John Brown’s Dream

Chairmaker John Brown in Wales. Photo courtesy of David and Annie Sears, Pantry Fields.

During junior high school in Arkansas, I was required by law or tradition to take two years of square-dancing lessons as part of our physical education curriculum.

We were assigned a partner to dance with for the entire school year. The first year, my partner was pregnant. This was not entirely unusual.

As a result of my dancing education, I still know a lot of reels, which were the string-band tunes we danced to while Ms. Griffin – always in a blue track suit – called out the moves.

Here ends the backstory.

Two weeks ago, I was listening to the radio in my truck when one of these deeply ingrained tunes came on the radio. It was one of my favorites reels, but I had no idea what the name of the tune was. I grabbed my phone and looked at its screen.

It read: “John Brown’s Dream.”

Sometimes simply knowing the name of something can kick you in the gut, and my mind swirled as the tune finished playing through …