Day 193: Edward LaBrie & Market Gig

It was sunny and nice today. For various reasons I didn't get a lot of sleep last night. It was 2:00am before I finally sank into dreamland. Then I was up at 7:00am. It is now 10:00pm and I have an hour drive home ahead of me. It is tempting to blow off the blog again. Surprisingly I am not feeling sleepy. Tomorrow morning I am playing guitar at the Saturday farmer's Market in Watertown, NY. I'll get there around 9:00, play for a couple of hours, and then I have some photography assignment to shoot for the Post-Standard in the Syracuse region. The gig at the farmer's market was turned on to me by friend & fellow guitarist Steve Lester. He has been playing there for most of the Summer. It is a barter arrangement. The vendors pack a basket full of their produce in exchange for the music. That's OK with me. I look at it as a couple hours of GOOD practice playing my repertoire and getting exposure that may lead to other, paying gigs.
The photo presented here is from my Farm Family Series. The man is Edward LaBrie, eldest son of Mary & Edward LaBrie. The owned and ran a dairy farm in Jefferson County since 1954. I spent some time with them off and on for a few years. Sporadic at first, then frequently for three years or so. Edward was a nice guy, a soldier I believe in World War II or the Korean War. I cannot recall at the moment. Anyhow, He and his sister Shirley went fishing in a small boat on Lake Ontario one afternoon and were never seen again. Newspaper reports tell of them landing on an island and getting some gasoline. That was the last anyone ever saw of them. That person also noted that they were both barefoot. Anyhow, I was looking for a different photo in my digital archives when I came upon this one. It has never been published so I thought I would share it here. The original photo was made with a Minolta camera on Kodak Tri-X film. A good twenty years ago.