Kevin Dayhoff - Soundtrack Division of Old Silent Movies - www.kevindayhoff.net - Runner, writer, artist, fire and police chaplain. The mindless ramblings of a runner, journalist, and artist: National and International politics. For community see www.kevindayhoff.org. For art, writing and travel see www.kevindayhoff.com
Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Md Troopers Assoc #20 & Westminster Md Fire Dept Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
WESTMINSTER MARYLAND — Moments before Carroll County Government readied to light its holiday tree tonight, officials announced that 18 county workers will lose their jobs as part of eliminating 62 positions.
County Commissioner Julia Gouge and Steven Powell, chief-of-staff for Carroll County Government made the announcement at a 5 p.m. news conference at the County Office Building, wrapping up in time to celebrate the holidays at a 6 p.m. ceremony.
"It has been the single most difficult day of my career in Carroll County, and I'm glad it's over," Powell said as his voice cracked and quivered. "I know that it has only just begun for 18 people."
Board of County Commissioners Julia W. Gouge, President Dean L. Minnich, Vice President Michael D. Zimmer, Secretary Carroll County Government 225 North Center Street Westminster, Maryland 21157 410-386-2043; 1-888-302-8978 fax 410-386-2485; TT 410-848-9747
News Release For more information, contact: Vivian D. Laxton, Public Information Administrator, 410-386-2973 For Immediate Release
Commissioners eliminate positions
December 1, 2009 – In recognition of the economic situation and its impact on state and local revenues, the Board of County Commissioners today voted to eliminate more than 60 positions in Carroll County Government.
Eighteen of those positions are filled. “We regret losing these hard-working employees, who we consider to be our friends,” Commissioner Julia W. Gouge said during a news conference this afternoon.
Carroll County already has one of the leanest staffs in Maryland. A survey by the Maryland Association of Counties ranks Carroll as the second-lowest number of employees per capita.
Since July 1, the regular workforce has been reduced by 12 percent through retirements, attrition and lay-offs. The downsizing will result in an estimated $3 million savings a year.
As a result of the reduced workforce, programming at county parks will be reduced, response time for permits inspections will be lengthened, roads will take longer to clear of snow and ice, and services and hours at senior centers will be reduced.
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20091201 sdosm PR Carroll Co Commissioners eliminate positions
Paul Kenneth "Kenny" Burns has been a part of the
media scene in the Washington / Baltimore Area for 15 years. He is currently a staff producer with Radio America. Some of the programs he
produces are: The Ben Ferguson Show, Veterans Chronicles, Battle Line with Alan
Nathan and Talkin' Baseball.
He also assists with Doug Stephan's Good Day and
The G. Gordon Liddy Show. Kenny remains in his on-air capacity as a substitute
news anchor for Dateline Washington (also on
Radio America).
Kenny began his broadcast career in 1999 as a news assistant
for WTOP-AM / FM in Washington,
DC. He later left to pursue an
on-air opportunity at WNAV-AM in Annapolis,
Maryland before returning to the
Nation's Capital full-time. Kenny also has served as a Producer / Editor and
Airborne Reporter for traffic.com in Washington, DC,
logging many hours in the air and miles on the ground.
In addition to his broadcasting duties, he also covers
politics in Maryland.
Kenny blogs regularly at Maryland Politics Today and is one of the state's most
recognized bloggers. In addition, he is a contributor to PolitickerMD.com and has appeared on
WBAL-AM, WICO-AM and WAMD-AM as a political analyst and commentator.
Kenny currently makes his home in Laurel, Maryland.
Mike Huckabee: ‘I Take Full Responsibility’ for Granting Alleged Cop Killer Clemency In a Newsmax exclusive, former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee explains why he granted clemency nine years ago to Maurice Clemmons, the suspect in the brutal shooting of four police officers in Lakewood, Wash. Given the same set of facts, Huckabee writes, he would make the same decision that he did nearly a decade ago:
The nation was stunned by the senseless and savage cold-blooded murders of 4 young police officers in Lakewood, Washington. Whenever a police officer or soldier is killed, I feel the loss is even more profound for they are the ones who stand between our freedom and anarchy.
