We hated to leave, as these are really fun folks to be around. Ward, who is the weekend news anchor on our local NBC TV affiliate, is also a latent (more likely blatant) musician who had his own Kingston Trio / Brothers Four copy band in high school on Mercer Island, WA. We originally met because he is still a huge folk music fan. Yesterday he left the dinner table to take me to his computer and show me some fascinating stuff about an extremely rare instrument his mother bought years ago at a thrift store in Seattle. It's an Audiovox lap steel. And, according to the research he's done, his is one of only two in existence. The other on is in Paul Allen's Jimi Hendrix museum. As if that isn't interesting enough, the man who built this instrument, Paul Tutmarc, is also now being credited with inventing the electric bass guitar clear back in the 1930's! I won't give you the full story here, but here's a link to an article of interest in Vintage Guitar magazine: http://www.vintageguitar.com/brands/details.asp?ID=48 We left the Lucas home and drove for nearly an hour to the other end of Denver (almost to Kansas, I think) to our friends, John and Susie Wagner's house. Susie has been Meri's decorating consultant for many years and she's really helped Meri to make our house look spiffy. (What do I know about decorating?!!!) John is in the hotel management business and was our host at the Warwick Hotel on many occasions. He was extremely generous last year for our "Concert For A Cure" with The Brothers Four here in Denver. We had the Presidential Suite for the night, in addition to rock-bottom rates on rooms and meals for the group and the VIP attendees. He's just now taken a new job managing a hotel in Washington, D.C., so we'll have to drive even farther for Thanksgiving dinner next year! Being in the hotel business, John knows how to throw a feast, so there was no avoiding the food this time around. There must have been 35 people at their house, plus various dogs waiting for table scraps. We all sat in the dining room at a huge expanded table that must have been 25 feet long. Chairs of every sort from all over the house beckoned us to the feast, and we ate our fill. After dinner we watched the Bronco's lose to Kansas City, and along about half-time I got a request to play some music. John cleared out one of the table extensions in the dining room and I set up shop to ease the pain of the sports fans in the house. We had a fun time singing and chatting for the rest of the evening. On the drive home I ruminated about the meaning of Thanksgiving and became very humbled by all the things in my life for which I have reason to give thanks. First and foremost, I give thanks for my beautiful wife, Meri, who does her best to keep me focused in a positive direction. She's my best friend and lover, a fabulous designer in many areas, a financial wizard and my biggest fan. I could go on and on and on, but suffice it to say, I wouldn't be where I am today without Meri. So - I give thanks to the Lord for allowing me to find her and keep her! I also give thanks for living in this great country of ours. The fact that we can cast our votes, as we did earlier this month, and speak our mind on important issues sets us apart from so many oppressive governments and societies around the world. I pray that, within the framework of this democratic society that we've developed, we can learn to be more tolerant of each other and allow one another to live in peace. And I hope that as we perfect this, it can spread across the world, not by military force imposing our beliefs on other people, but by good example of how successful our way of life can be. I give thanks that we are, so far, relatively free of the kind of violence that the people in the Middle East have to endure on a daily basis. I give thanks for all the wonderful friends Meri and I have all over the world. It is such a blessing to be able to keep in touch with so many of you through this web site and the magic of the Internet. We love all of you and hope you had a very special day yesterday, and every day! We hope you have a moment in each day of your life to reflect on your own good fortune and thank your God, your lucky stars, or whomever you credit with your existence, for the blessings you're able to enjoy. Sometimes we lose track of the positive things in life and only dwell on our misfortunes, and I'm certainly one of the most guilty of that. But thanks to the encouragement and prayers from so many good friends, I've been able to skate through some tough times and keep a positive focus. There are so many other things in my life for which I'm very thankful, but let me just mention my immense fortune to have had a spectacular career in the music business! To have sung with my heroes, The Brothers Four, for 15 years and then to go on to be part of the group that started it all, The Kingston Trio, is just an amazing thing to contemplate. What a lucky guy I am to have enjoyed such success in my life! As I look back over the many experiences I've had because of that career everything comes full circle. If I had not been part of that I never would have met any of you folks, nor would I have met Meri. We met after a Kingston Trio concert here in the Denver area, so I send a huge thank-you to the Man upstairs for allowing me to share my music around the world and touch and be touched by so many lives because of it. And for me, that's the meaning of Thanks Giving! Blessings to all of you! Link: http://http://www.vintageguitar.com/brands/details.asp?ID=48
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