Volume 44 Edition 4 April 2015 Submit articles to: [email protected] By the 15th of each month FFS Board Of Directors A Non-Profit Corporation for Traditional Arts President Denise Sciandra [email protected] Notes from Board President, Denise Sciandra Who is Nancy Waidtlow? She is a longtime Fresno Folklore Society Vice President Paul Starcevich member and she is an advocate for the homeless. [email protected] Nancy left Salinas to attend Fresno State in 1960. She had gotten a taste Secretary for folk music at Hartnell Junior College in Salinas with "hootenannies" in Sue Wirt [email protected] the student union. Shortly after moving to Fresno, she discovered the concerts put on by the Fresno Folk Music Club. She even went to a weekend retreat at Sweet's Treasurer Mill. Jim Ross [email protected] Nancy returned to Salinas briefly but came back to Fresno State to get a teaching Concert Master credential. She found the new Fresno Folklore Society. She took in concerts at the Steve Ono Wild Blue Yonder. There were parties, especially at the "Blackstone House" where [email protected] several women lived, including Sue Beevers and Maria Wortham. Linda Halk and Membership Sherron Brown became good friends and singing partners. She was "blown away" by Patty Bennett [email protected] Gene Bluestein, Pete Everwine, Jon Adams, Utah Phillips, Bodie Wagner and later by the whole Sweet's Mill scene. She tried to learn to play the guitar and later the Lifetime Member Alan Hubbart autoharp but was never confident enough to join the jams. She and her kids had parts in Sue Beevers' famous plays and she took belly dance lessons from Sue. Members At Large Linda Guerrero Nancy was active in mailing the FFS Flyer for many years. She hosted potluck music [email protected] parties at her home and served on the FFS Board. She was president for one year, Bill Lehr 1996, but "discovered" Pat Wolk who she recruited to succeed her as president. [email protected] Nancy "loves" the memories of good times with the "Folks" which included going to Karen Starcevich [email protected] protest marches and demonstrations against war and injustice. The music of Pete Seeger; Peter, Paul & Mary; and Bob Dylan was a big part of that as well as Odetta at Ann Lamb the Wild Blue Yonder. Bill Johnson [email protected] The activist side of her life has taken precedence. She became a Raging Granny when "Ellie Bluestein could no longer be denied." She traveled to Washington, D.C., in Flyer Editor 2011 for the Occupy movement and spent time at the Occupy camp in Courthouse Bill Johnson [email protected] Park in Fresno. She saw firsthand the misery of the homeless people of Fresno. She got to know them at the canal bank camps. She attended meetings of the Eco Village Calendar Editor Maria Glover group. HM 559-322-8677 Cell 559-281-8278 Nancy thought she could help her "new homeless friends" by creating a safe place [email protected] for them to live and rebuild their lives. She used money saved from teaching and a "modest" inheritance from her mother to buy land. Logo Design by Tom Walzem The Fresno Folklore Society “Flyer” is a monthly publication. at Otto Creative FFS P.O. Box 4617 Fresno, CA 93744 Banjo Frog Art Submit articles for publication to [email protected] by Jon Adams by the 15th of each month President’s Notes (continued) Her son, Josh Waidtlow, made time to renovate the house on the property which was in "horrible shape". It took him a year. After that, Art Dyson designed the first prototype eco shelter and it got its first resident. A woman that Nancy met at the canal bank encampment became the house manager. The Eco Village 501c(3) group agreed to be the financial umbrella group for her project, finally given the name of Dakota EcoGarden (DEG). DEG is seeing successes. People are getting jobs, getting their health issues taken care of, going to City College, and learning that "kale and other fresh vegetables can be not only nutritious, but delicious." DEG has a maximum of thirteen residents. Most live in tents on platforms Clockwise from top: Sherron Brown, Nancy Waidtlow, Anne Mosgrove, with canopy covers. There are two bedrooms available to be rented. Nancy Lore Byxby, Lynn Ross, Linda Booth, Linda Halk says, "We have managed to be excellent neighbors; we have insurance; and we don't have to spend millions of dollars." The "bare bones budget" for keeping the project going is a few hundred dollars a