Sunday, June 29, 2014

This Summer in Lake George

--> Tomaso,

Sandy and I always do a historical day trip when we are on our yearly Brant Lake vacation. Saratoga Battlefields; Glens Falls, where the cave scenes took place in the movie version of "Last of The Mohicans;” Glens Falls Drive-In, where teenage personal history was made; Grant's Cottage, where he finished his book and then passed; Rogers Rangers Island; Fort William Henry; Fort Anne; Fort Ticonderoga; Bloody Pond; Montcalm's camp; Half Moon on Henry Hudson's River; Fort Carillon, our eighth president Martin Van Buren's Farmhouse; and Phillip Skylers house in Skylerville. His daughter married Alexander Hamilton.

Or the the farm in Lake George Village where Georgia O’Keeffe lived with Alfred Stieglitz before all the New Mexico stuff. She lived to be 99 years old. Last year we saw many of her original paintings at a gallery in Glens Falls, New York. I believe that the town is named after the falls . . . Maybe not.

The Mohawks held the French Jesuit missionary Issac Jagues at their village, thirty miles west of Albany, twice. The Indians called them The Black Robes. It is called Auriesville. It is where his life ended after his second arrival from France. How about meeting there?

I recently ordered you the book about his life. I also ordered one for Tom Donovan and lent my copy to Prue. It is called "Saint in the Wilderness" and is an exciting, incredible read for anyone who knows and loves the Lake George, New York area. Someone needs to make a movie of his fascinating life and faith. I am especially interested in his story, because the time it all happened was when my relative, Nicholas Bachan, arrived there by wooden ship from Saint Cloud, France, through the Saint Lawrence Seaway . . .  as a soldier. So he learned of all this fabulous history as it was happening.

On his first trip back to France via Albany and the Hudson River, Father Jagues arrives by way of an English ship and is rowed to a shore near a French village. It is winter. He is dressed in rags. He asks a local where the church is. It is Christmas Eve. The man invites him to his house after the Mass. It is only then when he reveals his name and story that his countrymen and family find out that he is alive. YCMTS up.

You might remember his tall bronze statue at the south end of the Lac du Saint Sacrement, right on the border of the Battle Ground Campground. He was the first European to see Lake George. His diary reads: July 3 in 1607. He is missing some fingers from his first capture. The Mohawks were brutal. The other seven tribes feared them. They were cannibals. When the French gave them muskets they became unbeatable.

Which once again begs the question ... Why read fiction?

Thank God for Daniel Day Lewis and Chingachgook.

Magua in the Last Of the Mohicans movie (1992) played a Huron. In real life he was a Oglala Lakota. He died in 2012.

Sitting Bull was a Hunkpapa Lakota.

p.s.  I always throw in a fib or two. Did you find any?                                  

Roberto Leak in Canoe Tocino

Painkiller

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Painkiller

Use Pussers Rum. Premium aged rum from 1655. Pussers is British Royal Navy slang for a purser, a ships supply officer who doled out the custom of a daily tot of rum.

I ordered one on the British island of Tortola. Think Treasure Island and Long John Silver and young Jim Hawkins, matey. Norman Island was the real Treasure Island in Robert Louis Stevenson's famous book. The Painkiller came in this tin metal mug. Inside are all the island flags. On the outside are directions for the SECRET recipe.





Created in the tropical paradise of the British Virgin Islands, where the PAINKILLER has become the favorite tipple of sailors and landlubbers alike. Comes in three strengths: Numbers 2, 3,  & 4.

THE SECRET RECIPE
2, 3, or 4 oz Pusser's Navy Rum
4 oz pineapple juice
1 oz creme of coconut
1 oz orange juice

Serve on the rocks. Stir and grate nutmeg on top.


The 4 oz'er definitely stops the pain.

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Ten girls . . . no guys

--> Wow! What a busy twenty-eight fun-filled hours for Sandy and me.

It started with our grandson’s baseball game Saturday morning in Marshfield. Then we drove to Preston, Connecticut for the Cajun/Zydeco Dance Festival. There were twelve bands.

Yes, Steve Riley was there and so was our current favorite, The Pine Leaf Boys with Wilson Savoy. People come from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland for this one. It is not as big as Ninigret at Labor Day but it is still a lot of fun.

This time we mostly visited with friends and listened, rather that danced. For the Pine Leaf Boys we sort of stood in front and listened and watched and stared. Wilson did Jerry Lee's "Whole Lotta Shakin" on his keyboard piano and totally rocked the place.

There was a long wait from the three o'clock show until nine-thirty when Steve Riley was to play his second set. We thought we wouldn't enjoy the unknowns playing in that space of time. Unknown only to us. The food is not so great at this festival and one meal was enough, so we thought we would leave early and get to our hotel near Mystic and then go to Mystic Pizza of the 1988 movie fame. Think Julia Roberts, Lili Taylor, a thin Vincent D'Onofrio and even Matt Damon as Skipper.


At 5:15 Bonsoir Catin came on at the amphitheater. They were five young women from Louisiana. They actually formed in 2005. It was their first time playing in New England. One of the guitar players I had been paying special attention to all day. She was a looker, especially in that leopard tunic that she was wearing. She seemed to know everyone behind the Rec. Stage, acknowledging band members with longs hugs and big smiles. When Bonsoir Catin appeared on stage, there she was. That made sense. I thought by the way she looked that she could have been an entertainer. When the emcee introduced the band, he paid homage to the girl in the leopard  tunic.

