What a Weekend

On June 22 I met Peggy in Urbana, IL for Jeremy and Bomina Otto’s wedding reception - the Main Event, but before that…

I had delivered a trailer in Chicago that morning. On the way up I-57 I passed Paxton and thought of when Zachory (grandson) lived there with his dad. Through Zach’s violin lessons I had learned of a man in Paxton who plays and teaches fiddle. I had spoken with Don Peterson several times by phone about helping Zach on violin. He seemed like an interesting and erudite person. I decided this would be a good day to meet him. I still have his phone number on my cell phone, so I called his answering machine. He runs the “Swedish Trading Co.” in downtown Paxton. I didn’t hear back from him until I was on my way back down I-57 from Chicago. So I stopped. An older couple were picking up a fiddle and mandolin which Don had repaired. Don played some Swedish fiddle tunes. I also took the chance to play on that fiddle, though no-one knew me at that point. After the couple left, I had a great time visiting with Don. He had just returned from Sweden, where he travels occasionally to play with a folk group. Don is a retired real estate agent from Chicago. His parents came from Sweden, so Don’s first language was Swedish at home. The shop is very neat and orderly. There is not much to buy, only a little - candles, pictures, moccasin type shoes - all from Sweden. Don said he doesn’t sell much. His main thing is teaching fiddle. He has 22 students. He has made a couple Swedish key fiddles and has another one partly done. Through the screen door dividing the showroom from the back of the shop, one can see a lot of woodworking power tools. This was a most inspiring stop. Don is a talented musician, though un-schooled. He’s industrious and creative. He has nice recording equipment in his shop and records his own music. Very impressive. When I was teaching in Urbana around 1993 I had met a young woman studying Norwegian and Swedish music for her musicology degree. Don knows Becky. I had forgotten her name, but he seems to know her well. On top of it all, I picked out a CD of Swedish fiddle music to buy, and Don gave it to me free! I have a new friend…

It was mid-afternoon when I left Paxton. I was to meet Peggy at the Round Barn Center, Champaign. Our life insurance guy’s office is right across the street from there. Peggy was coming up from the south in our car. We finally got to Craig Detemann’s office about 4:00. It took us a couple hours to do our business. We first met Craig before we left for Korea. He sold us our policies in 1994. He also bought Peggy’s 1976 MG Midget, which he still owns, though it’s in storage. We don’t know Craig too well, only through Allstate. But he is a cool guy, very smart and personable. He is in his upper 30’s - still single. He’s a super-jock - into all sports and always keeps in shape. He’s short and stocky. He’s generous, or maybe he’s just being a smart businessman… Anyway he gave us a nice book about the past 100 years of Illini Basketball. It’s apparently an ‘important’ book with autographs in it, but much of the significance of it is lost on us, not being sports fans. That’s alright. When we were getting ready to leave his office, Craig asked where we were staying that night. “In out truck,” I replied. He said, “No, I have a guest room…” So after the big reception, we went back to Craig’s bachelor pad - a very nice 2 BR house down the street from the Champaign Country Club on Haines. I’ll just finish with Craig and then get back to the reception. We got there about midnight. He has a 4 year old Sharpe (is that how it‘s spelled? It‘s a dog.) She has a wrinkly face - nice dog, but a little ugly. Craig gave us the master bedroom; he took the futon in the guest room. We had the greatest time. Craig is a fine host. He has some cool collections - hats, watches, wines, art… He travels quite a bit all over the world. This was amazing: Peggy almost immediately noticed a pottery vase on a stand at the end of the hall and said, “I made one just like that in high school.” She picked it up and looked on the bottom. It had her name on the bottom - P. Cavitt!!! Peggy could not get over that and kept repeating over and over - “You have my pottery! How did you get this?” and variations… Craig gave it to her. But Sunday on her way out of town she gave it back to him. It seems when we liquidated our household before moving to Korea in 1995, that vase was given away and ended up at a 2nd hand / antique shop which Craig frequents.

