On Thursday night the Summer gave us a break from the heat long enough for a night out with local darlings Truckstop Honeymoon. The Lawrence Public Library hosted Last Splash Bash as a way to mark the end of one incredible Summer. Latchkey kids and bluegrass music lovers crawled out from all over the area to cut a rug with the band.

This was a fantastic family event. Free food, drinks, games (everybody loves dunking city officials in water tanks) and some of the best kettle corn I’ve had in my entire life. Children who probably never danced before heard the music of Truckstop Honeymoon, and suddenly felt the urge to boogie and gyrate.

Here’s what they opened the show with.

Mothers, aunties and grandmothers all danced the evening away with the kiddos. Some children were showcasing how active they were this Summer by comparing how many bug bites they had on their ankles and legs (I’ve got you all beat, by the way).

Truckstop Honeymoon proved that you can still have a child and enjoy live music. Someone leaned over to me and said “We need more family friendly events like this.” When you think about it, Lawrence does a pretty good job at that. Between the free City Band concerts every Wednesday and the occasional Americana Music jam in the park, I’d say it’s DEFINITELY easy to spawn and still see live music. And don’t forget we’ve got Busker Fest coming up. We’re so lucky to live in a town that provides opportunities like this, at little to no cost.

Eventually I grew a little tired of dancing with the baby and sat down under a tree in front of the library, where cicadas battled it out with the band for my musical attention. This is how you should always end a Kansas Summer.

It makes sense that more family friendly music events will always be around. Most people in the music scene are going to reproduce at some point, but that doesn’t mean they’re abandoning it. They just have more people to share their love of the scene with.

Truckstop Honeymoon, as always, were barrels of fun on this night, cracking jokes left and right. Every now and then after a song one of them would lean into the microphone and say “Thank you, music lovers.”

Baby, you ain’t kidding.