|
One of the hundreds of fiddle
tunes Melvin enjoyed playing during the last decades of his
life was called “Waiting for the Boatman,” an old
hymn his mother sang that Melvin had reworked in a beautiful
way. Before playing the tune he would sometimes sing the hymn’s
lyrics, which began, “Oh, I’m waiting for the boatman,
he is driving o’er and o’er.” The story is
of a person waiting and, if all went well in life, ready to
be ferried over to heaven’s shore. It’s easy to
picture Melvin, who passed away on March 16 at the age of 93,
waiting for the ferry with anticipation while keeping the other
people there in good humor with his jokes and stories. He probably
didn’t need to wait long to be picked up for that well-deserved
ferry ride home, but after he got on board he probably had a
little time to take out his fiddle and tune it up. I bet the
boatman got to hear some great tunes on the trip over.
<<<Return to 9-1 Index |
