Fall–Winter 2004 Volume 30: 3–4

The Journal of New York Folklore

American Disaster Songs

The Veterans History Project

African American Fraternity Folklore

Lysistrata and Puppets for Peace

Blackface Minstrel Shows in the Adirondacks From the Director

In a process that Project, which gathers veterans’ narratives provide folklore information and resources began in September throughout New York State. The New York for teachers. The curriculum guide, “Voices 2003, the board and Folklore Society is pleased to be an official of New York Traditions,” provides resourc- staff of the New partner in this effort. es for the fulfillment of New York State York Folklore Soci- A Library of Congress program adminis- English language arts curriculum, and we ety have completed tered by the American Folklore Society, the are presenting workshops on folklore in a new strategic plan Veterans’ History Project was created by an act education throughout the state. To arrange that charts a course of Congress on October 27, 2000, “to collect a workshop for your school district or pur- for the Society. The the memories, accounts, and documents of chase a curriculum guide, please contact the first task was to agree war veterans” and “to preserve these stories of New York Folklore Society. upon a vision for the Society and to reeval- experience and service for future generations.” uate our mission statement. The new vision The NYFS staff has conducted workshops 2005 Partnerships and mission statements, approved in March and provided technical assistance to central This spring, NYFS will be partnering with 2004, are the following: New York schools and historical societies that the Museum Association of New York and Vision: The New York Folklore Society recog- wish to initiate a project. Our Mentoring and the Upstate History Alliance at a conference nizes and celebrates the extraordinary in everyday Professional Development Program has pro- titled “The Next Generation,” to be held April life, bringing focus to the traditions of our state’s vided assistance so that projects can continue 24–25, 2005, at the Rochester Museum and diverse peoples. New York Folklore Society is the beyond the initial startup work supported by Science Center. Each year the MANY/ leading resource for folklore and folklife by dissemi- the Library of Congress. If you would like UHA conference, the largest gathering of nating research and information throughout the state. more information on the project or want to museum professionals and volunteers in Mission: The New York Folklore Society fosters host a workshop, please contact the New York the state, brings together individuals from the study, promotion, and continuation of folklore Folklore Society, (518) 346-7008. all types and sizes of museums, historical and folklife of New York’s diverse cultures through societies, and other cultural institutions. We education, advocacy, support, and outreach. Sponsored “Field Trips” are pleased to be in partnership with them The board then identified five goals for Since its beginnings, NYFS has sponsored at to explore issues in which we share common the Society’s next five years: least one conference a year. Increasingly in the concerns. Please contact us if you would like • diversify and increase financial support; past sixty years, this conference has explored to receive a conference brochure. • strengthen programs and services; the folklore and folk culture of the host region. This spring NYFS will also partner with • create a better public image and posi- Building on that successful concept, we have the Mid-Atlantic Folklore Association, at an tion for the New York Folklore Society; retitled this program “New York Field Trips” annual conference in the Catskills at Round • recognize and incorporate the perspec- as part of our effort to bring the conferences’ Top, New York, on May 13–15, 2005. The tives and contributions of diverse peoples educational offerings to a wider audience. Mid-Atlantic Folklore Association is an throughout every level of NYFS, its pro- The 2004 Field Trip took place on October association of folklorists and allied cultural grams and services; and 29–30 in the Finger Lakes. “Watkins Glen: specialists who seek to further the under- • systematize, stabilize, and increase Where NASCAR Meets Nature” explored standing, appreciation, and presentation of effectiveness of financial and management the area’s foodways, International Speedway, folk culture in New York, New Jersey, Penn- operations. salt industry, and natural beauty. Next year’s sylvania, Maryland, Delaware, the District The full plan, developed with the help of “Celebrating 60 Years of Folklore Writing” of Columbia, Virginia, and West Virginia. consultant Diane Strock-Lynskey of S-L As- will be at Sleepy Hollow and mark the sixti- Please contact NYFS, at (518) 346-7008, sociates, was presented at our annual meeting, eth year of the New York Folklore Society if you would like details and registration on October 29, 2004, at Watkins Glen, New journal. Come celebrate with us! information. York. Copies are available on request. Ellen McHale, Ph.D., Executive Director Resources for Educators New York Folklore Society [email protected] Veterans’ History Project With support from the National Endow- www.nyfolklore.org This issue of Voices: The Journal of New York ment for the Arts and the New York State Folklore focuses on the Veterans’ History Council on the Arts, NYFS is working to Erratum

