A Guyandotte Fourth of July

#229 / Flood Time Capsule: 2010

The Guyandotte section of Huntington always has been dear to Flood hearts.

“I was virtually born in the Guyandotte Methodist Church,” the late Dave Peyton, band co-founder, once wrote in his newspaper column in The Herald-Dispatch. Dave and his parents, Creath and Genevieve, traced their East Huntington roots back several generations.

So when Dave and his band of merry Floodsters were invited to help the neighborhood kick off its bicentennial celebration, everyone jumped at it. Independence Day Eve 2010 found the bunch of them under a big-top on Main Street, just blocks from that historic church.

It was all part of “Guyandotte Days,” a four-day celebration that included a parade, exhibits, music and games, all with an emphasis on the 200-year history of Cabell County’s oldest community.

And We Found Ada and Jeanetta

Because it was such a hot (90-plus), lazy Saturday afternoon, we were surprised — but, of course, pleased — to find the tent filling up when we arrived to begin the show.

Best of all, two of our favorite fans -- 8-year-old Ada Marie Perry and her mom, Jeanetta -- were in the front row. “Our pleasure,” Jeanetta later told us on Facebook. “Ada wanted to come and was upset when she found out it was only going to last an hour. :)”

For months now, the Perrys had been coming to the Bowen house for the weekly jam sessions, initially perhaps mainly to hear Ada’s uncle, Mike Smith, playing fiddle duets with Joe Dobbs.

But Ada had her own musical aspirations, having just gotten her first guitar for Christmas.

Mother and daughter also got hooked for the jug band stuff, because… well, you know what they say: come for the fiddles, stay for the Floodishness. (Okay, yeah, nobody really says that...)

Pamela Remembers

Meanwhile, Flood manager Pamela Bowen has her own Ada memories. In her journal, Pamela noted that Ada usually sat up close to the band at the jam sessions, "across from Charlie, watching all the musicians with great interest.

“She usually sits between Bub and the chick singer, but one week neither were there, so she was too shy to go into the music room, and sat back on the sofa with her mother.”

Pamela was also sitting there, reading the news on her brand new iPad.

"The kid was watching me,” Pamela wrote, “so I started playing Solitaire, and asked if she knew how to play. She didn’t, so I taught her, and after a few hands, she won -- and got to see all the cards fall and the fireworks.”

Pamela then switched to another game, and Ada mastered that one too.

Jeanetta mentioned that she had just gotten tickets to Gogol Bordello, a Gypsy punk band that Ada loved. “The kid asked if I had YouTube on the iPad,” Pamela wrote. “Yes, but I’d never used it.”

Ada found it and figured out how to search for the band, but there wasn’t sound. “I looked on the side of the machine for a sound button,” Pamela wrote, “but I couldn’t figure out which it was or how to work it, but the kid did.”

The youngster had never used an iPad before, but it was apparently true, what the TV ads at the time said: 'You already know how to use it.'” At least, if you were an 8 year old.

Earlier Flood Fourths

Independence Day has often played a role in the long Flood story. For instance, one of the band’s very first big gigs after fiddlin’ Joe came onboard was 47 years ago today, as the nation was celebrating its bicentennial. That day The Flood was invited to take part in a huge Fourth of July community picnic in Huntington’s Ritter Park.

As reported in an earlier Flood Watch article, the community picnics continued for another couple of years, and the Floodsters volunteered their services each year, sometimes bringing along friends to jam with them under the trees.

Then 25 years later, the band played an unforgettable July 4th celebration celebration with the Huntington Symphony Orchestra down at Harris Riverfront Park.

As we noted in Flood Watch earlier, memories of that evening will always have a huge page in the band’s scrapbook.