At the time I write these words, police are still searching for Maurice Clemmons who is believed to be the one committing these unspeakable acts. Nine years ago, that name crossed my desk. I commuted his sentence from 108 years to 47 years. Many news reports, talk show hosts, and bloggers have erroneously said that he was granted a “pardon.” Others speak of me “setting him free.” As one who now hosts a talk show and who does daily radio commentaries, I can attest to how easy commentary is compared to actually governing. I am not seeking to justify or defend my actions of nine years ago, but it’s important that I answer for my actions and give some explanation as to how and why his sentence was commuted.
I take full responsibility for my actions of nine years ago. I acted on the facts presented to me in 2000. If I could have possibly known what Clemmons would do nine years later, I obviously would have made a different decision. But if the same file was presented to me today, I would have likely made the same decision.
Vivian Laxton, Carroll County government public information administrator: The Board of County Commissioners will be holding a news conference at 5 p.m. today in the Public Hearing Room (003) of the County Office Building to discuss Carroll County’s budget. The County Office Building is located at 225 North Center Street in Westminster. Tuesday, December 01, 2009
A Baltimore Circuit Court jury has found Mayor Sheila Dixon GUILTY of one count of misappropriation. Stay with AM 1090 WBAL for continuing coverage of the Dixon trial and go to wbal.com for updates.
Hey, I think that if I got that for my wife for Christmas, even my kind, friendly and always understanding wife would promptly place the clothesline where the sun does not shine.
Although, once, I did ask her if I could get her a chainsaw for Christmas. I did not ask twice.
Mary Katherine Ham to Alicia Silverstone: Go Hunting
October 3rd, 2007
Although I have spent a large portion of my life as a vegetarian; as I grew older and life got particularly hectic, I gave it up – for now anyway.Who knows, tomorrow, I may go back.Whatever.
A number of years ago, as I was attempting to reason with an unreasonable person and losing miserably, a colleague said to me:
“You know what your problem is?”
“Ugh.”I really did not need advice at that particular moment; however, I prized his friendship and sheepishly asked: “What?”
“It's a dog eat dog world out there, and you're a vegetarian!"
We solved that by going out to a sub shop where I gave up the anorexic bliss of salads and voraciously scarfed down a cheese-steak sandwich.
It was a road to Damascus experience
I still lose miserably with folks who accept narcissistic fiction as fact, however, I am bigger now and I figure that if I am to be eaten alive, I might as well give folks a flavorful super-sized meal.
Then again, to be candid, I was never good at being a vegetarian.I never stopped eating animal crackers and every once and awhile at Moms, I’d dive into a steak – and I can rarely remember missing turkey at Thanksgiving.
I have a number of colleagues and some family members who are, at the moment, practicing vegetarians - and I respect that choice. Besides, I really like vegetables.Then there are folks who don’t like vegetables or are otherwise broccoli intolerant.To them I say, ya really ought to “give peas a chance.”
A member of my family, who is an avid vegetarian, recently gave some seafood a try.
Bold.
Writing for the Washington Post, Joel Achenbach says:
“Certain kinds of seafood, such as lobster, clams and crabs, are honorary forms of meat, but a small filet of a low-fat white fish should be viewed as essentially a vegetable. Raw oysters are manfood, as is any fish served with the head on and the mouth gaping in horror.
Me, I could live off of Dr. Pepper, coffee and grits.Hey, don’t knock the cooking with Dr. Pepper book.There are some great recipes in there.
I never tried the “vegan” approach.I often wondered how the term came about.When I was quite young I had a great deal of confusion over the term “vegetarian.”If vegetarians eat vegetables, what do humanitarians eat?
Mr. Achenbach calls to our attention a savior for vegans, who every once in awhile, go Jonesing for a milkshake – “soy cows.”
In the column he was initially singing the praises of his new “Fabulator 5000.”
What is a “Fabulator 5000?”I am so glad you asked.I was fascinated about this development since I am still using the Fabulator model No. 1953.
I’ll let Mr. Achenbach ‘splain:
“I love my new food printer, the Fabulator 5000, which makes the previous food printers look not just clunky but positively medieval. There's no more click-and-point nonsense on the screen, no more waiting five or six interminable minutes for the food to print. You just tell the Fab 5 what you want. The food comes out in about three or four seconds, complete with garnish and a complementary wine.”
