On the day after Thanksgiving Lumpy Sue set up her venue in Greynolds Park near the Boat House.  Since our Friday Hot Pool session was cancelled due to overeating and giving a little thought to Pilgrims, Indians and their celebrating a good harvest, Carol declared this to be a lazy day.  I started to go along with this and grab another book when she remembered this was the LUMPY SUE day that we missed on previous years and it was going on as we were speaking.

I decided that I did need a bike ride and that my destination would provide me with a short ride instead of my usual ten miles.  I set out listening to yet another tape on Islam and its history and arrived at the park to find that the “concert” was in process. Now, you must understand that an old folkie like me, one of the founders of the North Jersey Folk Music Society, had missed a lot of intervening years.  I had come to believe that the folk music genre was dead or lurking in some hidden corner out of sight of laughing onlookers.

Well, Lumpy Sue and my discovery of an active group up in Fort Lauderdale came together in the past few weeks and I feel that all is not lost; glorious voices and music are still to be heard sans shouting, sans rapping but with meaning.

The day is cool, the weather clear and simply great.  People, I judge there were just about 200 scattered around the area, were sitting on blankets or foldable chairs and there were a lot of children and different types who adorn such activities.  There were the aging hippy types, people in very relaxed clothing and some in very imaginative “folk” dress.  There was the face painter who was looking for business and a number of cyclists besides me.  As I said, it is a glorious day today and I left only because I did not see anybody I knew and those in charge were busy reading off ticket stubs that won dinners or free laundry services.  Besides, I needed to learn about Mohammad’s successors.

But, before I conclude with a remark about Islam, I must state that when I helped start the folk movement back in the 50’s, I wore a tie, jacket and white shirt and all.  The pot smoking and “free” behavior were on the edges.  I had to move from where I was sitting because the smokers still pursued their habit even in the midst of a forest glen and near the tables set up for the environmentalist groups.

The lecturer was expounding today on the relationship of the Muslim State with minorities such as the Christians and the Jews.  Both of these had a place within the Islamic society.  But, my conclusion from what he said is that all other religions are less than Islam because there is only ONE true faith, the one proclaimed by Muhammad.