Original Jefferson Springtime Jam; Great Food, Music & Fun!

Happy Camp River Park was the scene of the Original Jefferson Springtime Jam. There was fun and live music, speakers and food. Therese Thomas has put on a JSM Just-A-Memory for several years but with the Evergreen Enrichment Center there was so much more! Cribbage Tournament started at 9 am and ran all morning with Dinah Sulipeck-Hicks and Yukon Sakota dueling out the competition for the top prize. People were also playing Frisbee and horseshoes as well throughout the day.

When I stopped to admire Stacy Hatcher’s painting canvas tablecloth at the Pavilion she just said I missed the children. And indeed, many of them took off in the afternoon for a dip in a cool creek on such a hot day.

I missed the message of Terry Sheen on “How can one person make a difference?” But some were enjoying conversation with him later in the day as well. Terry has an outreach to homeless persons and incarcerated youth in next door Trinity County.

Dr. Ken Campos came to speak on the needs of mentally ill family and friends and their caregivers and came a long distance from Southern California for this opportunity to share with us.

In last week’s column, I said there would be fun mood music and good discussion Sunday at the Park. The typographical error, mood was supposed to be food, wasn’t caught in the spell check! There was a lot of good food from pulled pork sandwiches to vegetarian chili

The afternoon had a cheerful friendly mood too. Arvel Bird, Native American (& Scottish) violinist and storyteller came, the music set such a good mood as well. He has proficiency in so many types of music, some set your feet a tapping, and some, like “Dark Horse,” more pensive. His CDs vary from “Red River Jig” to Celtic music, s variety of metis, Indigenous tribes and European tunes! His stories were mostly from tribal storytelling and fascinating history. He also made music with drums and pipes. Karen Reedstrom also played drum and did some solo numbers. KAREN PLAYED A NATIVE American flute called a grandfather flute.

Wasn’t even singing the Red Hawk Totem, but a red tailed hawk circled above. He did speak of beloved wolf, and the song was “Wolf totem”. He shared how he has played for wolf sanctuaries. He said that the wolf taught indigenous how to work together, for community. Although there’s an alpha male and female there are other’s who lead a hunt, scout for game and everyone has a job., and didn’t take that of another. Wolves mate for life and raise the pups together.

Then the Sweet & Juicy Band from Portland came to the stage.

The banana was guitarist and singing, the pineapple played the drums and the tomato on keyboard. What fun! What great music too! You could enjoy the music in the pavilion, or sitting on the grass beneath a shade tree with your pup by your side, but enjoy it for sure! The audience was bright, the event was making available a bright tie dye t-shirt, or red, for the Evergreen Enrichment Center.

Stormy, Summer and Cheyenne were there with their handmade soaps, with fantastic fragrances and beautiful colors. I couldn’t resist a sniff of the Orange blossom special with pineapple decor, and it was hard to decide. (You read of the Siskiyou Soaps in last issue of Siskiyou News.)

Wish there was more space to tell you of the wonderful stories of the day, and what fun it was to father together, meet new friends and enjoy the music and fun! One person said the music was ‘awesome, super and super cool” so you know they must have liked it.

. I don’t know if there will be a Karuk Reunion this summer, but surely hope so. There will be other celebrations and gatherings and Bigfoot Jamboree is coming September 3-5th Well, time to say “So long” for now, but looking forward to sharing lots of great things with you this summer along the beautiful wild Klamath River.