Oh, the “soy cows?”Apparently Mr. Achenbach recently “took the kids … to Homewood Farm to see a good old-fashioned agricultural enterprise…”
“I got a look at the new soy cows, grazing in the large field just north of the orchard. The USDA apparently felt that soy milk could be produced much more efficiently if it came from cows made of soy. These cows are so green they nearly blend into the landscape. They say the soy milk is a lot better tasting (not as beany, somehow) than the stuff derived from plants, and the soy burgers are more tender. But you've probably read about how the soy cows dry up badly in drought conditions -- they literally wilt -- and even catch fire. Bored teenagers have been blamed for setting some of the cow fires.”
There is much to be appreciated by the vegetarian lifestyle; nevertheless my goal was to not be evangelical about it all.
But – and ya know there was going to be a “but” in here soon – I’ve never been fond of PETA’s Strindbergian gloom and bleakness approach to advocacy.
When I was a practicing vegetarian, invariably, some folks would suggest some linkage to me, a vegetarian, with PETA’s in-your-face humorless lactose intolerant militancy. An approach which often seems more oriented to being obnoxious and annoying instead of being compelling and persuasive to what is otherwise, a perfectly fine lifestyle, vegetarianism, for which PETA routinely does an injustice....
At a local government - social event, a local elected official’s wife was horrified that I was a vegetarian.“How can a big strapping former Marine be a vegetarian,” she gasped.
I solved that in quick order.She was a dog lover and the owner of a huge dog.I mean huge – about the size of a water buffalo.
I asked her if she had ever eaten dog.When I was in the Marines, a South Vietnamese ranger once cooked-up a mess of dog.
It tasted like chicken.
I suggested to my scowling friend that her St. Bernard could feed an entire village…And one wonders why I lost my last election?
Recently Alicia Silverstone did an ad for PETA that has garnered a great deal of attention.I can’t believe that it is winning over any converts to vegetarianism, but it has attracted attention to PETA.
Whether it is really the sort of attention that an advocacy organization wants is a bigger issue for which there is not right or wrong, it just isn’t my cup of tea.
Nevertheless, in age of so much strife and discord, I yearn for a time when peas will rule the planets, and love won’t be such a fuss. I long for the dawn of the age of asparagus.
Enter stage right, Mary Katherine Ham.Ms. Ham has done a spoof on the Ms. Silverstone ad that is a real crack-up.
WBAL is reporting: "The jury in the theft trial of Mayor Dixon has sent a note to the judge saying "'we cannot come to a unanimous decision on all counts." Stay with AM 1090 WBAL for continung coverage of the Dixon trial and go to wbal.com for updates."
I, for one, am not surprised. What are your thoughts?
I stumbled upon this post the other night while doing some research on authors and artists...
What a fun post.
J. Kingston Pierce writes in the web publication, "Limbo - The web site that's neither here or there," about book covers for crime detective novels. http://welcometolimbo.blogspot.com/
Readers of this page probably know what a fan I am of ... vintage novels that were ... well, up-front in their commercial enticements. U.S. illustrator Robert McGinnis is a particular favorite of mine (see a gallery of his work here). But I’ve also developed a fondness for R.A. Maguire and Walter Popp, as well as some of the artists currently working for Hard Case Crime (notably Greg Manchess, who did the front of Gil Brewer’s The Vengeful Virgin, and Glen Orbik, responsible for George Axelrod’s Blackmailer). Oh, and I can’t forget to mention Richie Fahey, who created the jacket of Megan Abbott’s The Song Is You, chosen by Rap Sheet visitors as one of the best covers of 2007.But somebody I’ve said less about is Reginald Heade, who’s been described as “probably the best British ‘girlie’ paperback cover artist of the 1950s.”
"[Heade] was born in 1902 or 1903--there is no record of his birth in England. He died in 1957, leaving no children, no will and no evidence of his existence other than his signatures on those gorgeous covers he produced. And in 1954, he even stopped signing his work, when the publisher of the books he illustrated went to jail on obscenity charges. Heade produced over 300 covers, most of them impossible to find. He is not listed in any British standard artist references--no one even recalls meeting him. A true man of mystery.
