friendships was great. The material from the meeting was great, but the place where the meeting was held is a story in itself. You probably know about the Biltmore Estate in Asheville. Not far from the Biltmore is the Grove Park Inn Resort and Spa.. Another "historic hotel". http://www.groveparkinn.com/Leisure/  This place was built by "Dr". EW Grove a pharmacist and St. Louis entrepreneur who made his millions in the 1890s peddling an elixir called Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic. My, My, My.. This ain't Motel 6.  They have images of hundreds of "famous" people who have been there including 8 presidents from Bush to Obama (Barry played basketball there in April). Roosevelts, Harding Coolidge. etc. I have included a few pictues, but can't capture the enormity and grandeur of this place overlooking tier after tier of blue ridge mountains. It's a little "spendy", but definitely worth a look for a holiday. While there we took a trolley bus (grayline) tour of Asheville. Matt, our guide and driver grew up on Asheville so gave us a real "homer" view of this very interesting city. That trip was topped of by the accelerator of the bus sticking and we had to abandon it and take another bus to finish the tour.

Badertscher, Lewis, Kneller (not really brothers by blood)

Although we had been there before, we planned to do an abbreviated tour of the Biltmore on Friday before leaving Asheville. However, let's just say.. "that didn't work out", and we headed back to Berea. We pulled up to the Boone Tavern just before dark. http://www.boonetavernhotel.com/  Another cool place. As I was checking us in, Georgia saw the end of the first session of the Celtic Arts Festival which was next door (I knew that).. and a guy in a kilt with a bagpipe lead a procession into campus (Berea College) http://www.berea.edu/ They were gone by the time I came out.  The next morning after breakfast, I came out the back of the hotel to find a group of players under a small tent playing Celtic music... song after song after song. It was neet as players would join in as they came and others would leave when they needed to, but the music continued without a hitch. The hotel was a story in itself, but I'll let you get that fromt their site. The Celtic Festival is another story. it was primarily the work of a few people who invited a number of players from all over (I am aware of Kansas, Atlanta, Cincinnati, North and South Carolina, Virginia and Kentucky. Some from very nearby. Basically sessions were roughly planned. They played under tha small tent the most, then when it rained, went into the small cafe run by one of the organizers, (see video),  in the campus amphitheater  (we didn't get there), and in the Berea Center for the Arts. http://www.berea-center-arts.com/  more videos. This was a hot little loft which was perfect for the genre. (more videos). The harpist also played in a church service Sunday morning, but we didn't make that... To make it perfect, as we were leaving, a group of them were playing on the porch of the Boone Tavern Hotel. Although it was really difficult to tear ourselves away, home was ahead and darkness was a promising adversary.  Again, I have tried to capture a bit of the spirit of the Festival, but doubt I can do it justice. For a "boy" who remembers the Herrons of Whitely and Noble County, Indiana sitting in a circle after Sunday dinner (noon meal to country folks) playing these instruments this was a short trip to music heaven. The point of the Festival was to bring the music from "the old country" to the center of appalachian music (bluegrass). Scottish and Irish people settle appalachia and brought the music with them. Over time, mountain and bluegrass versions of the music developed. I mentioned Scottish people. An instrument that I believe was developed in appalachia is the dulcimer. If you've heard one, it has the droning background similar to a bagpipe. This brings us to another great aside in Berea. Just around the corner from the Boone Tavern is Warren May's Dulcimer and Furniture shop. http://www.warrenamay.com/ Warren started building dulcimers and furniture years ago. You are welcomed into his shop where he is putting finishing touches on his handmade dulcimers... As he talkes with you he can't help walking over to the counter and picking up a dulcimer and playing a tune, maybe singing a bit as he tells a story.  Another great experience, just to visit. Then to make it even more special, last Sunday, I was flipping channels and came across the Woodright's shop, a PBS show I used to watch a lot. He was doing a thing on Berea College and although I didn't think to record it, he spent time in Warren's shop giving the world the same experience we had enjoyed the previous week, there in Berea. To take it furter, there was a special on another channel called "the Heart and Soul of America".. If you can find it, I really recommend viewing it... Again, I was too late to record it, but during a segment on appalachia, there he was again; a cameo of Warren May in his shop. This of course made our experience even more special.  Leaving Warren and continuing with instruments, the Celtic players brought fiddles, banjos, mandolins, guitars, accordions, concertinas, a couple of bodhrans, tin whistles, flutes, Irish bagpipes, a harp and a couple of instruments that had previously escaped my observation. I thought they were some kind of lute, but after exposing my ignorance was told they were bouzoukis, kind of an overgown mandolin. Great mellow sound. I later found that there are Irish Bouzoukis, Greek Bouzoukis, and some others. On the porch Sunday afternoon, some of the players were discussing the similarity of Celtic music and some Scandanavian folk music. During that conversation, I discovered how similar Celtic music was to one of my personal favorites; Zydeco. Same instruments, same rapid fire melody. Check the Zydeco site in my "sites to watch" if you don't know Zydeco. Oh, the young man (Alex) in the flowered shirt and floppy hair plays 7 instruments... much like one of our gandsons. Notice in the first video that you can see us in the mirror.

Celtic players under the tent behind the cafe in Berea

"Concert" in Berea Center for the Arts (Note program)

Impromptu session of porch of Boone Tavern

This was a familiar sight to me. Very much like was seen around our family during the late 80's and can be seen on Briarcliff in Springfield, IL today.

I can't leave this post without a bit more on Berea College. Built on biblical principles with no particular demoninational bent, the theme of the college is Learning, Work, Service. "You bring the brains, we'll bring the rest". The target students are those who can't afford education, but have the drive to succeed. Basically tuition is apparently paid by gifts of alumni and friends of the college. They will find you a job (and you must work) to help pay for your housing and books. There is apparently a maximum family income level for admission. What a concept. Lift poor students out of poverty, educate them and let them pay for the education of others out of their plenty. Every student we met was a joy to encounter. Oh, did I say that the weekend we were there was also student move in weekend??? Lots of cars and pick-ups clogging the streets for one weekend. But we survived. If we ever find a time when we don't "need" to be somewhere, we think a 5 hour trip to Berea will be refreshing.  Having now been to the west coast several times in the past few years, we find that there is some great stuff in the more nearby area. Mayby not as grand as the Rockies, the Cascades or the Pacific ocean, but altogether as gorgeous and fulfilling to encounter. Check these videos. The last video is part of a dance demonstration at the Center for the Arts. I include it here as a tribute to one of our "locum friends" from Oregon State; Carol Colton who we lost tragically last year. One of her passions was "Contra Dancing". Which I had never heard of. When she talked about it, her Irish eyes would just sparkle. I checked it out and found that it was very much like "square dancing" which I grew up on in Indiana. I'm pretty sure this is more of what she was into than the form of square dancing I was familiar with. It did look like fun.