“Having a real effect upon the legislation and public policies that are impacting traditional cultures in America will require our stepping up to the plate early and educating ourselves on how to fight politically.” —Peggy A. Bulger, American Folklore Society Presidential Address, 2002 Contents Fall–Winter 2004

8 Features 6 The Vietnam Veterans Oral History and Folklore Project by Lydia Fish 8 War Stories: Vietnam Experiences Retold in Plastic, Dirt, and Paint by Varick Chittenden and Photographs by Martha Cooper 12 Validating the Vets: A Legacy of Experience and Service by Mary Zwolinski 14 Telling War Stories in Chemung County 22 by Heather A. Wade 18 Everyday History Saved on Tape by Gregory M. Lamb 22 The Survival of Blackface Minstrel Shows in the Adirondack Foothills by Susan Hurley-Glowa 29 Infused with Spirit: National Heritage Fellow Chuck Campbell by Robert Stone 32 Catskill Folk Festivals: A Sense of the Dance of Life by Karyl Denison Eaglefeathers 36 “We Never Will Forget”: Disaster in American Folksong from the Nineteenth Century to September 11, 2001 by Revell Carr 42 Burning Messages: Interpreting African American Fraternity Brands and Their Bearers by Sandra Mizumoto Posey Departments and Columns 32 2 Field Notes 4 Upstate by Varick A. Chittenden 5 Downstate by Steve Zeitlin 21 Lawyer’s Sidebar by Paul Rapp 28 Eye of the Camera by Martha Cooper 31 Library Essentials byTom van Buren 35 Foodways by Lynn Case Ekfelt Cover: Anonymous. 1840. “On the 42 46 Media Bites Burning of the Steamer Lexington.” by Jeff Bradbury Broadside printed at 71 Greenwich Lane, New York City. Courtesy of 47 Book Reviews John Hay Library, Brown University.

Fall–Winter 2004, Volume 30: 3–4 1 Puppets for Peace: The Remake of

Aristophanes’ Lysistrata BY EMILY DAVIS

In winter 2003, the invasion of Iraq was and to become part of an international move- planned to meet at the park across from the imminent. In response, two New York ac- ment. United Nations on the appointed date. Be- tresses, Kathryne Blume and Sharron Bower, Because puppetry is one of our theatrical tween that chilly rehearsal in Brooklyn and the organized the Lysistrata Project, subtitled “A specialties, we decided to create a large-puppet performance, we lost several actors, including World-Wide Theatrical Act of Dissent.” Large- Lysistrata. Our puppet creator, Shannon Har- our main character, but others stepped in to

FIELD NOTES ly through person-to-person contact, people vey, brainstormed what simple images could all over the world found out about the idea to best conjure up this war comedy and con- stage readings, performances, and interpreta- cluded that because the play focused so blunt- tions of the ancient Greek comedy Lysistrata, ly on sexuality, we should employ images that written by Aristophanes. This bawdy antiwar would quickly symbolize man and woman. Fall–Winter 2004 · Volume 30: 3-4 play explores what happens when the wom- To that end, the female characters were enor- Editors Felicia Faye McMahon and Sally Atwater en of Greece decide to stop the war by giving mous bright red lips, and the male characters Photography Editor Martha Cooper up sex. The idea of the project was to get as were cannons and rockets. Since we’d not gone Design Mary Beth Malmsheimer Printer Digital Page, Inc. many productions of the play performed as for subtlety, we felt we could best tell the story possible throughout the city and ultimately in musical form. I began writing the “Lysis- Editorial Board Varick Chittenden, Lydia Fish, Nancy Groce, Lee Haring, Libby Tucker, around the world on March 3. The bolder trata Rap,” partly inspired by a rock musical Kay Turner, Dan Ward, Steve Zeitlin and bigger, the better. version of the play I’d seen as a child. Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore Our company, Messenger Theatre Compa- At a meeting with about 50 other artists in is published twice a year by the ny, found out about the project via e-mail and a black box theater at New Dramatists, we New York Folklore Society, Inc. 133 Jay Street instantly joined in. We had been feeling a learned how to get permits to perform in P.O. Box 764 growing frustration and helplessness about public spaces and heard advice about what to Schenectady, NY 12301

