30th Year Photos/#29

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Will You?
September ??, 1981.  Yep, that was quite a day for me.  I wasn’t even thinking about the contest 2 weeks earlier as Merla and I had decided to pick up and move to Texas a couple of months before.  Everything was in turmoil, finding new jobs and all – just not a real creative atmosphere, as you could imagine.  I get a call from Dana Hamilton bugging me about going to Winfield, KS to the national contest in a couple of weeks.  He was still on cloud nine having won the year before.  “Will you?” he asked over and over, even calling back later and asking again “Will you”?  “Na, I can’t get away and we can’t afford it” was my answer.  But two weeks later, Merla and I showed up and met up with Sam Compton, a friend who had purchased my first successful hammer dulcimer at Winfield two years earlier for his wife.  He and Susan had become great friends of ours, spending many weekends together usually discussing instrument construction ideas and techniques into the wee hours of the night.  He happened to be a fine musician himself playing fiddle, mandolin and guitar and had built some mountain dulcimers in his garage with Mark Tindle (refer to #35).  So he agreed to play guitar with me in the contest.  We started practicing on Thursday at Winfield all day and night until 2 a.m. or so leaving his fingers almost bleeding and mine almost frost-bitten, but we were having a blast. 

Saturday afternoon finally arrived and we were as prepared as we would ever be.  Merla kept an eye on the progress of the contest while Sam and I continued our focused efforts, practicing just as we had all weekend.  Merla came to get us, I checked tuning one last time, we crawled up on stage with my 65 lb. solid Teak instrument, put it on the stand and stood back to verify everything was O.K. before starting and realized something was terribly wrong!  The wind was blowing about 25 miles per hour sideways to my dulcimer.  How could I ever keep the light little hammers straight?  I found out later everyone was suffering with the same conditions.  Well, I knew the judges were hidden away and could not see us so I thought “Why not?”  I turned my instrument sideways to the stage with my back to the wind (I created a substantial wind block) and Sam turned to face me, just as we had been practicing.  From the first strike of the hammer, we zoned in together just as if we were still under the huge pecan tree by the camper where we had been practicing all weekend long.  I never missed a note and Sam was so tight it was as if we were one person.  The next thing I knew the crowd was on their feet yelling and screaming like a rock concert – we had finished our first round of tunes and they must of come off OK. 

Finally, after all 16 contestants had played their 2 songs, the five finalists were announced and we were included.  But Sam and I weren’t there, only Merla.  She was acting for us and drew our new number as Sam and I were already frantically going over the last two numbers, just in case we were lucky enough to get chosen.  Same routine as before and the same result – I had never heard such a sound as those 300 dulcimer fans were making – well, maybe once, I was playing basketball my senior year of high school and we were at the end of the 3rd overtime against Soper and somehow I was left wide open under the goal…..well, that’s another story.  Anyway, I knew we had done well and I was hoping to maybe place in the top three – what a story that would make to share with the grandkids someday! 

The five finalists made our way to the back room behind the stage as the crowd waited out front.  An odd thought kept running through my mind as I was sort of floating through the final minutes.  No, it was more like a small still voice “Will you?  Will you?  Will you?”  You see, Sam and I had shared a short prayer just before the contest asking for peace and success if it were God’s will, and we promised, if He saw fit to allow us this great honor, to never again set foot on stage to perform music without giving Christ the glory.  “Will you?” was the voice I kept hearing in my head and I took it very, very seriously.  They called the top three and I went into the room with the two others.  The third was announced leaving Lucille Riley and myself.  Then she was called as second……wait…but… that means….oh, my!!!!  I don’t really remember a lot of what happened the next few minutes.   

I do remember an hour or so later that Saturday evening, just before the main concert on the big stage, the finalists of the hammer dulcimer contest were asked to perform a couple of tunes.  Sam and I fired up and played “In the Garden” and “Red Haired Boy” one more time, but not until I shared my gratitude to the Lord for giving me the music in my fingers and His love in my heart before the 10,000 musicians and music lovers.  We finished the song all and 10,000 leapt to their feet and roared the most joyous acknowledgement of our efforts a man could ever want to hear.  Yeah, I reckon I remember that just fine. 

But, I so hope I was gracious to Nick Krikofsky and Lucille upon the announcement of the winner – I must have for we all three became good long term friends.  I met and visited with Nick several times in New York, his home state, at the Cranberry Dulcimer Festival.  I got to know  Lucille, especially, as she continued to come to Winfield annually to compete, won the contest and went on to win the autoharp contest as well.  Nick has since passed away and along with him went his magnificent dulcimer playing style and all those great rag-time arrangements – he was one of a kind!!  Lucille wrote a wonderful hammer dulcimer instruction book called “Striking Out and Winning” and performs and teaches throughout the country.  She rarely sees me without calling me by her self-appointed nick name of “LEGS” because she was so used to seeing me in overalls until one hot Winfield when I wore shorts – she just thought that was hilarious. 

The other gentleman in the photo is a fine man who was important to me long before this page of my dulcimer life.  Harvey Prinz was a Lutheran pastor who played gorgeous hammer dulcimer duets with Lilah Gillette and constructed instruments in the fashion of Lilah’s grandfather’s instruments from approximately 100 years before.  He had sponsored the national contest since its conception in 1977.  But I had first met him at Mt. View, AR in the spring of 1979 when I first fell in love with the hammer dulcimer.  I had previously been introduced to the instrument by David Lindsey and Dana Hamilton and we had a blast together.  They convinced me to come to the first dulcimer festival ever at Mt. View to play back-up guitar for them.  Well, after a weekend of listening to Harvey and Lilah, Cathy Barton and Dave Para, David Peterson and family plus a young wiry fellow from Michigan, a phenomenon by the name of Jay Round…well, playing backup for someone else playing this giant cheese slicer just wasn’t going to cut it.  Thanks, Harvey, for inspiring me to not only play but try my hand at building, also.  Thus I was convinced to choose his instrument as my prize. 

Sam - a very intelligent, wonderfully focused person, not concerned about what many of us worry about daily – loved instrument building and built several very fine violins and even sponsored the fiddle contest at Winfield several years.  He and Susan eventually moved to Natural Bridge, VA and she remains there, running a printing business, after Sam’s death just a year ago.  I’ll never forget his peaceful demeanor, kind encouragement and faithful Christian lifestyle he so graciously shared with me, especially one fine Saturday afternoon in September of 1981. 

So, I’ll end this excessively long description of a weekend long ago that was so very important to only me, really, with a bit of an unusual question – have you ever taken a chance?  Have you ever done something you never thought reasonable for little ole you to try?  Never?  “Will you?”