Sweet, hot August memories

August 2020 has been a tough month. It was filled with so many memories of great times Chip and I had together throughout the years, but also had some serious down points (I’ll leave it at that). Some memories came to me via the modern methods of social media or my smartphone. Many more came by way of the old-fashioned method of memory downloads when seeing the place where he sat on the couch, drinking from a glass that we would have used to make cocktails for two, or hearing a song from one of our favorite bands.

Facebook and my iPhone photo app kindly send me memories all month long. Both sent memories of August 2017 when Chip and I went to Casper, Wyoming to see the eclipse. Facebook sent me the memories of photos I posted 3 years ago throughout the days we were in Casper. I have countless more photos on my phone that my Phone photo app sent to me in the form of app-selected photos made into a video titled “For You.” The app also sent me a photo montage titled “On This Day: August 20, 2017.”

My phone and Facebook also sent me videos, individual photos and montages from the years we attended the Hot August Music Festival in Cockeysville, Maryland. We went in 2015, 2016, and 2018. We did not attend in 2017 since we were in Casper for the eclipse on the weekend of Hot August. We were unable to attend in 2019. We had just received the news that Chip had Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and neither of us felt like dancing or faking that we were having a good time at the festival. At the Hot August Music Festival, as at all festivals, lesser known bands which draw smaller audiences play earlier in the day on smaller stages. Better-known, more popular bands play on different sized stages throughout the afternoon. By the time evening and night hit, the best-known bands with thousands of fans play. Said more simply, the time that a band plays and the size of the stage it plays on at a music festival is meaningful.

In 2015 (You can read a review and description of the history of the event here), we had Stella and Sam with us. There is a large playground at the venue in Cockeysville, carnival-style food, and plenty of activities for kids (e.g., face painting, arts/crafts tents, drum circles, etc.). That year at the festival, Chip and I discovered the local Maryland band called Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, which played very early in the day on the small stage (One of the things we liked best about festivals was the opportunity to discover new bands…we would later see Pigeons Playing Ping Pong at Merriweather Post Pavilion in 2017 as an opening act to Grace Potter and the Nocturnals!). The Revivalists played mid-day on the smaller of the 2 festival stages, and The Counting Crows (one of my all-time favorite bands from my college days) was the last band to play on the bigger of the 2 stages. One of my absolute most sweetest memories of Chip is of him carrying Sam (who was 5 at the time) all the way back to the pick-up truck at nearly midnight after The Counting Crows played 2 encores.

In 2016, The Revivalists made progress, we did not have Stella and Sam with us, and Chip and I are pictured in a review of the event. That year, The Revivalists played on the bigger of the 2 festival stages in the late afternoon. In the review of the event, Chip and I are pictured in the photo under the first paragraph. I am wearing a bright yellow skirt and have my hand in the air. He is wearing his hat, sunglasses and a pink plaid shirt (You can see the photo, under the first paragraph of the article, here). In the photo, the lead singer of the band, David Shaw, is directly on the other side of the metal barrier between him and the crowd, singing his heart out as he always does. Chip and I made so many amazing memories that day at the Hot August Music Festival.

2018 was the most amazing of the three years we attended Hot August since The Revivalists were the headliners on the Main Stage. Chip and I were so excited to see them make it to “the big time." Together, we had watched them rise in popularity and improve their musical talents since 2014. And, we were so excited to share the day with Bill Gilchrist! The Revivalists brought an epic show to close out the Main Stage and the night.

With hindsight, The Revivalists also closed out the chapter in the memory book for our days spent in the heat dancing, singing and loving life at the Hot August Music Festival. It hit me after writing this sentence that they actually closed out the whole book titled "Live Music Together," since the last concert we attended was The Revivalists at The Anthem on February 29, 2020.

What a fun book that was to write together.