Steam Expo: Saturday morning I skipped breakfast (but not coffee) to pick Nancy up at South Station and zip over to Waltham for the Steam Expo. Skipping breakfast was a bad idea. I was grouchy and tired. We walked the entire length of Moody Street before we found a place to get something quick to eat.
The expo was worth a little initial crankiness though. We were disappointed that the advertised calliope was not there but everything else was great fun. My favorites were the tiny steamboats puttputting around the swimming pool and the Stanley Steamer. The 12-ton steam roller was impressive but they didn't have it running until after we left the exhibit area to go on the boat ride.
We sailed on the MV Totem Pole twice, following the steamboats from the Moody Street dock up to Woerd Ave. The normal tour on the Totem Pole goes up to Norumbega (site of the former Totem Pole Ballroom for those who wonder about the boat's moniker) but for the Steam Expo they were doing only half hour tours. The steamboats looked wonderful with their plumes of steam against the red and yellow leaves along the riverbank. Flocks of Canada geese and mallard ducks were munching out in a huge algae slick. Louis the widower swan of Woerd Ave had moved downstream out of the way of the steamboats. He seemed to be enjoying the company of the geese and ducks.
It was cold out on the river. Fall is really here. The bright sun in crisp blue sky didn't warm us enough. We needed winter jackets.
I wish I could convey the feeling of the day: being surrounded by movement, gears and driveshafts turning, pistons moving up and down, the smell of wood smoke from the boilers, the acrid smell of steam, the sound of the whistle, the pretty good country band, the cool October air, the reflections of red leaves in the river, the great blue heron cruising low by the farther shore, the mallards quacking, industry and nature in the same celebration.
Lowell Celebrates Kerouac: Ed Sanders. Rob Buck.
Saturday night, after a long day at the Steam Expo, I went to
Lowell
to hear Ed
Sanders as part of the Lowell Celebrates Kerouac festival. Nancy
stayed at my house resting as she's getting over a bad cold (which I
now apparently have).
I met Tom & Julie there and also a colleage of Tom's from Northern Essex and his girlfriend. We all sat near the front of the Smith-Baker auditorium.
Rob Buck of 10,000 Maniacs fame opened with a really long number that included passages from Mexico City Blues. His band, Hitchhiker, included a Morroccan guy playing a bombarde-like reed instrument and a flute. Rob Buck did the percussion, another guy on sax and a really bad guitar player rounded out the band. Julie hated them. Tom disliked them but could see some talent. I liked them except for the guitar. The Morroccan guy more than made up for the bad guitar.
Ed Sanders was fabulous. His Hymn to the Rebel Cafe, and his piece in memory of Janis Joplin blew me away. He talked about how every generation is the lost generation, how biography is hostile nowadays, how things change through history but there's a continuity of change, how Leonardo da Vinci never finished anything: nothing is ever really done. I wished I could've had another hour of him at least. He did The Fugs' Morning, Morning as his encore and that was the only Fugs song he did. I could have listened to him all night.
We all walked over to the Kerouac Commemorative at the foot of John Street and lit candles. A few people read from Mexico City Blues. In the shadows, a young man played the saxophone. Ed Sanders videotaped the monument by candlelight moving from stone to stone to get every passag e of Jack's words. There was just enough breeze that the candles kept going out and we could see our breath in the cold night air.
Exeter: Memories Ice Cream. Leaves.
Sunday after breakfast Nancy and I drove up to Exeter leaf peeping
along the backroads. We stopped at Memories Ice Cream, which is no
Benson's, but is good.
Sitting in the park by the founders monument in Exeter sipping coffee and listening to the water rushing over the dam felt so good.
And now: Tired. Very tired. Very very tired.