Rendezvous Names Part One

Now, Let's see, trying to come up with the easiest, most correct way in sharing how a person received a Rendezvous name.
Burnt Wood
There is the short story of  "Burnt Wood", a young lady in her teens was asked by her dad to gather wood for a fire, I guess I should mention that it was twilight and not much of it. She went about gathering wood and she had found a lot of it. Well, her dad not being real aware himself at that time of night, tried and tried with all his might to build a fire to warm his daughters, cook a meal and relax. But no fire, along came Doug and looked about with his lantern, chuckling, Doug said, "White Horse, I know that you know better than to start a fire with burnt wood". The next camp meeting the Young Lady was thus named "Burnt Wood"

Mole'
Now on to "Mole' ", You see Kenny was very good at carving and crafting wood Indian Love Flutes. One day he walked around camp boosting about this beautiful flute with a carved head of an eagle on it.  One by one people went to see and to compliment Kenny on his art. When along came Cindy, she in her sweet and innocent way came over to look at Kenny's wares. She picked up the flute, Kenny anxiously awaited to hear what Cindy would say about his art, she looked at it from every angle and when she placed it back down on the table she said "Nice Chicken". These words spread through camp like a wildfire. Within moments of her comment, people in the camp would walk by, saying " Hello Chicken Flute or Chicken  Kenny". He was given his official name at the camp meeting and all was ok, well sort of. Kenny really did like being called "Chicken Kenny", I can't say that I blame him, it was pretty long as well. Now, you are probably wondering how we went from Chicken Kenny to Mole'; for those of you familiar with Chicken Mole'; you might have already guessed.  Several traders (vendors for you flat landers) would travel all over the country attending different events. During one of these travels Kenny mentioned that he really enjoyed Chicken Mole'; Well, by the time they reached the west again, Kenny was no longer Chicken Kenny, he was Mole'.


LP Mournful
 LP started out simply as Bill the Moccasin maker. Bill was with Eleanor, they were traders, she wove, sewed and talked.  In the evening after supper, Bill and Eleanor would visit different camps, or gather at "music camp", to play songs, share stories and jokes.

I can not tell you how many nights that we sat around the camp fire at music camp our boys sitting between us and the fire at the start of camp and by the end of the evening, they would be sound asleep in the same place.
Always a favorite memory!

Bill received his name shortly after composing several songs. For everyone in his song, you usually died as part of the story of the song, they were also very long songs. Someone once asked how come he played such long songs and he said that he was a fan of the old 33 1/2 lps. Then he said, " You know what lp stands for don't you?" no answer..."It stands for long playing".  People in camp combined the mournful stories in his songs with the lp and came up with LP Mournful. LP for short.

Tehachapi Rendezvous ~ "Well, I dreamed I saw the silver Space ships flying"

Driving up it seemed like an eternity, but it wasn't, back then there wasn't as many homes on the side of the hills as there are today. Tucked up in the rolling hills of the Tehachapi Valley on a privately owned Ranch our good friend Cliff put on this event.
The scenery was beautiful, golden hills, some trees, boulders and lots of fun friends.
Lets see, Rusty & T; Deanna & Terry, LP Mournful & Eleanor, Dave & his gal, Doug, Clifford, Mole', Dennis, Turtle, Double-Talk and Our good friend Bill from New York.
We had a central fire pit for gathering around in the evening, when there was this secret plan to pull a prank on a good friend.
You see my sweet friend Rusty had arrived early at camp with her guy and in the evening they sat around with LP, Turtle, Eleanor and Mole, watching the stars shoot across the sky. The subject soon changed to satellites. They all talked and shared which ones each could see. That was all it took to get the guys heads turning the gears for a great prank.
The next evening, we all sat and looked for stars to shoot across the sky, looking for the "satellites" to appear when all of the sudden, Turtle who started the whole satellite thing started talking that those things were really UFO's trying with all his might to get Rusty to agree with him. Soon every one was jesting with her that they were really UFO's and that satellites could not be seen with the naked eye. The conversation lagged.
LP started playing tunes of his own and some others that most had come to know. He played and played, and then he started on a Neil Young song titled "After the Gold Rush", when he got to the line "Well, I dreamed I saw the silver Space ships flying" out from behind Rusty came this UFO! It came right over her head and sat stationary for a moment or two....Before everyone including Rusty had a hardy belly laugh that many had tears streaming out of their eyes.
Mole' had rigged together a clear glass lid, a flash light, some fishing line and a fishing pole. When ol LP started on the song, Mole' got everything ready so that when that line was just about to be sung, he turned on the flashlight, spun the lid and then lowered it in front of Rusty.
   As if on cue, we saw these lights approaching in the night sky. 5 or 6 huge military airplanes (C130's?) buzzed overhead as if on landing approach. Talk about hair-raising!
Great Memories at that Rendezvous! This just gave me an idea....I think I should write about times at Rendezvous...before family(quiet) time was implemented. You know the ol days when the kids, and adults alike would yell "R E N D E Z V O U S" at any time day or night and no one would complain!