world events and had been searching for ways do if arrested for performing in a public space New York Folklore Society, Inc. to make a difference. We had already created a without one. We dutifully wrote down phone Executive Director Ellen McHale Administrative Assistant April Fernandez Punch and Judy–style morality puppet show numbers and locations and began determin- Web Administrator Patti Mason about war but had found few occasions to ing when and where to perform. Voice (518) 346-7008 perform it. The Lysistrata Project offered us With a crew of around eight actors, we re- Fax (518) 346-6617 Website www.nyfolklore.org the opportunity to make a larger statement hearsed once outdoors in Brooklyn and Board of Directors President Mary Zwolinski Vice President Hanna Griff Secretary-Treasurer Ladan Alomar Karen Canning, Susan Chodorow, Pamela Cooley, James Corsaro, Eniko Farkas, Nancy Johnson, Elena Martínez, Marline Martin, Stan Ransom, Bart Roselli, Greer Smith, Sherre Wesley, Kevin White, Lynne Williamson

Advertisers: to inquire, please call the NYFS (518) 346-7008 or fax (518) 346-6617

Voices is available in Braille and recorded versions. Call NYFS at (518) 346-7008.

The programs and activities of the New York Folklore Society, and the publication of Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore, are made possible in part by funds from the New York State Council on the Arts. Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore is indexed in Arts & Humanities Citation Index and Music Index and abstracted in Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life. Reprints of articles and items from Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore are available through the ISI Document Solution, Institute for Scientific Information, 3501 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104. (215) 386-0100. ISSN 0361-204X In March 2003, the cast of Lysistrata performed across from the United Nations © 2004 by The New York Folklore Society, Inc. All rights reserved. headquarters to protest the impending invasion of Iraq. The oversized puppets were made by Shannon Harvey. Photo: Emily Davis

2 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore replace them, and the final cast—Alex Cutler, Lysistrata Rap, by Emily Davis Alex Davis, Jenny Deller, Bekka Fink, Laura Fontaine, Steve Moramarco, Brian Stockton, Lys-lys-lys—LYSISTRATA! ‘We really cannot love and Brooke Volkert—was ready to improvise. Lys-lys-lys—LYSISTRATA! until this war is over. On March 3, around lunchtime, we gath- You’ll have to make some peace See, the men were fighting, if you want to be my lover.’” ered at the park and drew a small but curious they were fighting in the wars. crowd as we performed. We had a permit— They were gone all the time, The women said, “I guess she’s right. but no appreciable audience. all their boats were gone from shores. We swore we’d do whatever. And then CNN arrived to film the piece I take the oath to start tonight, It was Athens versus Sparta no matter what the weather.” and interview the performers. Witnessing this in the land of ancient Greece. process was one of the most revealing things Didn’t have no Magna Carta, They took over the Acropolis, I’ve ever seen about the media. While film- they couldn’t make the peace. they stockpiled all the money. And when the men showed up in town, ing, the CNN crew got in the actors’ way, stood Lysistrata came along looking for some honey, in obstructive places, and seemed unaware that and gathered all the women. there was something happening around She said, “We can get along The women cried out, “We want Peace!” them. Suddenly it was CNN’s puppet show, as we sit and do our spinning. They cried out, “Stop the war! Unless you make some peace, with cameras and microphones popping up “See, I have this idea, you’re not getting any more.” everywhere and actors trying to sing and oper- and I hope that you will follow. ate puppets around them. We can stop these wars, The commissioner yelled, I was also taken aback by the interviewing. make a peaceful tomorrow. he kicked and cried and screamed. They dressed him up in women’s clothes The reporter seemed to want to show weird “Let me ask you this— with makeup, heels, and creams. people doing a crazy puppet show about sex. are you game, are you willing And he aggressively pursued his agenda, ask- to put an end to war, He went and told the other men to put an end to killing?” who came back looking rigid, ing leading and somewhat absurd questions “We can’t believe this— of a young and inexperienced actor but ignor- The women said, “Yes, every Grecian woman is frigid!” ing one of the creators of the piece until she we would lay down our lives. said something inflammatory to get his at- We have suffered for these men, They called for Lysistrata we’re their mothers and their wives.” to make the peace. tention. The questions—“Do you think Laura They were beat, they were licked, Bush should withhold sex from the Presi- “Okay,” said Lysistrata, they wanted a piece. dent?” and “Why would withholding sex stop “Then here’s what we will do. the war?”—seemed to imply that we were at- We will have to abstain “Lysistrata!” they called, until they pull through.” “We’re ready to talk. tempting to recreate Lysistrata’s story rather With our cocks in this condition than stage it. “Abstain from what?” we can hardly walk!” After our encounter with CNN, we per- the women cried. “From food? From dancing? “Okay, Athens, okay, Sparta, formed at Grand Central Station—without a From eating codfish fried?” shake hands now. We’re all a part permit. We managed to rap a couple of times of the same old globe, the same old earth. and were interviewed and filmed by NY1 be- “From sex!” said their leader. Make peace now for all you’re worth.” fore being asked to move along. If either net- “We’ll give it up no more. We must make these men remember So they shook hands work ever aired our puppet show, no one we who they are fighting for.” and agreed on the terms. know saw it, and in the end, few people heard They divided the lands, what the play had to say. Nevertheless, we had “From sex?” said the women. even the worms. been a part of an international event. All across “You want me to do what? No way. No thanks. There was dancing and singing the world, artists were expressing their disap- I’d rather be shot.” for many long days, proval about the Iraq war. Our dissent didn’t and other stuff, too, stop the invasion, but at least we made our “Hold on!” said Lysistrata. that we can’t really say. “Just think about this. voices heard in the way that we know best— If each side plays along, So peace was made theatrically. it really cannot miss. in ancient Greece when the women united Emily Davis (emilyrainbow@ “We’ll tease and touch and pamper them, to make true peace. earthlink.net) is the artistic director we’ll make them want us bad, for the Messenger Theatre Company then when it comes down to it, Lys-lys-lys—LYSISTRATA! in New York City. we say, ‘Oh, that’s too bad! Lys-lys-lys—LYSISTRATA! Peace!

