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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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