My-Tea Kind Goes to Missile Silo
My-Tea Kind has been spreading around the region lately playing shows in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Missouri, and Colorado. Their most recent tour was a trip through Kansas playing shows in Wichita, Lawrence, and MAnhattan. During this tour they had the good fortune of staying at the home of Ed and Diana Peden.
Their house was once a structure built to hold a Cold war era nuclear missile. The government spent 3.3 million dollars in 1959 to house one nuclear missile which was only there from 1961-1965. Afterward the government abandoned this structure and left it in ruin.
In 1982 Ed and Diana Peden bought the 18,000 square foot silo for a mere $40,000. They first had to swim through eight feet of water in darkness to check out the building. After pumping out the water and repairing the walls and plumbing, the transformation began. They changed the main generator room into two floors and puta a stage in the middle. It has since become an underground temple often housing drum circles, Workshops and other ceremonies.
When My-Tea Kind arrived late after the Lawrence show on August 7th, the tour began. The top floor is a sun room to house the many plants. Down the spiral stairs through the eighteen inches of concrete wall is a maze of rooms and spaces filled with the lavish splendor of creative design with dozens of drums and other musical instruments which has very much become a sight of sacred space for Ed and Diana. At the bottom of the silo is a tunnel that leads to the 100ft long building which housed the nuclear missile. It is truly a sight to see the massive door which would bring the missile in open. At one point the whole ceiling would open where the 70ft nuclear bomb could be hoisted upright. There are also a number of structural suprises including a mock stone hinge, two castle towers and a pond.
After the amazement died down, members of My-Tea Kind spent their time there soaking up the opportunity. Ed led an interesting drum circle along with Bonnie, Dan, Annie, Dango, Sarah, James, and Sam. There was a chanting session in the depths of the Reverberated tunnel. They all got teir chance to play in the art of the security cameras. The Stone hinge replica made for good fun. Playing music around the strange accoustics was commonplace. They even had a small photo shoot there. A lot of the time was spent in deep conversation. The hosts often left open spacs for the members to experience individually.
Ed and Diana have had quite a large amount of media coverage. They have been on several television shows such as: Oprah, While You Were Out, Dateline, and Weird America. They have an entire wall of a hallway devoted to Newspaper clippings and Magazine articles from all over the worl, some of which were former Communist countries like Russia and Germany. Although Ed invented the Ultra-light plane, now his business card describes him as: Counselor, Teacher, Orator, Facilitator, and Ceremonialist. Strangely enough, he also now is a realtor for missile silos and other "nonordinary Realties."