oooooooooohhhhhh yaaaaaaaaa

(photo courtesy of Johanna Dalgleish)

I have been going to the Vancouver Folk Music Festival every year since I was 6 and it is the people I see every year that help make it special. This man, for example, I have seen every year for as long as I can remember. He is unfailingly ALWAYS dressed head to toe in purple. And he is an avid practicer of what I like to call the "willow dance". You know the one. All the old hippies do it. Maybe your parents do it. You know at least one person who does it. The "willow dance" requires whole body involvement. Lots of arms. Waving. Up. Down.
The more avid "willow dancer" may imagine that there is a hook at the back of the belly button. Pulling them backwards. But, the upper half of the body doesn't want to go. The arms are stretched out in front and slowly the hook takes over and the hands are pulled backwards palms outstretched as though trying to grasp at a flat slick surface. Walls maybe. Then there is an imaginary wind. You are a willow tree. Your arms are the branches. And you are being whipped every which way. But in one fluid motion.
It's a very metaphorical dance. Only the most imaginative can get away with it.

I've never had a conversation with "Mr. Purple" or "Koolaide" as I like to call him, though, yesterday, there was a knowing look.
"I've seen you every year since you were six"
"I see you as a tree"
I think he knows I look out for him every year.
The year I do not spot him, I will be concerned.

Koolaide, if you're reading this, keep being you. It's the old regulars like you that help keep the festival what it is.
Maybe next year we'll exchange hellos?