He’s hardly been forgotten, though. Independent Crime’s Nathan Cain has showcased several of Heade’s pulp jackets as part of his “book porn” series. And there’s an abundance of his lurid work on the Web. There was also, apparently, a digest-size book published in 1991--Reginald Heade: England’s Greatest Artist, by Steve Chibnall--that contains “[a] biography of this prolific artist, plus a complete checklist of his work.” It’s long been out of print, but I have given serious thought to buying one of the last-remaining used copies, even if it’s at a premium.
[...]
If, when I sat down to write this post, I was intrigued by Reginald Heade, I now find myself still more curious about him and his work. In our modern age, it’s hard to imagine a publisher producing a title such as The Filly Wore a Rod, much less hiring an illustrator to give it a cover that is at once compelling and sexy as all hell. Heade remains a standout. Guess I’ll have to Steve Chibnall biography after all.
posted by J. Kingston Pierce at 4:54 PMRead the entire post here: Heade of the Class Lots of links and the images from the book covers are lots of fun.
Earlier this evening I had to make an emergency run to Baugher’s for a pumpkin pie – I’m better now. November 29, 2009 Kevin Dayhoff http://tinyurl.com/yklwbep
As I am certain you are aware, it is only 284 days until Christmas. But even more importantly, there are only 262 days until the Westminster Christmas Parade on December 3rd, 2005. Please mark this date on your calendar now, so you do not miss all the fun with your friends and neighbors.
In keeping with the theme; “Westminster An Excellent Experience”, The Greater Westminster Development Corporation (GWDC), along with the City of Westminster and the Main Street Program are reviving an old Westminster Christmas tradition; the Christmas Parade.
“In order for an individual or an organization to remain vibrant, relevant and meaningful, it must constantly reinvent itself.”
Community leaders such as former Councilmember Sam Greenholtz, now Chair of the GWDC Board of Directors; Kathy O’Dell, Chair of the GWDC Downtown Main Street Promotions Committee; Lori Graham, President of the GWDC; Missie Wilcox; Sandy Scott; Lynn Aaron and Ron Schroers have rolled up their sleeves to plan this excellent experience.
It is yet another reminder that Westminster’s greatest resource is our human resource. The creative dreamers and dream keepers who are constantly thinking out of the box, with one eye on our past successes and a focus on the future, providing our community with the leadership to maintain “Westminster As An Experience”.
There are many resources that has made Westminster successful for 240 years, including our beautiful historic downtown, family oriented businesses and friendly shopkeepers, our new parking garages, Carroll Arts Center, and the Westminster Family Center in the old Armory Building.
The glue that puts all this together for a quality of life much greater than the sum of its parts are the dream keepers who roll up their sleeves and say let’s get it done.
Last Christmas, we moved the Community Christmas Tree and Santa to Locust Lane in the heart of the downtown shopping district. This year, the GWDC, and downtown merchants, are planning events, starting with the Tree Lighting Ceremony on November 26th and continuing throughout the week until the parade at 4:00 PM on Saturday the 3rd of December and Starlight Shopping when merchants and restaurants have specials and remain open late for shoppers.
Over fifty years ago, Christmas tradition in Westminster included a parade and shopping downtown with the family. In those days, the downtown-shopping district included East Green Street, West and East Main Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.
Some of the many shops and businesses on Pennsylvania Avenue included, Earhart Motors, O’Farrell Brothers Pontiac, The Avenue Barber Shop, Westminster TV and Radio Shop, Carroll Electric Service, Dutty’s Beauty Salon, Everhart’s Barber Shop, Wine’s Sports Shop, and Wilson’s Garage to name just a few.
Moreover, who can forget the huge toy department in Hollander’s Auto Store, Bobby’s Hobby Lobby, Rosenstock’s Ladies’ Shop, Gehr’s Hardware Store, The Treat Shop, and the Bixler and Guild Drug Store on Main Street.
The early parades marched west along Main Street to the “Forks” at Main Street and Pennsylvania Avenue where Santa Claus had his “temporary residence”. The jolly old fellow recently moved to Locust Lane, along with the Westminster Community Christmas Tree.
