Cabins

This weekend my siblings and I will be opening our rustic cabins that our grandparents built or acquired from the 1930s, so I thought I’d tell you what they have meant to us over the years. My grandparents (on my mother’s side) were teachers in the 1920s in Oklahoma. They had summers mostly off as teachers, and so they would pick up odd jobs in the summer in the heat and dust of Oklahoma. Family friends of theirs had a significant death in the family, and their church sent the friends to the mountains in New Mexico to have time to grieve in peace. They wrote to my grandfolks saying that it was cool in the mountains, and that there were no mosquitoes and no snakes where they were staying. My grandfolks had no money, but the temptation to be somewhere in the summer that was more amenable than Oklahoma enchanted them so much that they determined that they would go to the mountains to see if there was any way they could afford to spend their summers there. They put together just enough money to buy an old cabin in 1930 on a small bit of land, and they were so happy. They would do all kinds of jobs in the mountains in the summer, and their kids would too so they could afford to be there. My grandpa often had to spend part of the summer back in Oklahoma working there or serving in the reserves. But they made it work, and eventually they were able to buy a little more land and build or buy some of the rustic cabins that were adjacent to them so that they ended up with 4 cabins. As kids we would spend some of our summer vacation visiting our grandfolks in these cabins  and running around in the mountains. They were pretty primitive with no running water or electricity (added in the 1970s), but we loved them! This is where my family’s love of mountains and wild places really come from. We even got to go over to Taos when there were hippy communes and the American Indian Movement was active. It was quite a fun time. Our grandparents and parents are gone now, but we still keep up these cabins and try to spend time each summer there. My sisters and uncle did buy an adjacent property with a house this year so they can go down in the winter now (and have extra beds and space when everyone is there). Of course there is a lot of work to do there between keeping the road passable and mitigating fire danger by trimming trees (which we are in the process of doing now and for the past few years). It’s not as romantic as you might imagine, but it’s meaningful to us, and it has been a great place for nieces and nephews to also grow to love the mountains -  some of them even had their weddings there. So I’ll meet my siblings and take in the rat poison and drain sink traps and fix whatever broke over the winter when we go down there this weekend. It’ll be so good to smell the pine-scented air and see the snow on the peaks and the mud and flowers in the meadows. We might even see a bear or an elk herd! And I’ll post some pictures of the sunrise from there on Facebook if you’d like to see it.

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What have I been up to?

I had 9 senior facilities last week - I think I left out the one I was playing on Mother’s Day. It was a great week singing songs about mothers and seeing so many sweet and smiling faces. I love these folks.

My Wednesday online show was playing mother songs too, and it was a nice evening of both sweet and some fun songs for mom. I think everyone had a good time.

Friday night I played instrumental guitar tunes at the Garden of the Gods Club in the Grand View Restaurant for some really appreciative people. The weather was perfect for even outside diners even though there was a little rain.

My Sunday online show was favorites and requests as always, and we did some more mother songs since it was Mother’s Day. This evening brought out some folk-rock songs that I didn’t expect as well. It was a good night with great friends.

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What am I up to this week?

I have 9 senior facilities this week, and I’m not sure what kind of songs they’ll be in the mood for. I may start doing songs for Memorial Day since that’s just 2 weeks off. I’m always ready to “go with the flow” and do requests or pick a theme and run with it. I love playing for these sweet folks so much.

My Wednesday online show 7-8:45 mountain time will be garden songs since this week after Mother’s Day is the traditional time in Colorado to start planting a garden. I don’t know if we’ll plant any produce this year. The grasshoppers were so bad last year, and they’re already starting again this year. But there are some great garden and produce songs, so we’ll definitely have a good time playing them. Come on out if you’d like to suggest a couple too or listen in. It’ll be a nice time, I know.

My Sunday online show 7-8:45 mountain time will be favorites and requests as always, and since I’ll be coming back from opening the cabins I know there will be some great energy to share. Come on out and give me some requests!

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That’s it for this week. I spent most of the weekend working on our yard and trees when I wasn’t playing music, so my mind is really on that as we head into summer. It’s a lot of work, and it has me really thinking that it might be a good time to start thinking about downsizing and doing a little less. We’ll see how that works out. 

Best always,

Tom

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Details this week:

Who:  Tom Munch 

What:  playing and singing an online concert of garden songs

Where:  facebook.com/tom.munch and tommunch.com/online-concerts  

When:  Wednesday, May 14, 7-8:45 pm mountain time

Who:  Tom Munch 

What:  playing and singing an online concert of favorites and requests 

Where:  facebook.com/tom.munch and tommunch.com/online-concerts  

When:  Sunday, May 18, 7-8:45 pm mountain time