Missing the Music

Jimmy and Nancy

If you spend any time on the Waterfront Renaissance Trail in VanWA, you've seen these two. You'll find them sitting on a park bench, listening to music. They are Jimmy and his wife, Nancy.

Nancy has Alzheimer's and doesn't communicate much anymore but she does seem to connect to music, Jimmy told us. His phone is loaded with a variety of music, mostly pop, which he plays on a small, portable Bluetooth speaker. He loves it when people, usually small children, stop to dance and he'll change the music to whatever people seem to respond to.

Everybody knows "that guy" - the guy who plays music down by the waterfront. Very few people say hello but every once in a while a friend passes by.

We haven't seen them lately. They always sit on the same park bench by McMenamins but there's very little shade and it's been unusually hot here lately. We usually take the bench next to them but have taken up a spot further west under a shade tree. Even so, we walk back to see if they are there to find their bench empty.

We miss them. We miss their music. They've been a fixture here for years and we hope they're okay. If you see them, stop and dance for a while. It would make Jimmy's day.