Main Street was decorated with large colored light bulbs that were strung on both sides of the street as well as across the street at various points. These strands were covered with live holly that had been meticulously wrapped around the wiring.
The Democratic Advocate on December 26, 1947 describes the parade with the “city’s two bands”, the American Legion, and the 29th Division Association. Christmas carols, led by Kale Mathias, were sung by the community. Santa often rode on a float, but was also know to come to town on a fire truck.
This year’s parade will be reminiscent of those former parades. Participants will include bands, antique cars, fire trucks and floats.
Businesses are encouraged to provide a float depicting their business and the holiday spirit. The merchants from the TownMall, Westminster Crossing and other areas are invited to participate and call attention to the many fine products that they too offer.
Of course, Santa Claus will be the featured guest as he is welcomed to Westminster while riding in a horse drawn carriage. Store windows will be decorated and musical groups will be strolling the streets to entertain both young and old.
While much of the program revolves around the downtown merchants, you should know that the GWDC represents all of the greater Westminster environs and this event is one of many excellent experiences promoting shopping in all of the Westminster area.
The GWDC was created in 1994 as a private public partnership of business and city leaders to work together cooperatively to maintain and further a positive business environment in Westminster.
Planning for the parade has already begun in earnest and sponsors, at various levels are welcome to help finance the project. More information can be obtained from Sam Greenholtz or calling the Westminster Main Street Program Manger, Stan Ruchlewicz at (410) 848-5294. And keep your hot chocolate at the ready.
Note: This is an earlier longer version of a column originally published in the Westminster Advocate on March 16, 2005
Santa Claus is greeted by Westminster Mayor Mathias and community leaders at Santa’s house on Locust Lane in downtown Westminster in this undated photo from either the late 1950s or very early 1960s. http://tinyurl.com/yb26gow
This is an undated photograph from the very early 1960s or 1950s, from old family papers. The photographer is unknown.
The gentlemen in the picture have been identified as best as possible. If someone believes that anyone has been misidentified, please be in touch. And of course, if any one knows the names of any the folks who are unidentified, that would be great.
Left to right in the front: 1 unidentified child; 2 immediately to Santa’s right, our left, is Andy Dietrich, the manager of Coffman Fisher; 3 Santa Claus was probably Kale Mathias; 4 Mayor Joseph L. Mathias is shaking hands with Santa Claus; 5 behind the handshake is Paul Wimert, the husband of Gladys Wimert and the manager of Mather’s.
In the back is 6, Harry Starr, standing behind Andy Dietrich. He was the manager of Gorsuch and Little. 7 is the gentleman who is pictured with glasses, but without a hat and he is unidentified. 8 the gentleman who is almost obscured by Santa Claus is, unfortunately also unidentified; and 9 is Atlee Wampler, representing the Retail Merchants Association.
Up through at least 1947, the city’s Christmas festivities took place at the forks at West Main Street and Pennsylvania Avenue; which at the time was considered to be the center of the downtown business district.
Mayor Mathias died in office on December 3, 1963 after serving in office continuously since May 18, 1942. Santa’s House in this picture is located on Main Street in what was then-Locust Lane, beside 41 East Main Street.
A portion of this information came from an interview of Mr. David Babylon, Jr., by Kevin Dayhoff on January 20, 2002. Mr. Babylon served on the Westminster Common Council from Westminster City Council May 11, 1964 to May 19, 1989.
[sdosm 20091128: 19600000s early xmas santa locust la old w names]
The “Miracle on Main Street” Holiday Event is Saturday, November 28th
Festivities will abound in Downtown Westminster on Saturday, November 28th. Stroll downtown early and try to figure out which decorated storefront will win this year’s Mayor’s Cup while grabbing a bite to eat.
Root for your favorite runner, as the Wishbone Mile takes to the streets of downtown. Sponsored by The Women’s Initiative Supporting Health (WISH) at the Carroll Hospital Center, this one mile fundraiser will occur at 4:45 p.m., just prior to the holiday parade.
And, what a parade it will be! Catch Westminster’s first ever Holiday Electric Light Parade at 5:00 p.m.
