By Steve Bradley
The Gathering of Friends held Saturday, July 28 in Wood Park, despite a late start due to a thunderstorm, was, for all intentions, an all years, all area reunion for everyone who attended. It was a Hoosick Falls reunion day. People came from far and wide. Cleveland, Seattle, and Atlanta were some of the areas people traveled from to attend the event.
The band Blues For Breakfast was scheduled to begin at 4 pm. Everything was on time for the music to begin, but Mother Nature had other ideas. A thunderstorm with torrential rain began at 3:50 and lasted about 20 minutes. With the band’s equipment on the bandstand, there wasn’t enough protection provided to keep out the wind-driven rain. The equipment got soaked and had to be dried out before the band could start. The band started about two hours late.
No one cared. Folks began showing up after the storm and were just happy meeting and catching up with the people around them.
There were people there that hadn’t been in town for many years, and there was a great many of them. There were dozens of people seeing each other for the first time in 20, 30 or more years. Classmates, neighbors and friends from childhood, old girlfriends and boyfriends from school. Everywhere you turned women were hugging and men were exchanging handshakes. Everyone was smiling. Someone would ask if you remembered them; sometimes you did and sometimes you didn’t.
There were booths for food and t-shirts.
After the storm, the weather became sunny and warm. The band began about 6 pm. Blues For Breakfast is a Burlington, VT band that plays plenty of Grateful Dead music, with a mix of other artists. This band adds to the hometown feel of the event because band front man Charlie Frazier is a member of the Hoosick Falls Central Class of 1969.
The band played well past the scheduled 8 pm end time. The park slowly emptied out as people said there goodbyes and disappeared. Everyone promised not to let so much time pass before meeting again.
Next year’s event is already being planned.