At many of our past high school reunions, we rocked all night to classic rock hits from our era, like Purple Hay by Jimi Hendrix.
My classmates from the Class of 1968 at Navasota (Texas) High School are having a quiet get-together at a local restaurant this month for our 50th Reunion.
I won’t be able to attend. And anyway, it’s going to be a really quiet get-together, unlike so many of our past reunions where we danced all night to sixties classics from our era.
That was before about 50 of us developed bad backs and had too many knee and hip replacements to dance like they do in the land of a thousand dances.
But seriously, ladies and germs. A lot of life — and too much death — rolls down the currents of 50 years. Innocence and vigor start fading all too quickly after the school years that you spent crossing the bridge from youth to adulthood.
But that’s OK. The Spirit of ’68 is still flaming in the Land of a Thousand Dances. (Black and White editions follow.)
The State Legislature of Texas has designated Navasota as the official “Blues Capital of Texas.”
Find out why at this blog site.
Navasota is an old, historic and unique Texas town and cultural center, with the blues being at the heart of its culture.
The influential blues man Mance Lipscomb lived in a house out on Piedmont Road, not far from my home in Navasota, Texas. (Bob Dylan mentions his visit to Lipscomb’s house in his autobiography Chronicles. Another music legend, Joe Tex also grew up there and returned to a house he built there in his later years.
I was fortunate and saw Jimi live on his “Are you Experienced” tour. He did, in fact, play Purple Haze (a song similar to Purple Hay). The sad part – he set his guitar on fire at the end of the show. I would have gladly taken the Stratocaster off his hands.
lol. I’m sure you would have. Can’t Belize you saw the man. How great is that.