More than 50 themed floats with at least 2,000 lights on each will travel down Pennsylvania Avenue and Main Street to Longwell Avenue.
Immediately following the parade, the annual Tree Lighting Ceremony and awarding of The Mayor’s Cup will occur at the Locust Lane Stage.
Join Mayor Kevin Utz, Santa Claus and the Westminster Municipal Band, as they sing carols, award the Mayor’s Cup for the best decorated holiday storefront in Downtown Westminster and light the City Tree.
Santa’s Treat, a children’s event that includes children’s rides, games, prizes and, of course, Santa, will be held at the Westminster Family Fitness Center (Old Armory) following the Tree Lighting. Downtown shops will stay open until 10:00 p.m. that evening, as they hold their annual Starlight Shopping event.
Closing out the event will be the Grand Prize Drawings of the Holiday Giveaway at 9:00 p.m. More information on this great day will be forthcoming in the next issue of the Main Street News.
The Miracle on Main Street holiday event will be held throughout the day Saturday, Nov. 28, in Westminster.
Festivities begin with children carnival rides, 1-9 p.m. on the parking lot off Locust Street on the north side of Main Street.
At 2:30 p.m., the Carroll Arts Center, 91 W. Main St., will host a free Laurel & Hardy Film Festival. The films will conclude before 4:45 p.m. for the start of the Wishbone Mile benefit run, which benefits the Women's Initiative Supporting Health program.
Then, Santa will arrive during the Holiday Electric Parade at 5 p.m. The parade, which will follow Pennsylvania Avenue and Main Street to Longwell Avenue, includes 50 lighted floats, marching bands, horses, cars, marching units and Santa Claus.
Then, at Locust Lane Park after the parade, Mayor Kevin Utz, Santa and the crowd will light the city's Christmas tree while the Westminster Municipal Band will play holiday carols. Santa Claus will take up residence at his house on Distillery Drive after the tree-lighting ceremony.
Westminster's Recreation and Parks Department will host Santa's Treat in the gym at the Westminster Family Fitness Center (Old Armory), 11 Longwell Ave., at 6:30 p.m., with free games, crafts, activities and prizes.
And "Starlight Shopping" will be held 5-10 p.m. in many of downtown Westminster's shops and restaurants. At 9 p.m., a drawing for Holiday Shopping Spree winners will occur on the steps of the Family Fitness Center. People can register through Nov. 27 at participating stores.
The events are sponsored by the City of Westminster and the Greater Westminster Development Corporation's Main Street Committee.
The Thanksgiving holiday is always a mixed-up mashed-up confusion of words, colors, music, and taste. It’s an arrhythmic cacophony chromaticism of atonal colors…
The holiday started several days early as I devoured each word in Hindi at an Indian restaurant. I savored each morsel until they exploded into an arrhythmic cacophony chromaticism of atonal colors.
Vivid colors follow me everywhere – especially at Thanksgiving. I often try to photograph them. They are relatively easy to find.
At times, I feel stalked by them with a hurtling relentlessness. A regular paparazzi, if you will. But the sonorities of colors are my friends. Often they will phase-shift back into words that splash forth into music.
However, loud noises reduce everything into jarring spikes of stark gray tones, white noise and irrational cymbals - and I become worried. “I want the friendly colors back,” I plead.
Then again, on any given day, I rather enjoy reading the cross-eyed cartoons of Pablo Picasso and listening to the random dribbles of Jackson Pollock that drift in and out of my daily consciousness.
It is always fun to see and explore the relationship between abstract art, the daily colors, and music.
Old notes reveal that “Wassily Kandinsky once attended a performance of the grandfather of abstract music, composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951,) in 1911.
Monsieur Kandinsky later wrote to Monsieur Schoenberg and said:
“Please excuse me for simply writing to you without having the pleasure of knowing you personally. I have just heard your concert here and it has given me real pleasure. You do not know me, of course - that is, my works - since I do not exhibit much in general, and have exhibited in Vienna only briefly once and that was years ago.
“However, what we are striving for and our whole manner of thought and feeling have so much in common that I feel completely justified in expressing my empathy. In your works, you have realized what I, albeit in uncertain form, have so greatly longed for in music.”
