Music in the Park and It's Varied Reception...

My old Taekwondo instructor, Master J.D. Olford always mentioned that there was something in the water in Lufkin, Tx and he was not talking about a good thing. Taekwondo is all about presenting yourself well, being the best you can be and being proud of it. Master always said that folks from Lufkin sat back and did not get too excited about these kind of things almost to the point of looking unenthusiastic and not knowing how to act. 

I guess what I do when I play tuba in the park is a throwback to the old Taekwondo ways in that I am out in public presenting myself. It's Christmas and I wore my crazy Christmas suit (kind of a uniform like a martial arts dobak) and played (like a belt form material) seasonal tunes. There were many joggers, walkers and young people out and I got smatterings of applause, vocal encouragement and had a passerby make the occasional cell phone video for the "look what I saw in the park while jogging" social media post. It was a good audience and a good time.       

Across the park I could see what looked like a food truck set up but it was really a local church feeding homeless people. I think there is a nearby encampment. 

Help to those with less is of of interest to me. We have lately been involved with the local St, Vincent de Paul Conference of St. Patrick's Catholic Church as an outreach to the poor but as there are so may programs for food in the area besides Thanksgiving and Christmas Food baskets we have avoided duplication of these efforts to help in other ways. 

I don't know if the church people thought I was homeless but a couple of different groups came over and invited me for food with three girls inviting me to play with one offering to jam on violin. 

I had about finished up but I armed up horn and music stand and walked across the park to the pavilion. As I say there were three girls inviting me but as I arrived at the picnic tables where the rest of the group gathered there were 30 or so other people there were not expecting tuba. I opted to take the nearest park bench instead if a direct assault. I thought it politer to be a bit standoffish with a tuba. After playing a half a dozen tunes some one at the food truck started up canned music and pretty loud. It did not sound like Christmas songs. I had been playing in the park over an hour at this point, a good days work by and standard and I packed it in. 

Like Master Olford said, it's in the water in Lufkin. People don't know how to act when they see street busking or musicians in the park and the girl with the violin never showed up.      

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