Fall–Winter 2004, Volume 30: 3–4 3 To Publish or Not to Publish? That Was the Question BY VARICK A. CHITTENDEN

I was planning to write this column about of the Knights of St. John who saved fellow presidential campaigns and their relevance to Crusaders from being burned alive. So it is the small towns of upstate New York, and I with symbols: They can shift in meaning over UPSTATE had settled on an account of Teddy time and among cultures. They can be inter- Roosevelt’s stop in my hometown during his preted—or misinterpreted—for good or for Bull Moose campaign of 1912, as told to me evil, even lose their original meaning entirely. by an old farmer years ago. I changed my mind, As folklorists, we should be sensitive to however, after a series of exchanges over the these changes and their values. I do not blame publication of a simple snapshot. our editors for being cautious—I wouldn’t When Voices issued a call for articles rel- want to offend readers, either. But as docu- evant to the national Veterans History Project, mentarians, we must tell the truth about what photographer Martha Cooper and I prepared we find in our research, especially if explain- a photo essay based on our work about a North ing the context will clarify issues like this Country native who served in Vietnam (see one. If we want to sanitize folk expressions, page 8). we should be writing for Golden Books. The snapshot in question—the one that ap- I must confess that Marty Cooper and I pears on this page—was among other candids flirted with the idea of “Photoshopping” the Mike’s buddies had taken of him on fire bases cross right off Mike’s chest, leaving just the and in the jungle during a thirteen-month tour suggestion of dog tags. We thought that might of duty. Here we see him at age nineteen, Michael Cousino at American base at Khe make the photo palatable. The next morning, San, 1968. Unidentified photographer. surrounded by the trappings of war, far from Photo reprinted courtesy of University I really realized the ethics of that move were his small town, a boy warrior. Press of Mississippi. worse than not publishing it at all. This picture of youthful strength and inno- Instead, I asked to include the image with cence could have been the cover of this maga- man military symbols. By 1957, German vet- this column, taking full responsibility for the zine. In fact, I believe it should have been. It is erans were allowed once again to wear the decision. Of course, my entire book on Mike a beautiful image, both evocative and aestheti- Iron Cross as a recognition of their bravery in and his experiences might not pass the judg- cally pleasing. But the editors raised questions combat. ment of some readers, since offensive mate- about its appropriateness, for one small but When asked recently why he wore the cross rials are frequently parts of Mike’s stories. important reason. Can you find it? for that picture, Mike said, “A Marine buddy”— Don’t look now, but they include a Confed- It is, of course, the pendant Mike is wear- he can’t remember his name—“was about to erate flag, nudity, profanity, misogyny, and ing—a simple Maltese cross given him by a leave Vietnam for home and was cleaning out unbelievable violence. friend. The editors’ objection: it could be con- his duffle bag when he found this cross and From the original texts of the folktales of strued as a Nazi symbol and offend many, if asked me if I wanted it. I took it. I thought it the Brothers Grimm to contemporary stories not most, Americans. Best not to publish it was just a cross at the time. It was cool and of prison life or songs of the drug culture, on the cover of our folklore magazine. what the motorcycle dudes wore. Another guy folklorists have been dealing with the reali- I have since learned that the Maltese