Hangin' at the Junction

Linda and I strolled Historic Valley Junction (one of the 100 Places in Iowa to Visit) for the first Farmer's Market of the year. Live music, tasty food, and terrific people watching were the order of the day ... er... evening. Flipside, a popular local band, provided the music (with adequate cowbell) and the community showed up in terrific numbers. We pulled up a couple of chairs and watched as a couple did some nice dance moves while there was still room.

As we moved up and down the street, we enjoyed marches played by a local post-secondary school band... waaaay post-secondary school. Of course, I had to feature the trombone section. They did a nice job.

The food vendors were numerous and their offerings were tempting. We were familiar with a few and tried a barbeque place from Dallas Center; it was tasty! One of their side dishes had a pretty standard name but had an interesting twist. Their potato salad had a smokey flavor, maybe some barbeque spices; I'm not sure what they used but it was good.

When we returned to the bandstand, the crowd was present and hoppin' to the sounds. Flipside did a great job picking popular and danceable songs and played them very well.

I've come to understand some of the joy of playing in a band: you're there, contributing to the apparent joy of a large group of people. The smiles and laughter of people just having fun moving to your music has to be a pretty fulfilling payoff for the effort of the performance. Playing a dance situation would sure seem to be more fun than a concert where people aren't able to really move. A moment of enlightenment... ; )