Wherein Terlingua, Texas Americana Music and the local community pitch in to buy track shoes for the track team…

It all started at the outside bar at the High Sierra a month ago.  Aaron, the track coach, and few other late nighters were relaxing after the Legendary Jam in July and Coach said, “I’ve got some runners who can make it to State this year- if only they could afford shoes.”

Fade forward – 11.45 last night, Aaron was sitting in the back of the room with a big grin on his face while Moses, Clayton and some late-night drinkers sang some canciones en Espanol.  Brandi and I were talking at the next table, and Aaron walked over, patting the fat envelope of cash in his pocket:  “we’ve got enough money here to buy shoes for both teams, as well as some team shirts and bags!”

The jam started out slow… George and I discussed how we’d had a good run over the summer, but this may be the jam where nobody shows up.

By 4:00, the bar was packed.

Donations came in steadily, and then Thomas auctioned off the bottle of bourbon that Deanna and Herman (owners of the High Sierra Bar and Grill) had donated.  $50… $75…. $100…  $120!!    The winners were new Terlingua residents.  They actually donated $200 for that bottle, and then opened it, handed it to Jeff, and shared it with the crowd.

Beautiful.

The music was excellent.  Ted Arbogast played lead guitar, Nick and Trevor switched off on bass, Moses blew his harp, and great singer/songwriters followed each other fronting the excellent band.

On the 25th, we’re all meeting at the Starlight for another jam- this time, we’re going to fund the music and art departments at the Terlingua School.