Blood and Bluegrass

BLOOD AND BLUEGRASS

[BY PETER]
Radiation and chemo start this week. I'm curious as to how they'll make me feel, as most of the time I'm more than OK, e.g., was able to go cycling with daughter Amanda and split wood this weekend. It's weird to be fit and healthy on the one hand, and have a serious illness on the other.

A downside of cancer is I'm not able to donate blood or platelets while in treatment and some time after (at least a year after treatment?). I've been a platelet donor at the Red Cross on University Drive in Durham for the past 16 years - it's the most consistently satisfying thing I've done. 

Giving platelets is a little different from giving whole blood, which involves taking blood from one arm. With platelets, a needle goes in the intake arm, sends blood through a tube to a centrifugal machine which spins and isolates platelets, then returns the blood minus the platelets to the other arm or hand. Platelets are the blood's clotting factor and are used by leukemia patients, those undergoing chemo, et. al. It's ironic to think that at some point I may be a platelet recipient, no longer a donor.

If you've never given blood or platelets, are healthy and eligible, and are curious about it, please consider contacting the Red Cross (to schedule a platelet appointment, call 1-800-667-5086). I can hardly think of a more worthwhile  and easy thing to do that will have as much impact on another person. 

On several occasions, friends have accompanied me to the Durham center where we've made a "party" out of donating. For example, last April Jay Cunningham, Lew Wardell, Jennifer Evans, Jay Miller, Geoff Hathaway, John Bemis, Sherman Newman, and Susan G. gave blood or platelets the same morning. Another friend Dan Way, then-Editor of the Chapel Hill Herald, wrote an entertaining and inspiring account of his experiences as a first-time platelet donor.

http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/12604944/article-Blood-flows-at-birthday-party?instance=main_article.

 

 Thanks for thinking about this.

Today's video clip, ca. 1960, is Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt and the Foggy Mountain Boys singing "I'm On My Way To Canaan's Land." Many people know that North Carolina's Earl Scruggs was and is a great banjo player, but here he excels on gospel guitar. From right to left in the video, that's Earl Scruggs, fiddler Paul Warren, guitarist Lester Flatt  on lead vocal, bassist Jake Tullock, and mandolinist Curly Seckler. Josh Graves, who usually plays Dobro, is probably playing the bass:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nWzYfSKFLE&feature=related
 
In 1973, when I was relatively new to bluegrass, I happened to be in Nashville and on the Vanderbilt U. campus for a free concert. It was a great lineup- Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys, The Country Gentlemen (with 19 year old Ricky Scaggs on fiddle), and Lester Flatt and the Nashville Grass (with 14 year old Marty Stuart on mandolin). At one point I walked up to fiddler Paul Warren and said,"Excuse me, are you Lester Flatt?" He politely pointed out Lester Flatt to me, then graciously took a photo of Lester and me. I still have the photo, but will show it only if asked. Lester looked good, me not so much (big hair).

When Susan and I were "dating" in 1980 (quaint word), she invited me to go to Raleigh to see The Earl Scruggs Revue. Lester had split from Lester Flatt about ten years before and was playing progressive bluegrass with his three sons and fiddler Vassar Clements. Some time after that Susan invited me to a Doc Watson show. When Susan subsequently demonstrated that she could load and fire up a wood stove, I had to tell myself, "Hmmm, this relationship could get serious."

Love to all- Peter K