The Big Muddy Blues Fest Yearly Vacations – Memoir Continued
(roughly over the last ten years of my working career and well into my retirement)

For a period of time after my divorce from Anne, I spent a few days each early fall in St. Louis for the Big Muddy Blues Festival.  I usually drove, but flew the first few times I went. While I was there, I stayed with Kristen and Jerry. Then the last few times, I stayed with Ian.

Actually, I was used to going to St. Louis for many years, taking Kristen and Ian there and picking them up, depending on whether they would be spending the school year there or with us in Cleveland. So I was used to St. Louis and eastern MO, spending time with Kristen, Jerry, Jerid, and Collin in their different locations around greater St. Louis, then later with Ian close to St. Louis proper.

It was natural for me to spend what vacation time I could muster even to the end of my working career and into my retirement, attending the annual Big Muddy Blues festival. It was always a good time. And once I even got Guy and Morgan, Guy’s youngest, to go with me and my middle son, Sean, though that was one of the last times I was able to attend. I have many photos from that trip, most taken by Kristen.

I even got Tina to go with me once. She liked the festival and the venue and especially the Soulard Blues Band, whose album I’d been playing for her since the first time I saw them at the 1890s bar.

The festival was always held down in that part of St. Louis, known as ‘the Landing’, with its old cobblestone streets and gentrified shops, eateries, and bars. The area was blocked off for 4 or 5 blocks squared next to the river (the Mississippi). There were 5 or 6 open-air stages situated at cross streets within the area, plus a large main stage. While all the smaller stages were free to pedestrians, tickets were required for the main stage presentations, which I seldom attended.

To be Continued

–LE