Michfest, Day 3

Everything You Own~

Ah, what a glorious day!

My fearless crew of four has accomplished, in two days, what I thought we would do in a week and a half. Oliver is still a dirty dirty barn, but he's nearly empty!

We took a break in the middle of the afternoon to help our fellow Carps women move the scaffold they had so carefully constructed over the last 24 hours. Each piece was so heavy that it required at least twenty womyn to move. We assembled in rows inside the scaffold and waited for the cue from our Carp director. Simultaneously we dropped to the ground, lifted the large wooden frame to our hips, turned to the side, then brought the piece up to shoulder level.

Carla called out, "To the left, to the left, to the front, to the front" and we moved together in unison, feet shuffling and hips moving fluidly, gracefully. It reminded me of the line dancing that goes on in the dyke bar in Durham, only this time with several hundred pounds of wood over our head. I got a song stuck in my head and started giggling…'To the left to the left, everything you own in a box to the left'. Piece by piece we moved the scaffolding as a slight drizzle fell upon our shoulders. Within half an hour, our quick, coordinated efforts were complete- the main stage scaffold was up. We gave each other hugs and returned to our separate crews to finish off the work-day. But wow…what a joyous, coordinated effort! How lovely was it to have womyn from so many crews collaborate on this lovely joint effort, and for the main stage, the center piece of our Festival world .

I wondered, how would a team of men move the scaffolding? Would they attempt to move each piece with the fewest number of men possible? Would the Carp director call out orders with the authority of a drill sergeant? Would there be so much flirting and laughter and joy, or would it just present itself as another task to be completed?

The rest of the afternoon was a blur of plywood. We were exhausted by the end of the afternoon. My arms felt like wood, my head felt like wood. We jumped into Ruby with the last load, the four of us cramped into her small front cab, me riding in the middle. On the way home Dustin reached down, exhausted, and unconsciously attempted to shift my knee into third gear.

We both burst out laughing.