I had my first Allentown Fair gig today in Ag Hall at the Centennial Stage, the freebee stage near the 4H displays. It’s actually a nice stage and sound system with chairs set up in front and an interesting audience of folks who are taking in the exhibits and a few folks who even show up to see me. Today’s crowd was mostly elderly folks, a few kids and a mix of other folks. They were quite a friendly audience, sang along with the family folk and we had a good time.

Several folks came up and related our history together, from schools to festivals, across family lines and generations. It was good set of people.

Early in the set, I was setting up ‘I Wanna Be a Dog’ with my Madison deaf dog story and talking about not getting any tips for the first 45 minutes. One gentleman immediately came up and threw in a dollar. It was pretty funny, and I said that the rest of the crowd really owed this man… to the tune of a nickel each.

Again, it’s not the pay scale that matters, it’s the connections I try to make, and today was a surprisingly good one.