My husband’s cousin Carol Wickham was one of the individuals among the Woodstock masses 40 years ago. In honor of the historical cultural event in New York her son, Aaron Wickham, threw an honorary historical event for the family band – Genevieve’s New Hip – in Allison, Iowa on Saturday, August 29, 2009. It will live in infamy as band members came from the Northwest, Southwest and Midwest United States to satisfy the entertainment starved masses that gathered and intensified into the evening. Wickstock 2009!
It started with kids playing some rock together as cousins (I believe the band originally was called The 
Rave) – yet years later they can gather and kick out great tunes and have this unspoken common ground. Now grown with adult lives and different professions such as teacher, government employee, school counselor, accountant, US soldier, restaurant manager – they came together to create something that cohesively bonded their audience, their families, and themselves. The last time they played together was about a year ago at Uncle Jay’s funeral, our Purple Heart WWII family hero. And, played very well they did despite it being with a kids drum set, an old acoustic guitar some family member dusted off from the basement, and a local pawn shop guitar purchase the day before the funeral. It was a brilliant tribute to Uncle Jay’s presence on this earth and what he left behind. The time before that was 10 years or maybe a bit prior! The morning after Wickstock 2009 we sat around drinking coffee and chatting about life, I asked the drummer how long since he had played. You guessed it – at Uncle Jay’s funeral. This is amazing to me…he said it was like
riding a bike. However, what he did not say is that I bet it took lots of earmuffs by his mother and effort during the years of practice to get him to that level.
I believe each individual human has God-given talents and be it sports, writing, competitive strategy, people skills, musical or singing, or interpretive dance talents – how with just a little hard work or application these talents can be tapped into time and again during a lifetime of building relationships and family bonds. The beauty of talents is truly achieved when we are able to and decide to put those talents to use for the enjoyment and betterment of society or family. Isn’t this really what life is about?
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