Weiser welcomes fiddlers for 2019 contest

Published by admin on Wed, 06/12/2019 - 11:55am
By: 
Steve Lyon
Another year has gone by and I
still can’t play a single note on
a fiddle.
That leaves me out of the competition
again this year. Sadly, the sun may have
set on my fiddling aspirations.
Every year I plug fiddle week and
all it means to Weiser. It’s
the NBA finals of fiddling.
Hopefully, businesses and
organizations jump on the
opportunity to promote
Weiser to our visitors from
all over the U.S.
Short of taking a trip to
the Grand Ole Opry, some
of the best American music
can be found right here next
week. Take a trip up to the
Institute and walk around the
impromptu jam sessions.
J.D. Webb from Texas will
have his RV parked where he
does every year in front of Slocum Hall.
Some of the best jam sessions take place
every night with J.D. in the middle of
them, strumming his guitar, jumping in
and out of tunes.
He’ll be joined by other fiddlers and
maybe someone with a stand-up bass
and someone else on the mandolin. Before
you know it, there’s a talented ensemble
gathered around J.D.’s RV.
• • •
With the hot weather coming up this
week and next, kids might be tempted to
swim in the Galloway canal
or the Weiser River.
If you have kids or know
any kids, tell them it’s a bad
idea. The river is running
cold enough to sap your
strength in about 30 seconds
and high enough to take you
downstream in a heartbeat.
The canal also is cold.
You can’t see the bottom and
there are all kids of structures
you can get caught up in.
There is at least one tragic
story every summer in Idaho
involving a youngster that
falls into an irrigation canal and drowns.
The flowing water is enticing to kids.
Two minutes submerged is all it takes
for a lifetime of grief to happen.
Instead, take the kids to the city pool.
It’s safe and supervised. Plus, it’s a great
place to make friends.
Every kid should learn how to swim
at a young age. Kids have an amazing
aptitude to pick up swimming at a young
age. What’s more, they learn to not be
afraid of water over their head. They
don’t panic.
We live around water in Idaho. We go
fishing, boating and recreate on rivers
and lakes. Get them signed up for swim
classes at the pool.
My two brothers and I took swimming
lessons as kids at my mom’s insistence.
It saved our lives on more than one
occasion.
We used to fish the Snake River every
day in the summer in Idaho Falls. It was
kind of a Huck Finn childhood. We’d
collect a can of worms, grab our poles
and bikes and head for the river, fishing
from one end of the falls to the other..
It happened to all of us. We slipped
off rocks and fell in the river and headed
downstream. While we panicked, we
had the water skills to stay afloat and
make it to the riverbank.
Once you learn how to swim, it’s
something you’ll know forever.
Steve Lyon is the editor of the Weiser
Signal American. Contact him at

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Signal American

18 E. Idaho St.
Weiser, ID 83672
PH: (208) 549-1717
FAX: (208) 549-1718
 

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