Truck Henge 08

And the non-stop attacks on Sarah Palin and her family continue. Well, let me tell you this about that. Never in my life have I seen such blatant, ah never mind, what’s the point? Besides you guys already know how I feel about all that. Come November 4th, we’ll find who’s promises people bought into. It’s that simple.
It’s funny how we get so worked up and emotional about presidential elections. Both sides want you to believe that if you vote for the other guy, the world’s going to come to an end. We place that much importance on it but then we keep sending the same old people back to Congress year after year to do the same old grandstanding they always do. I’m probably wrong here but I don’t think we’ve ever had a Congress with a lower approval rating. You just watch though, we’ll send them right back in there like we always do and still expect things to somehow get better. Oh well, what are you going to do?
Sorry, that wasn’t even what I wanted to talk about today. I wanted to tell you about a party I went to last Saturday night. Ever hear of a place called Truck Henge?” Truck Henge is located just east of the Oakland area along the Kansas river on a farm owned by a man named Ron Lessman. On the road leading onto the Lessman farm are two row of trucks and busses half buried in the dirt, pointing toward the sky painted with slogans such as “Freedom isn’t lost!” There are signs warning that this area is “Zoned to speak your mind,” and one that warns that a man with his “own ideas” lives here. To understand the meaning behind Truck Henge, you need to understand a little bit about Ron Lessman. First off, he’s probably the most welcoming and generous person I’ve ever met. I’m not sure but if you needed a shirt he’d probably give you his. That’s just the way he is. But here’s the deal, don’t go onto his land and try to tell him how to live. A few years ago he had a run-in with certain Shawnee County officials who evidently didn’t like the way he was living and demanded he change his ways to suit them. To make a long story short, those certain Shawnee County officials lost. And now we have Truck Henge.
Anyway, last Saturday night the Lessman family held their second annual concert to promote the local music scene here in Topeka. Man, what a party it turned out to be. I don’t know , I think they had 8 or 9 different local bands who literally played all night long. And I’m not exactly sure but I’d say there were somewhere between 300 and 400 people there that night. Me being an old guy and all, some of the songs I recognized, some of them I didn’t. It was fun watching the people as they wandered around the farm too. One guy in particular was really craving attention. We called him the fire guy. He’d blow lamp oil onto a torch and shoot flames into the air. Not something I’d want to try but hey, it was kind of cool. Speaking of fires, I’ve talked a little bit about taking my kids camping when they were young. I always prided myself on the camp fires we used to build. My fires might shoot flames maybe 10 feet into the air. Ron’s fire sent flames towering to 30 or 40 feet into the night sky. Very cool. I met a lot of very good people out there at Truck Henge that night. And as far as I know the whole thing went off pretty much as planned.
Once again, I’d like to thank the Lessman family for opening your home to me and my family. And for doing your part to point out some of the positives Topeka has to offer.
You can check out a few pictures of the concert and watch a video I found on You Tube about the story of Truck Henge, starring Ron Lessman himself at: www.rm235.blogspot.com or you can e-mail me at: www.kevinmcginty@sbcglobal.net

The following is a list of the bands that played in Truck Henge 08 and their web-sites.
Hammerjunk www.myspace.com/hammerjunkrocks
The Hemroids www.myspace.com/thehemroids
Klusterfux www.myspace.com/klusterfux
Wakamojo www.myspace.com/wakamojo
Lazer Panther www.myspace.com/lazerpanther
Shumann's Resonance www.myspace.com/schmannsresonance
Side Effects www.myspace.com/sideeffectstopeka
Mirror image www.myspace.com/mirrorimagetriplets