Date: Wed, 18 Oct 1995 11:08:00 EST From: "Blumen, Larry" (hlb1@NIP1.EM.CDC.GOV) Subject: Tippy-Toe, By Now I guess the time has come for me to tell you about my Bob Dylan class, given at Emory University on four Monday evenings this quarter. The teacher was John Clark who, the course announcement said, wrote his master's thesis on Bob Dylan (whereas, I wrote mine on fistulated rats). The course was called "Bob Dylan Revisited, Part II", Part I having been offered last early Spring. We students, as many as fifteen on some nights, were a motley assortment of devotees, plus a skeptic or two. We were strangers to each other and that, plus the knowledge that we were all basically afflicted, seemed to cast a slight air of furtiveness over the sessions. Names were not generally used, so I made some up for the regulars, to keep them straight. One woman, a blonde, reminiscent of that woman (Hope?) on "Thirty Something", except prettier, I thought of as Sweet Marie. Several weeks ago, someone showed up whom I had not seen before: a small, quiet woman, on the far side of forty, who introduced herself as Mary. She had paper and pencil and, during the class, she sat in the back and wrote down (it seemed) everything that was said. John Clark knew her and, from his remarks, I gathered that she was a Big Fan. She had a thin, determined smile and a strange glint in her eye. That week, Dylan came to the Fox Theater in Atlanta. I didn't go, but, the next day, took note of the setlist in HIWY61-L and the reaction that began to be reported. It was a good show. I also noticed a thread, called "Whose Mom was onstage at the Fox" that went on for a couple of days. I didn't think too much about it. Late in the week, however, I got a funny feeling that eventually turned into a theory which I determined to investigate at the next class. The following Monday, I hustled on down to Campus and arrived about ten minutes early. Sweet Marie was already there. I asked if she had gone to the show. She said, "Yes, it was wonderful!" And proceeded to give me her review of the festivity. I waited for an opening and then came out with my question: "Did you, at some point, notice a woman, wearing red, who got up on the stage and tried to touch Dylan?" Sweet Marie threw back her head and laughed: "It was our Mary!" she beamed. She then related the entire event just as I had read it on the Net. Others began to filter in and those who had also been to the show added their versions to the "Mary" thread. When the teacher arrived, everyone wanted to know, where is Mary! John Clark said, "What day is this?" It was Monday. "Oh, hell," he said, "She's in Loosiana."