In 1971 a Cajun fiddler came to the Newport Jazz Festival. Friends from rural Louisiana begged him not to go North. They feared that this country music would be a laughingstock to the Yankee audience. Instead of that, school bus driver Dewey Balfa and his fiddle got a standing ovation. He brought Cajun music to New England for the very first time and it stuck. The striking girl in the band with the tunic turned out to be his daughter, Christine Balfa.

A fun movie to watch is "The Big Easy” -- 1986 with Dennis Quaid, John Goodman and Ellen Barkin. Robert Redford said that this was the first movie SOLD at his Sundance Movie Festival. There is a scene where there is a party with musicians on someone’s home porch. Dewey and Christine are in the band on that porch. The movie is a little over the top, but it does show the dancing and the Louisiana music and of course, New Orleans. On their first date, Quaid takes Ellen to Tipitinas for food and dancing. When we were there, it didn't look that good. We have been around Cajun people and have never heard anyone call any one Cher. Watch the movie and then call me. Don't e-mail me. Call me. But don't call me Cher.

Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys play in Robert Duval's "The Apostle." In "Passion Fish" Gino Delefose's Dad, John, plays wicked good Zydeco in a dance hall/bar scene. The main character in this movie, Mary McDonnell, played Kevin Costner’s love in "Dances With Wolves." Sandy and I were just getting into this Zydeco/Cajun stuff way back then.

So now the special guest comes on and it is not Steve or Wilson. It is the all-girl Cajun band from here in the Northeast. Never introduce your good-looking girlfriend to your good-looking boyfriend. When C'est Bon came on, Sandy and I thought that they were even better than the Louisiana girls. Possibly from the applause, so did the audience. Look out Steve and Wilson. Cajun music might be changing. C’est Bon is their name. It means it is good. Well, it was better than good, and so was Bonsoir Catin.

We did not expect what we heard from these five young women. They rocked the place with fiddle and accordion and guitar. They mentioned that they had a very special musical guest. I just knew that it was Wilson Savoy or Steve Riley. The Northeast Cajun band was a wonderful surprise. Why don't you Google them to see them in action.

After Bonsoir Catin, another band came on called "The Revelers." We recognized most of the band members as members of other Cajun bands – the Red Stick Ramblers, Balfa Toujours, Cedric Watson, Bijou Creole. They think of themselves as a Louisiana super group. They were red hot also. And tight! Chas Justus plays his 1958 Gibson guitar and he is in love with it. I always smile when I hear him. I am buying the CD's from all three of these bands. The Revelers will be at Ninigret in Labor Day weekend. Chuck, please hire the two female bands.

We and GPS headed out from the Strawberry Music Festival to our hotel room in Connecticut and eventually Mystic Pizza. The hotel was five miles straight ahead. The bridge was out three miles straight ahead. The restaurant at the detour was called Mystic Pizza ll. You Can't MTSUP. The pizza was great. The menu had pictures in it from the movie. The $10 salad could have easily fed four people. We got directions to the hotel, which was on a hill near Route 95. I grew up on Route 8 in Adams and truck traffic, especially with the windows open, lulls me to sleep.



Breakfast was included at the hotel. We ate on a picnic bench outside, under an awning. The weather was finally warm. The festival weather was absolutely perfect.

Sandy looks over my shoulder and says, "Isn't that your Seabee friend?" It was. I met Tom McGuire a year or so ago at the German Club in Pawtucket at a Lil Anne/Magnolia dance. He was wearing a Seabee ballcap. He wasn't wearing it backwards. He is a real Seabee, having done two tours in Vietnam. Tom's unit was so close to North Vietnam that they could see their flags flying. We chatted about the festival and what is happening to Louisiana Music. Tom loved the GIRL bands too.

Driving down, I had seen a sign at Exit 7 saying that this was the exit to see General Nathaniel Greene's house during the Revolutionary War. 






Some writers have said that Greene was George Washington's favorite general. Some say it was Henry Knox of Fort Ticonderoga cannon fame. I have read books on both generals. Maybe it was even Lafayette. Guess who Fort Knox is named after ?

Lafayette is buried in France but he is buried under Pennsylvania soil. Obviously it made a real impression on him. You know where to file this.


Greene certainly saved the troops with his supply efforts at Valley Forge in Pennsylvania. We found his house in Coventry; it backed up to the Pawtuxet River. The Greene family made ships chain and anchors. 

The Pawtuxet is, of course, the same river that flows behind Rhodes on the Pawtuxet where the Mardi Gras Ball is held in Cranston every year. Many Cajun bands live in Lafayette, Louisiana. More of STUFF that you can't make up. Tom Egan walked to the dances held for the teenagers over 100 years ago. 

Tom Egan

Our final destination that weekend was Federal Hill for lunch, but on the way we pulled into a antique car show filled with dogs and tattooed people and cigarette smokers, along with some beautiful cars.

Please don't touch my car.

Anyone want a Del's or a Narragansett beer? Founded in Cranston in 1890. "Hi Neighbor, Have a ‘Gansett.

Federal Hill had all the local goombahs sitting around in their wife-beater tee shirts, talking while smoking big cigars and checking out the young good-looking women while discussing futball. Not the Patriots.

It hit 91 degrees but we were comfortable under our umbrella at Di Pasquale Square. Sarah & the Tall Boys has a great tune about Providence that mentions Del's and the Biltmore Hotel, they built downtown, Di Pasquale Square and even Narragansett Beer. Did we have dessert you ask? We did, at Pastiche Fine Desserts & Cafe. They opened in 1983.

The temperature dropped as we drove home to Marshfield, because of the cooler ocean water, to 76.

I just thought that you should know, in case some one asks you if you knew what Bob & Sandy did this past weekend.