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One winter David Tudor and I were touring in the
Middle West. From Cincinnati we drove to
Yellow Springs to drum up an engagement for Merce
Cunningham and his Dance Company. In this
way we met the McGarys. Keith was teaching
philosophy at Antioch College and Donna taught
weaving and dancing. My conversation with
Keith McGary had no sooner begun than we
discovered our mutual interest in mushrooms.
I told him that I’d never seen the
winter-growing Collybia velutipes. He opened
the front door and, using a flashlight,
showed me the plant growing in the snow from the
roots of a nearby tree. He told me what
difficulty he was having finding books about fungi.
I gave him my copy of Hard which I’d
brought along. This book deals especially
with Ohio mushrooms. The next day I
located two copies of the book in a second-hand
bookstore in Columbus. I bought them both.
Each winter I find the Collybia,
the velvet footed, in quantity.
How is it I didn’t notice it
during the winters before I met Keith McGary?
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