Nanci Caroline Griffith (July 6, 1953 – August 13, 2021)
I never met Nanci Griffith. This, despite the fact that she is arguably my favorite musical artist. And that is saying a lot. Because I am not prone to picking favorites in anything. You see, generally, I believe that when you pick one thing over all the others, it somehow lessens everything else. And I have a personality that just has a hard time doing that.
But Nanci Griffith was, for sure, my favorite singer/songwriter. I discovered her when I was in my twenties, either on Austin City Limits or on Georgia Public Radio’s Folk Alley. I honestly could not tell you which one it was. But once discovered, I quickly purchased every single one of her records. And I played them all the time. Over and over.
I made cassette tapes and played them in the car, back in the days when cars had cassette tape players in them. Ha! I bought all the CDs when they came out, and I downloaded all of them to my computer, phone and tablet, just as soon as I could. I’ve purchased her music in one form or another across forty years and several formats. You could pick just about any room in my house and find something with her music on it.
Nanci Griffith’s music took me home, at least in my heart, because I could feel it, even when it was talking about somewhere else, and sometimes somewhere I’d never even been. There were other times it took me back to favorite memories — the five and dime (or as I knew it, “the dime store”) — and the Woolworth’s counter, although mine was in Asheville, North Carolina and she wrote about one in downtown Austin, Texas, and another that was a big two story affair in London.
I’ve only ever driven through West Texas, but I know it like the back of my hand because of Nanci Griffith. Same with Bluebells and the Gulf Coast Highway. I knew the love she sang about, and I’ve been somebody’s fool. I came from farmers who loved the land and suffered through the Great Depression, and I felt the weight of them working their fields, and in some cases having to leave them behind forever.
On Grafton Street always makes me think of lost family members. Because it IS funny “how my world goes round without” them. “You’re the one thing I never thought I could live without. And I just found this smile to think about you. You’re a Saturday night. Far from the madding crowd.” Who could NOT feel the emotion and the loss and the love in that song.
And Ireland? I’ve never been, despite having Irish ancestry. But listening to Nanci Griffith sing about Ireland took me there, with all things beautiful and all things ugly. Troubled times. She saw them, and understood their toll on all of us humans — from Ireland to Viet Nam.
Nanci Griffith said many of her songs were not autobiographical, and that writing them without having to tie them to real situations and real people gave her the freedom to explore other people and places with her music. But when I listen to her songs, I cannot help but think she always put a little piece of herself in them, whether or not she positioned them as her own memories. If she didn’t, we’ll never know. But I choose to believe she was a piece of everything she wrote, beyond the writing of it, and just gave herself the freedom to change the details. In the end, she was a storyteller. And her stories changed the world.
You can tell when we have travel days because it’s practically impossible to keep up with all that’s going on! We left Moorea, having spent a lovely week on that island, and headed into our next adventure, which came with an extended lay-over. By that I mean that we had a one night stay at the Intercontinental Airport Hotel on Tahiti, before taking a plane to Bora Bora the next day. Honestly, we were not particularly excited about it because we expected a standard airport tower hotel with a nice room. Boy were we mistaken!
A big part of this vacation was getting away (getting really far away) and relaxing, so yesterday and today have been a real pleasure. No tours. Just pure and plain relaxation, with a few special events.
Then we did a little souvenir shopping (and picked up mosquito spray!). Let me tell you. Tahiti has those little “no-see-em” mosquitoes and they ill eat you up! Our first clue was when we found an electronic mosquito repeller inside our suite and one of those incense type repellers on the lanai. Second clue came in the form of bites! Yikes!
The second item of note yesterday was the Polynesian Buffet Dinner with Polynesian Dancers. Polynesian food is similar in some ways to Hawaiian food, but very different in others. Pork and fish both play a big role, but pork is not only roasted but also cooked into a stew with local vegetables. And the fish. It is served cooked, but also raw, and the raw varieties are delicious and quite diverse. They serve a variety of raw fish salads, one of which was similar to the one we had on our tour the other day
The desserts were absolutely decadent, and hard to resist (we really didn’t, although we sampled and limited our sampling so we were not completely miserable. The meal, although served buffet style, was not like a Hawaiian luau. It was simply a wonderful presentation of traditional Polynesian foods.
Today, Sunday, has been a lazy day for us, mostly spent at the beach soaking up the sun and/or enjoying the cool waters of the lagoon.
Today, we enjoyed an all day tour of the island — almost a full eight hours! We saw everything, and all sorts of things; learned about the island’s history, its traditions and its people. Our tour guide was an incredible source of information, and really a lot of fun. There were just eight of us on the tour, and, as you will notice, when we were just with our group, we sometimes went without masks. This was because all of us had been vaccinated, and had at least two, sometimes three covid tests within the last forty eight hours. When we were around other groups, we were always masked.
Masks Were Required everywhere, and that was a happy thing!
Our very first stop was as at a nature preserve which was run by a family that was preserving all the native plants, fruits and, also the many medicinal plants.
I have the say that the view really was magical, even if it made me think of Scooby Doo and Mellow Mushroom Restaurants.
We enjoyed a tasting of many of their products, although both Stephen and I abstained from the alcoholic options. I have to say that if I hadn’t, I don’t know if I could have made all the way through the day!
Next was a trip up another mountain, where the views were once again fantastic. Before we got there, though, we saw the Criobe Moorea Research institute, which studies global warming and its affects on the coral beds in and around the islands of the South Pacific, as well as the shrimp farms which produce most of the shrimp consumed on the islands.
Looking up, you can see many of the famous peaks that are the remains of the long-gone volcano that formed the island, and looking down you can see two large bays — the Opunohu bay, and Cook’s Bay.
There was also pineapple, cocoanut bread, a cocoanut concoction that was reminiscent of tofu (but sweet), papaya, and more. Needless to say, we were not hungry at the end of our meal.
Our tour guide said it was neither, and that he just wanted some money for a drink or two, but she gave him some cash anyway just to mollify him. Sometimes you just gotta go with the flow.…
At that point, I looked up at the next part of the trail, and the rope I’d need to use to climb it, and I suggested that Stephen and Dylan just go on without me. Fortunately (or unfortunately), both of them, along with out tour guide urged me to try it and I did. We made the last leg up to the waterfall, and although wet, sweaty and exhausted, I have to say it was worth it. It was, no matter what anyone said about not enough water having fallen, just spectacular! And we got to rest.
We also took a short cab ride into town where we souvenir shopped and hit the grocery for some essentials. Luck was ours when we saw a local bakery truck unloading fresh baguettes. The locals, who clearly knew the schedule, were waiting for the bread to be unloaded. We waited along with them and brought one home (along with cheese) and wine for me. We finished the day at the hotel restaurant before calling it a night.
Although the steps through immigration were a bit of a blur, they were complicated by, guess what? A 
Two hours later, we boarded the ferry, after double checking to make sure our luggage made it aboard, and headed off to Moorea. The sun was just coming up and it was breathtaking. Worth all the worry, and the stress.
Letters from the South Pacific • July 27, 2021
Everything was fine until we arrived at the Air Tahiti Nui gate to check in. While the agent was going through our paperwork, I noted that the young couple to our right was having trouble. They were being told they needed another test.
And all less than four hours before our flight. There, we were joined by yet more passengers in the sam boat as us, including one charming fellow on his way to Australia. We got our tests, waited for the results, got them, then called a lyft to take us back to the airport…at about the time another person who had taken the test got a positive result.