For the last three years, I have been self-confined due to the Covid pandemic. Only frequent visits to the doctors’ offices 10 miles away and an occasional meal with my son’s family at the top of my hill have taken me from my self-imposed seclusion. “You have all of the risk factors for Covid,” my doctors warned, so I took precautions and tried to stay healthy.
Well, I took precautions and stayed as healthy as an unhealthy person can be expected to stay, but I recently contracted a severe case of Covid in spite of my precautions. I have so far survived and am in better health than ever, probably because of having had every antidote to the disease known to medicine. So, thanks to my son and three grandchildren I was able to tolerate the two-and-a-half-hour drive to old Sedalia for a day at this year’s Joplin Ragtime Festival.
I only had six hours at the old KATY Depot before attending the evening concert, but the time was packed with conversations with old friends and new ones. I counted 18 folks I knew well from telephone visits, emails, and YouTube videos I had never met in person. It was a day filled with the blessing of friendships with a ragtime soundtrack.
Thanks to Deb Biermann; the Festival Board; Bryan Wright, the artistic director; Bill Edwards, the Seminar director; the performers; and a legion of volunteers, this festival was a resounding success by all account