THE RECEPTION: We got there about 40 minutes late because it was hard to get away from Craig, and we drove to a wrong location (Silvercreek rather than Stone Creek,) but we got directions and found Kennedy’s at Stone Creek. Even after we arrived we found the wrong reception first and finally got to the right building. We were seated with Steve and newly-retired Jessica Shaw, whose son John was in my advanced violin group with Christopher. Now John is a computer geek in Chicago. Christopher and his girlfriend were playing violin and cello when we arrived. There were a couple hundred people there for a buffet dinner. The actual wedding had taken place two weeks ago in Korea. We had followed the family journey on John Otto’s blog. Nine Otto family members took the trip for Jeremy’s wedding in Seoul. Actually Jeremy and Bomina had 3 weddings: a civil ceremony a year ago to facilitate Bomina’s visa; a Catholic wedding on Friday evening, June 8, 2007 and the very next day a Korean traditional ceremony at a Buddhist temple. The reception on June 22 might be considered a fourth ceremony. The Ottos’ Menonite pastor spoke a blessing over them at the reception. John’s brother acted as M.C. He toasted the couple, John toasted his son, Christopher toasted his brother, Bomina’s dad gave a toast in Japanese, so that Jeremy’s aunt who is fluent in Japanese, could translate. And finally my wife Peggy stood up and gave a lengthy toast, which established our connection with the Otto’s through Christopher’s beginning violin lessons and told how it was by our influence that Jeremy got to Korea. I expected to hear more toasts or roasts, but noone else volunteered after Peggy. Hard act to follow I guess :-). After the meal it was time to dance. En route to the dance floor, we met a deaf man and his wife who are members of the Mennonite church. We had a very nice, long conversation with them. The man’s name is Mel I think. He does speak quite well, though he is totally deaf. He lost his hearing as a teen. He is an intelligent man, has a college degree, works as a cabinet maker and loves soccer. He and his wife first approached us because they had liked Peggy’s toast. That conversation just put off the dancing awhile, but finally Peggy pulled me out onto the dance floor. I was awkward at first but began to feel more comfortable after awhile. We had a very nice chat with Christopher and his girlfriend (Amy?) (I ought to carry a notebook or mini-disk recorder to record people’s names.) They are soon moving from San Diego to New York. Chris was my most gifted and successful violin student by far. It is so cool to keep in touch with him and his family. We also had good conversation with Jeremy. He is now preparing to be a massage therapist through John A. Logan Community College. God bless the happy couple!

Finally, I realized there was an opportunity here which I ought to pursue. I walked up behind Christopher as he and Amy were involved in a conversation circle - and waited to be noticed, which didn’t take long. I wanted to try out his Douglas Cox violin. Cox is one of the makers I’m interested in. In fact I first heard of him through Chris's dad. Chris has had this violin for 7 years. He and his parents went to Vermont to visit Cox’s shop. I will make that pilgrimage whenever it works out in the natural course of our trucking. So Chris was very happy to let me try out his violin. We had to get as far from the D.J. and loud speakers as possible, so we found a dining room behind closed doors, and I was able to test out the violin in all ranges and was able to hear Chris play a few passages of Mozart. So I was content. Thank you Christopher.

Then to top it all off, we departed Craig Dettemann’s house early on Saturday. Peggy was planning to take our grandkids camping in Indiana while I had plans to go to Springfield to play in a little concert organized by Jim Stieren at his house. He's a great guitar player. We play together whenever possible. Jim invited his coworkers (he’s an occupational therapist.) So there were home health folks and their spouses and kids in attendance. No young kids though. There were about a dozen people in Jim’s living room - a very appreciative audience. We played a variety of fiddle tunes (my specialty) and classic rock tunes (Jim’s passion.) This was a pot-luck, so as people arrived, more food was added to the food table. We had good feedback. And we got $22.00 in tips, which Jim and I split. After that event, I stopped over at Kregg Argenta’s house. He should’ve been at our recital but had a conflict with his niece’s birthday party. Finally I headed back to Urbana at the end of the afternoon. Our camping trip had been rained out. If it hadn’t been, the camping equipment was all in our big red truck, and Peggy had locked the key inside. I was to open the truck when I got back to Urbana. However, somewhere between parting with Peggy on Saturday morning and returning to the truck that evening, my keys disappeared. I only discovered them missing when I was parked next to our truck and could not find my karabiner. It’s a mystery. I looked everywhere. Finally I gave up and drove over to David & Alicia’s house to hang out with their 5 kids while their parents were out all night at a concert in Peoria. Treighton (4) and I slept in the RV in the driveway. We took the kids to early church, and Sunday afternoon, after all options were exhausted, we had a locksmith come out to open the truck for just $69.00. Then I went to Wal-Mart to make copies, of which one is now concealed under masking tape in a secret location on the outside of the truck. We have had emergency keys hidden under the hood in the past, but the one that was there is gone - maybe fell off? Finally I was able to depart to deliver a Publix trailer from Great Dane, Brazil, IN to Miami, FL and Peggy went home in our car. That was one extraordinary weekend!