month plus the $600 received in rent for the two bedrooms. The FFS has participated in this project in "very real and much appreciated" ways. Musicians have provided entertainment at the monthly potluck/open houses. Steve Ono, Kathryn Johnson, Carl Johnsen, Bill Lehr, Linda Guerrero, Susan Heidebrecht, Larry Cusick, Mike Reilly, and Linda Booth have all participated. Sue Wirt has put the event news into the Flyer. Jim and Lynn Ross have donated jam to be sold. Ann Lamb and Lynnie Woodall are regular contributors of needed "stuff." Henry French and others have contributed cash. Nancy says, "A big thank you to all of you!" Ways to help the DEG: Money: Tax deductible donations may be made to The Eco Village Project of Fresno designating "Dakota EcoGarden". Materials/supplies: Garden tools, plants and construction tools and materials are needed as well as discards for the yard sale. Time: Work in the garden or provide music for future open houses. Please contact Nancy Waidtlow at [email protected] or 559-224-1738 for additional information. (Denise Sciandra) Early Times in the Fresno Folk Scene by Evo Bluestein Evo continues with interviews regarding early Fresno folk history. This month Frank Hicks follows up on his remembrances of the old days. Author's Note: An earlier excerpt about Frank Hicks ran in the September 2014 FFS newsletter. This excerpt picks up from his high school graduation in June 1941. Frank went to work for the railroad in 1950, became an engineer in 1956 and continued his career with the railroad until retiring in 1982. Fortunately, his railroad career enabled him to take off time to play music. Frank's introduction to Sweet's Mill (via Bob Thompson) changed his life and the lives of others. As jazz violinist Paul Anastasio recalled, "Until I met Frank, I had never seen anyone play like that; it made me the player that I am now. He was the finest rhythm guitarist I've heard live or on record. He was simply a phenomenal jazz musician and a great guy who should have been better known." Frank Hicks 1922-1995 (Part 2, Continued from March Flyer) I went to school with Bob Thompson’s nephew. Bob Thompson built some guitars and he also played but he couldn’t keep good time. He was trying to play with Pete Everwine, and he invited me up to Sweet’s Mill and introduced me to Pete as someone who’d be able to really play with him. I had never heard Pete, so we sat down to play. It was simple for me. I heard those tunes all my life but nobody wanted to hear ‘em. The banjo didn’t make a comeback until the hootenannies. I hadn’t played that music in a long time. I was doing other kinds of music. I was working at Arabian Nights with Guy Chakurian for a belly dance show. Anyway Pete and I became friends, and Pete said a fiddle would go well with this, but he didn’t know any fiddlers. We had a program for a club started by Roger Derryberry called The Gallery–just the two of us and everybody liked us so that’s when Pete said we ought to get a fiddler. I had played with Ron Hughey back in 1934, ’35 and ’36 for dances. We went to see Ron in his welding shop, in Fowler. I hadn’t seen him in a long time. He turned around, and he had that welding helmet on, and I said, 'Is Ron Hughey here?' 'Damn you!' he said. 'Damn you son of a bitch! Where you been?' He come up a-hugging me you know. I said, 'Do you still play the fiddle Ronny?' He said, 'There it is–right there in the corner!' I said, 'Get it out. I brought a banjo player.' He took off all that welding stuff, grabbed a fiddle and played good as ever he did. He was a hoedown playing fool with arms six feet long. We got to playing quite a bit, did some concerts, and I started going to Sweet’s Mill and playing folk music. I never was in that *scene+ before. I like folk music and potlucks and bringing my steam engine I built to grind coffee. I liked Sweet’s Mill. Hell, I would have lived there, forgot everything, no mail, nothing else, just stay there. I loved it. I liked the type of people. I have played with a lot of fakes in my life. Out on the stage they were half-way human, but behind the curtain they were just a bunch of fakes. It’s just a show out front. You get them back stage and they all hate each other. When I got to doing this folk thing, I quit all other music. This is really what I liked. It was no pressure; it was simple. We got to playing around a lot and Alan Oakes said he’d like to book me and Ron and Pete.