OPINION | MIKE MASTERSON: On the beat

Editor's note: The original version of this column was published June 12, 2001.

The large white dog mingled with the crowd, which swayed and nodded to the steady rhythm of bongo drums. It was as if the gentle pet belonged to no one and yet everyone who had gathered on an early June night in the embrace of the Walton Arts Center's outdoor amphitheater and gardens along Fayetteville's Dickson Street.

The relentless beat from eight drums held by different people rebounded across brick and concrete to provide the ambiance of an earlier period. The scene could easily have been a spring evening scene from 1968 in some California park.

I had finished dinner with a friend and was heading for the car when the sounds caught my attention and drew me into the circle.