Pure fate.  Being in the right place at the right time.  In 1961, I was in
charge of arranging a yearly banquet given in connection with my work.  I was
aware of Bill Monroe and his music as a  Grand Ole Opry listener since
childhood, but I would not have considered myself a "bluegrass fan" at that
time.   I thought Bill and the Blue Grass Boys would be a good choice for
entertainment at the banquet, and I was aware of the fact that Bill Monroe
often played shows at the Brown County Jamboree Barn in Bean Blossom, IN, just
42 miles from where I lived, but I had never attended a show there.  One
Sunday I drove to Bean Blossom and met Birch Monroe, who managed the Jamboree
at that time.  Birch was putting up signs advertising a fiddle contest to be
held at the Barn the next week.  He told me when Bill was next scheduled to
play the Jamboree, so I made it a point to be there so I could talk to him
about playing for the banquet.  I had my wife and 3 small daughters with me.
None of us had ever attended a live music performance before.  When Bill and
the Blue Grass Boys took the stage and played "Watermelon hanging on the
Vine", the hair stood up on the back of my neck!  Something about that music
and the high-pitched fiddle activated a genetic memory deep within my DNA!  I
was hooked!

I talked with Bill after the show and we agreed he would play the Wednesday-
night banquet, (which happened to be on his 50th birthday), for $250, with an
extra $50 to bring a comedian/impersonator (Rusty Adams).

Following that initial exposure to live bluegrass music, my family and I
seldom missed a Bill Monroe show in the Jamboree Barn, and when the outdoor
festivals came along, we attended them all, (including the 32nd annual, last
month).  Bill watched my 3 daughters grow up on the front row of the Jamboree
Barn and we developed a close friendship with he and Birch and James.  My wife
and I attended both Birch's and Bill's funerals at the little white church in
Rosine, but only now are we coming to realize how very privileged we were to
be friends of these true pioneers of America's music.  And to me, Bean Blossom
is the "mecca" of bluegrass music, and it always will be.

To view a few photographs that I took back in those early days, and an
interview, see Jim Moss's website at http://www.mossware.com/music

Jim Peva

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