We’ll explore more on that at another time.
Meanwhile, several days later I found myself traveling in the country to attend a family Thanksgiving dinner; an event which is always told in a southern gothic manner; full of fascinating family stories that often involve aspects of unexplained historical events, enigmatic dialogue, and inexplicable characters.
The new – December 2000 – steel arch bridge juxtaposed side-by-side with the historic old 1922 rare arch truss bridge is the perfect metaphor for the occasion, especially since a tragic family accident with a bridge in the mid-1940s, is part of the family folklore.
One published account relates that the 1922 bridge is “one of a limited number of examples of steel bridges modeled after the Hell’s Gate Arch in New York City…”
It always reminds me of forty years ago in the late summer of 1967 when we first learned from “Mama” that the nice young preacher, Brother Taylor “said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge. And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge.”
I first heard the song, “Ode to Billy Joe” by Bobbie Gentry on WCAO on the AM dial of the car radio. It was in this time period that I became firmly hooked on the existential - “Southern Gothic” genre of storytelling. To refresh your memory, the song can be found on the web at www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZt5Q-u4crc.
Of course you remember “Ode to Billy Joe.” Who can forget: It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day… And mama hollered at the back door "y'all remember to wipe your feet." And then she said she got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge. Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.”
Yes, the Paper Mill Bridge is located in Baltimore County, MD. Ms. Gentry’s tale took place in “Carroll County.”
Ms. Gentry has to this day remained circumspect about the haunting and mysterious tale of Mr. MacAllister, but one thing we have learned is that the “Carroll County” she is referring to in the song is “Carroll County Mississippi.” Come to find out, there are approximately 13 places in the United States called “Carroll County.”
Thanksgiving always make me think of southern gothic storytelling – and Jimi Hendrix, who was born on November 27, 1942.
Other examples of authors of the Southern gothic genre of writing include William Faulkner, Carson McCullers, Eudora Welty, Truman Capote, and Harper Lee. Tennessee Williams is said to have described the genre as stories that reflect “an intuition of an underlying dreadfulness in modern experience.”
As for Thanksgiving itself; instead of reading a Thanksgiving story, you eat it and enjoy the colors.
Fortunately much of Thanksgiving is written by the American composer Aaron Copland (Nov. 14, 1900 – Dec. 2, 1990 and painted by Norman Rockwell (Feb. 3, 1894 —Nov. 8, 1978.)
It was Mr. Copeland who actually won a Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for Appalachian Spring. Nothing says Thanksgiving dinner better than Mr. Copeland’s ballets Billy the Kid (1938), Rodeo (1942) and Appalachian Spring (1944, Fanfare for the Common Man (1943) and the music for the films Our Town (1940.)
Over the years, I have become much more enamored with Southern gothic storytelling, which is frequently more creative – and often more disturbing in the manner it which it peels away the layers of a community or society; yet does not tell a reader what to think, but causes them to think.
More often than not, the tale is told by way of dialogue as with “Ode to Billy Joe” where the story in the song creates many more questions than answers and this invites a ‘participation’ on the part of listener. Moreover, often you never get a firm grasp on the primary narrator.
Just as with Thanksgiving stories, the song’s plot makes known several themes. The first of which is obvious in that just like many popular Thanksgiving holiday stories, it reveals a snapshot of life in a particular period in history.
But it is the other prominent theme that is particularly disturbing as it peels away the layers of indifference that contemporary society shows towards our fellow human beings – or in the case of “Ode to Billy Joe,” the loss of life.
It is at this point that the narrator of this story from “Ode to Billy Joe” says: “Child, what's happened to your appetite? I've been cookin' all morning and you haven't touched a single bite,” and changes your channel back to the reality of the Thanksgiving dinner table.
You smile knowingly without giving away any of the plot and in the words of Jamie Kelly, “spare a thought for the millions of sweet potatoes, cut down in their prime.”
Over the years Thanksgiving has become synonymous with color-graphemic gustatory synesthesia. This piece is best read with the colors orange and beige and accompanied by the music of pumpkin pie with a whipped cream topping.
