Tom Rowe -- Schooner Fare -- Garrison Keillor
You, like Garrison, have that rare ability to make people stop rushing around and listen.
Hi Humble Farmer,
Dave Rowe sent me the link to the show (in Sept. I believe) in which you mentioned Tom Rowe's death. (We've had some contact in regards to Denny Breau. I also try to find work for Dave's trio and prior to that Turkey Hollow with Tom, Dave and Denny.)
I've kept the e-mail from Dave in the Inbox for a day I had time to listen to the show and that happened to be today. Your talking about Tom and his wonderful bass playing made me smile and I am so glad you brought that remembrance and tribute to your audience. The e-mail is now in my "read" category so I can bring it out and listen at will. There are several e-mails from Tom in the "read" box as well. About a year ago, someone e-mailed me a file with many photos. When I clicked on the first pictures, the computer went crazy and suddenly there were over 1000 e-mails in the in-box. They just kept coming and coming. Dave Rowe is my computer "help!" person but it was too late to call him. The e-mails were all ones I had deleted during the previous year plus. As I started deleting them again, I saw the e- mails from Tom. They started early in the fall of 2003 when he occasionally mentioned having problems with his throat and went on to his thoughts on the cancer diagnosis and his vow to fight the disease and win. Although my husband and I had never had the inclination to go on a cruise, we signed up for a Schooner Fare "Fan Club" cruise going to the Caribbean in January, 2004. Tom was so excited about this but of course after the cancer was diagnosed, his doctors said, What are you nuts - you can't go on a ship with 3000 people!" I told him in an e-mail that I wished it could be postponed until he could go and that I felt guilty about going. The last thing he said in the last e-mail on December 31 was "Go and have a good time. I command it!" His brother was on the cruise and we all gathered to call Tom from the ship when we had cell phone activity. But, we could not call out for some reason. Tom died shortly after we came back and that December 31 e-mail was the last contact I had with him.
My reason for telling you this is that hearing you talk about Tom made me think of the e-mails from him which I intend to keep (and have printed out.) My computer hard drive overloading and giving me back those e-mails was sort of a gift I think. They comfort me when I think about Tom. I think you should keep on mentioning the "d" word because the couple of lines you say about that person is a sweet tribute to someone who touched your life. And, those tributes will make others smile.
I enjoyed your whole show and could write paragraphs on Garrison Keillor who I've listened to off and on for years. My husband turned on the show starting sometime in the 1980s and finally sat me down to listen to the "Finn who wouldn't take a sauna" story. I was then hooked. When Garrison moved his show to NYC, I thought it lost some of the charm. He's been back to Minnesota for years now and I catch parts of the show pretty often. I've also attended a couple of live shows and met him during a book signing. You, like Garrison, have that rare ability to make people stop rushing around and listen. And, when that happens to me, I realize the world is not such a terrible place and this country is not completely populated by idiots.
Bait trucks - that was a new one for me. We have Alewifes that wash up on the shores of Lake Michigan. The smell is well - a smell. I wonder if David HB Drake who is a Milwaukee area folk singer and goes out on the Denis Sullivan - a lake schooner - has an Alewife song. He should have.
Thanks for a calm hour or so of listening to your show. I hope to meet you and hear you in person - down the road.
Kathy
Hi Humble Farmer,
Dave Rowe sent me the link to the show (in Sept. I believe) in which you mentioned Tom Rowe's death. (We've had some contact in regards to Denny Breau. I also try to find work for Dave's trio and prior to that Turkey Hollow with Tom, Dave and Denny.)
I've kept the e-mail from Dave in the Inbox for a day I had time to listen to the show and that happened to be today. Your talking about Tom and his wonderful bass playing made me smile and I am so glad you brought that remembrance and tribute to your audience. The e-mail is now in my "read" category so I can bring it out and listen at will. There are several e-mails from Tom in the "read" box as well. About a year ago, someone e-mailed me a file with many photos. When I clicked on the first pictures, the computer went crazy and suddenly there were over 1000 e-mails in the in-box. They just kept coming and coming. Dave Rowe is my computer "help!" person but it was too late to call him. The e-mails were all ones I had deleted during the previous year plus. As I started deleting them again, I saw the e- mails from Tom. They started early in the fall of 2003 when he occasionally mentioned having problems with his throat and went on to his thoughts on the cancer diagnosis and his vow to fight the disease and win. Although my husband and I had never had the inclination to go on a cruise, we signed up for a Schooner Fare "Fan Club" cruise going to the Caribbean in January, 2004. Tom was so excited about this but of course after the cancer was diagnosed, his doctors said, What are you nuts - you can't go on a ship with 3000 people!" I told him in an e-mail that I wished it could be postponed until he could go and that I felt guilty about going. The last thing he said in the last e-mail on December 31 was "Go and have a good time. I command it!" His brother was on the cruise and we all gathered to call Tom from the ship when we had cell phone activity. But, we could not call out for some reason. Tom died shortly after we came back and that December 31 e-mail was the last contact I had with him.
My reason for telling you this is that hearing you talk about Tom made me think of the e-mails from him which I intend to keep (and have printed out.) My computer hard drive overloading and giving me back those e-mails was sort of a gift I think. They comfort me when I think about Tom. I think you should keep on mentioning the "d" word because the couple of lines you say about that person is a sweet tribute to someone who touched your life. And, those tributes will make others smile.
I enjoyed your whole show and could write paragraphs on Garrison Keillor who I've listened to off and on for years. My husband turned on the show starting sometime in the 1980s and finally sat me down to listen to the "Finn who wouldn't take a sauna" story. I was then hooked. When Garrison moved his show to NYC, I thought it lost some of the charm. He's been back to Minnesota for years now and I catch parts of the show pretty often. I've also attended a couple of live shows and met him during a book signing. You, like Garrison, have that rare ability to make people stop rushing around and listen. And, when that happens to me, I realize the world is not such a terrible place and this country is not completely populated by idiots.
Bait trucks - that was a new one for me. We have Alewifes that wash up on the shores of Lake Michigan. The smell is well - a smell. I wonder if David HB Drake who is a Milwaukee area folk singer and goes out on the Denis Sullivan - a lake schooner - has an Alewife song. He should have.
Thanks for a calm hour or so of listening to your show. I hope to meet you and hear you in person - down the road.
Kathy
posted by The humble Farmer at 3:49 PM
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