Remembrances of
Larry Hoey
Back to Larry Hoey Home Page

Remembering Larry Hoey

Linda C. Smith, Ann Arbor, Michigan
rigansmith@juno.com

I'm in low spirits when I think about Larry and his death.  It saddens me, and I'll miss him.

I'm sad that the potential for getting together is now lost; that stream of imagined, future days is gone.  Being together--laughing, dancing, talking about piano music, joking around--is not going to happen anymore.

I remember dancing at June Camp 2000 with Larry and Paul Collins.  We three survivors danced Saturday night until we saw the sun rise, dredging up oldies we learned at dance workshops--a shared passion, a pure joy in dancing, that I can't explain.  We were "fired together" in a crucible of folkdance workshops and parties over the course of 20-plus years.

Sometimes it's the tangential things, the stuff you just touch upon that fills your senses and your memory.

At Door County Folk Festival 2000 in July,  I remember listening with Larry to a Chickadee that was up in a tree.  I still see that tree; I still hear that song.

And I remember after dancing with him until the wee hours, that he walked over to me and showed me my signature on "The Rock"--that goofy rock that one of the dancers went outside and picked up back in 1993(94?) that we signed as proof that we were dance "survivors" at the first late-night
festival party.

I remember saying "Come [to Ann Arbor] and stay with us Larry," and his genial reply that he'd like to do that and looked forward to it.

And, I remember the last words we said to each other as we were saying goodbye at Door County, after a weekend of laughing and dancing, being removed from our everyday lives.  We were just hanging around, not really knowing what to say to one another.   I looked at him and said, "Well Larry, don't take life too seriously."  We both smiled, and he replied, "I usually don't."  We both chuckled, understanding that a day without laughter is a wasted day.

I can't explain the meaning of life, but a lot is said by Walt Whitman: 

  • "I have learned that to be with those I like is enough." 
I'll remember Larry and his laughter...and wherever his spirit has been set free, may it make its way back to us in some way.

Linda C. Smith, Ann Arbor, Michigan
rigansmith@juno.com
 


Back to Larry Hoey Home Page