Snaps and words fromthe Earth Day celebration at Centennial Park in Nashville, April 19, just behind where we were lined up protesting and the cars were a-honking in pro-democracy affirmation. It was a beautiful day and people were picnicking and throwing frisbees and in one case, flying a kite.
I thought about all the good times I had there over the years, taking my son to feed the ducks, flying kites with him, taking him to Shakespeare in the Park. I remember the year David Olney was part of it, RIP. Tom Mason, too. Both excellent dudes I had the privilege of knowing. I remember opening for the Bard once myself, with my Combo pals Chris and Pat backing me, that was kind of a strange gig, but as Bob Dylan once said, after awhile it’s all strange.
I thought of other folks, from across the pond and down the block, joining me at this city park over so many layers of time.
The park has been spruced up a lot since I first moved to Nashville – Cockrill Springs, hidden for a century, has been rediscovered and revealed, and the suffragette statue by Alan LeQuire stands in a more promient place, as it should. The five women honored in the monument were present during the final ratification battle in 1920: Anne Dallas Dudley of Nashville; Abby Crawford Milton of Chattanooga; J. Frankie Pierce of Nashville; Sue Shelton White of Jackson; and Carrie Chapman Catt, national suffrage leader who came to Tennessee to direct the pro-suffrage forces from the Hermitage Hotel. Fitting for a protest day.
I thought of other folks, from across the ages and down the block, joining me at this city park, over so many layers of time.
Doug Hoekstra 