The Pressmans' Precious Friendship

#427 / Flood Capsule: 2000

As the year 2000 came to an end, one of the many things the Family Flood was grateful for was its budding friendship with Sharon and Tom Pressman. This wonderful couple have been central to so much Floodishness, starting that year.

The Tams Mountain Adventures

Nine months earlier, for instance, in the last weeks of Winter 2000, Tom and Sharon joined the guys for their annual trek to Tams Mountain to visit with the good folks in Rhodell, WV, near Beckley.

“We had a great time," Charlie Bowen said in a later email to his cousin Kathy. "Neighbor Tom picked me up about quarter of 5 and we headed for Hurricane to hook up with Joe. Lots of laughs on the way. You'd like Tom — he's quite mad, just like us.”

The weather was perfect for the 2 1/2-hour drive, with a great sunset over the mountains. When they arrived at Martha Thaxton’s house for the jam session, they found Susan and Dave Peyton already there. "We tuned up and immediately launched into our good-time party stuff — jug band, fiddle tunes, comedy bits.”

Visitors from Marquette University — as reported here earlier, these altruistic students each year spent their entire spring break helping out around the little mountain coal town — “didn't know what hit 'em with our eclectic mix of tunes,” Charlie wrote.

It was fun watching Sharon and Tom interact with the students. “Lots of eye contact, grins and singing along, teasing each other about accents and such. They danced to the Irish stuff. They cracked up when we even played a polka in honor of our WisCONNNSSSS-in visitors.”

The Pressmans had such a good time at Martha’s place that they made a return trip, joining the merry band two years later for The Flood’s final Tams Mountain excursion in 2002.

Other Parties

The Flood often partied with the Pressmans. At the end of Summer 2000, for example, Tom hired the band to entertain at Heritage Farm Museum and Village during a company picnic for his firm, Strictly Business.

And the end of the year found the guys again with the Pressmans, this time at their home in Huntington’s South Side for the family’s holiday gala. On that chilly December night, Tom met the guys at the door and even helped lug Doug Chaffin’s big bass up the steps.

The Return of Doug Chaffin

Incidentally, that event — 24 years ago last night — marked Doug’s return to The Flood Fold for his first gig since breaking his wrist the previous October. Earlier that month, the guys had been surprised to learn their newest Floodster had already recuperated enough to return to picking.

He got a hero's welcome when he walked in. “He started out with a few simple, slow tunes,” Charlie told his mom in an email, “but before you know it, he was calling for faster and faster numbers, even taking solos. Oh, you could tell it hurt him some, but, well, he said, ‘Physical therapy hurts too, and this is a lot more fun.’"

"You've made a liar out of me, Doug," Joe Dobbs said. True. It was just an hour earlier, at dinner with Tom Pressman, that Joe had said he figured it would be at least February before Doug could be back and playing. But Pressman wasn’t so sure about that.

“That may be,” Tom had said, “but if anybody can do it sooner, it'll be Doug.”

We still remember Doug’s grin at the Christmas party that night when that story was told again.

Remembering Tom

As reported earlier, we lost Tom this autumn. He passed way Oct. 8 at age 76.

Click here to read the band’s fond remembrance of this dear friend.