Sometimes in a city there are people in our lives, we may not know much about them, but we come to take for granted that we will see them. Sometimes they bring us joy, sometimes the feeling is more neutral, and sometimes it is even negative- but we know we will see them. As we were walking to the opening of the North Carolina Folk Festival last week, someone walked past this man on a scooter and said, "Hi Bestway." We kind of looked at the man walking by and he said to us, "That's the guy that plays music out in front of Bestway. We see him all the time." Then we realized that we, too, recognized him and had seen him on many occasions out in front of the Bestway Grocery Store on Walker Avenue. When we asked him if we could take this picture downtown, we tried to interview him, but he had to go park his scooter and get settled into the festival.
Seeing him reminded us of how often we see him, really enjoy interacting with him, and also enjoy his musical talent, without really knowing much about him. Perhaps that is OK. Sometimes, people don't want us to know that much about them. However, we intend to let "Bestway" know we appreciate his talent and that seeing him in front of Bestway when we shop there is something we've come to expect. If he is not there, we wonder if he is OK. The gig economy is really unpredictable. You can be sure next time we walk past when he is playing, we'll drop a few bills in his instrument case, let him know how much we appreciate his music, and.... most importantly..... ask him his name!
Good shot of him.
Posted by: William Kendall | Monday, September 20, 2021 at 08:48 AM