So many gave for a good friend who is gone

When Tory Torstenson was ill, his wife, Brenda, and several friends, including Beth Cain, were hatching a plan to have a reunion of sorts, to bring old cohorts together from Macon’s music scene as a distraction from medical procedures and to share stories from days on the concert circuit when Tory was road manager for Grinderswitch.

Unfortunately, Tory died in July, leaving his wife, sons and a circle of friends that would miss “big Tory’s” bear hugs. With her unstoppable spirit, Cain made the decision to have the party as a memorial honoring Tory and to help his wife with the final expenses associated with a prolonged illness.

Cain was overwhelmed with the outpouring of generosity of goods and services, and happy with the success in securing auction items for the event. The Big House Museum opened up the facility Aug. 19 at no cost for the memorial to a fellow music man. According to Cain, John McCord, owner of Satterfield’s Barbecue in downtown Macon, donated pulled pork barbecue with all the sides. Sound man Shawn Shewman who took over the logistics of fine tuning the music for a variety of vocalists and bands, brought all of his equipment and donated his time for the evening.

Michael Pierce donated a guitar, autographed by Jaimoe of Allman Brothers Band fame and by his jazz band, which, with the Epiphone SG guitar from the Marshall Tucker band, brought healthy returns at the auction. Pierce, a multimedia artist, produced the poster for the event, which instantly became a collectible souvenir.

Nathan Garrett played an acoustic set of original compositions to kick off the concert, followed by Karen Barlow with her band Perfect Strangers. David Cole and the Daymakers, featuring Chris Patterson, was one of the many bands and vocalists that dropped what they were doing and brought their bands and equipment to the Big House.

One of Macon’s favorite sons in the city’s hot night spots, Big Mike, joined his old band, Vice Grips, for a reunion at the memorial concert and auction, with an appearance by drummer Finney Hughes, whose name can be found included in the roster of several bands from the 1970s.

Although the auction was considered a huge success, Cain reported that the donations at the gate exceeded the proceeds from the auction. With little overhead, and because of the outpouring of generosity from fans, friends and from some people that barely knew Tory, the evening was a fitting send off for a man known for fierce loyalty to his friends and a tribute to his widow and children.

ECLIPSED OR NOT

Downtown Macon was so eerily quiet last Monday morning, it might have been a Sunday – the great exodus from town, driven by the hype over the predicted total eclipse of the sun, was the reason for so little traffic on the city’s streets. Special glasses were selling at a premium; however, there have been no rumors of scalping the glasses on street corners.

An informal poll indicated about a 50-50 split over destinations for those that left town – the coast or the mountains. After reports of traffic jams in all directions, was the travel worth the hassle or could you have seen just as much or more at the Ocmulgee National Monument or at the Museum of Arts and Sciences?

After a half hour of watching the sun (with approved eye wear of course), hearing the chorus of crickets, seeing the street lights remotely activated by the perceived dusk and expecting a total eclipse of the sun, the lack of a drum roll performance was a disappointment – a non-event.

Due to the excellent photographers on staff at The Telegraph and to the amateurs and professionals that had their lenses trained on the sun from the very beginning, there is a comprehensive catalog of photographs and of videos that recorded, in more scientific detail, exactly what happened during the eclipse. These must suffice, for there will not be another for about another 100 years!

This story was originally published August 23, 2017 at 5:15 PM with the headline "So many gave for a good friend who is gone."