Christmas Gala

#159 / Flood Time Capsule: 2006

Sixteen years ago this week, the last Flood get-together before Christmas 2006 was standing room only, with 35 visitors crowded into the Bowen house for the evening.

In those days, the regular jam sessions were sometimes more like weekly parties than rehearsals. We never knew just how many people might show up. Sometimes it was only the band and maybe one or two fans; other times — like that night — dozens of folks gathered to listen to the players seated around the table in the Bowens’ library where the music was made.

The Yuletide celebration is remembered for so many reasons. Besides Joe Dobbs and David Peyton donning Santa hats for the occasion, we also recall banjo master Chuck Romine bringing in his new tuba, which sounded remarkably good with all those acoustic stringed instruments.

Enter Jacob Scarr

The session also marked the first appearance of a young man who was to play a big part in Flood history going forward. Here's band manager Pamela Bowen's memory of that moment:

“As I was weaving my way through the crowd in the living room,” she recalled in a later letter to friends, “a woman I didn’t know thanked me for letting her leave her sons here while she went shopping.

“I looked around with some anxiety,” Pamela wrote, “looking for small children, but instead I found only two teen-agers who were helping themselves to some root beer. They seemed awestruck by the musicians. It was neat watching them react to what the band was playing.”

Of course, Pamela didn't know it at the time, but these two were 14-year-old Jacob Scarr and his younger brother, Daniel, who also were in the Sunday school class of long-time Flood buddy Tom Pressman. In fact, it was Pressman who had recommended that their mom, P.J. Scarr, bring the boys by to hear the band.

The Adults in the Room

Jacob and Daniel already were familiar in Pamela and Charlie’s neighborhood; the lads were friends with the Bowens’ next-door neighbor, Bo Sweeney, who was in the same law firm as their dad, Tom Scarr. Bo was giving the boys drum lessons around about the time.

In the weeks to come, Jacob Scarr drifted back nearly every week to The Flood’s jams. Too young to drive a car, Jacob often was driven to and from the sessions by another mutual friend and jam session regular, the dear Rose Marie Riter.

Surprisingly, it took almost a year for us in the band to learn that young Jacob also was an exceptional guitar player in his own right. Here’s how Charlie tells that story. Click the button below for a bit of audio from a Flood appearance on the Lexington, Ky., Red Barn Radio show, with Bowen talking to host Brad Becker:

Jacob played with The Flood for the next five years, right up until the night before he left in the summer of 2011 to begin his college career in Bolder, Colorado.

Steve Eschleman Gets Inspired

Meanwhile, a song was actually inspired by that night at the Bowen House. Among the dozens of holiday celebrants in the room was an old friend, the late Steve Eschleman.

Such a multi-talented man -- writer, broadcaster, photographer, guitarist, singer -- Steve was struck by the diversity of cultures on hand. Gathered in one room in a South Side Huntington home were Christians and Jews, a Buddhist, a Hindu and a Muslim, New Agers and secularists. If there ever was a case for saying "happy holidays" rather than simply "merry Christmas," Steve decided, this was certainly the place and the time.

In the days that followed, Eschleman wrote, "That's Why I Say 'Happy Holidays’," a tune that continued to pop up at Flood sessions for many Decembers to come. Here's a rendition led by Steve’s lifelong amigo, Floodster Emeritus Dave Ball:

Steve’s tune is among a dozen included in the band's “La Flood Navidad” Christmas playlist.

R.I.P., Steve

A half dozen years after that happy pre-Christmas night, this beloved photojournalist passed away. On the day of his death — June 5, 2013 — his friends at WSAZ-TV where he worked shared this video, a testimony to the fun and joy that Steve Eschleman brought to the newsroom, and the world, every day.