cross later in the day said he wanted to take my ties of everyday life. Some of those realities has a long history, going back to the Crusades, picture so I decided to put on the cross as just are not very pleasant. And if we are to write when it signified Christian commitment to something to do. I never wore it since ’cause it about them, we have to be ready for the con- fight against Muslims. Over time, it became was so heavy. I was later told it had something troversy that follows. the Prussian “iron cross,” meant to honor acts to do with Germans and World War II. When of heroism in the War of Liberation against someone told me it was a Nazi symbol, I tossed Varick A. Chittenden is professor emeritus Napoleon. It remained a German symbol of it. But if you like the picture, use it. I don’t of English, SUNY bravery for nearly a century, through World mind what people will think!” Canton College of Technology, and War I. Then it was reintroduced by Hitler to The Iron Cross has been used by neo-Nazis executive director of invoke the folkloric imagery of great victo- and as a hate symbol, with or without a swas- Traditional Arts in Upstate New York ries and gallant warriors. In 1945, when the tika. But it is also the treasured symbol of (TAUNY). Photo: swastika was outlawed, so were other Ger- firefighters, first associated with the bravery Martha Cooper

4 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Rock and Word BY STEVE ZEITLIN

For decades, ever since college, I have be- Creek Beds—and down to the rock beaches the grain, the way a good poet knows how gun my days sitting in an armchair first in north Yonkers that run along the train to break the lines. with a typewriter and then a laptop on my tracks. It took me back to a childhood spent As folklorists become less bound by knees, writing poetry. I consider it a form foraging in vacant lots. hard and fast notions of “tradition” in our of centering, looking into a different kind And it brought me back to poetry. I soon work, we discover that folk culture includes of mirror—not to comb my hair, but to discovered that stones, like words, are ev- not only crafts such as stonemasonry but remind myself of who I am. erywhere. The trick to building a stone wall poetry itself, even when it’s not handed Yet, when I turned fifty, I felt the need is to find rocks that fit into one another down across generations, even when it for a new avocation. I decided to forgo po- perfectly and form a structure that won’t originates with the individual—particularly ems and spend mornings building a stone collapse from its own weight. A poem is a if it’s part of the expressive culture of this wall with my two hands in the backyard. dry stone wall, bearing only a passing re- nation’s subcultures, such as cowboys, log- In fact, I was hoping to impress my wife, semblance to a wet wall, whose concrete is gers, cops, nurses, or fishermen. Poetry folklorist Amanda Dargan, who had re- like the music that holds a song together. plays a central role in all the cultures I’ve cently completed a project on the stone- My dry wall, like a poem, relies solely on studied or been a part of. Poetry is the most masons of Westchester County. An Ecua- rocks: words and their placement. participatory of the arts. Our legacy of lan- dorian mason mentioned to her that A rock-strewn vacant lot triggers child- guage leaves the possibility of artful com- Westchester County is a great spot for a hood sensations: the way the bottoms of munication open to all of us. stone mason because its wealthy residents your feet take on the shape of the uneven Ursula Le Guin writes of discovering a can afford stone walls, and companies like stones, and the way your body assumes twelfth-century church in Wales with the IBM and Texaco often choose to surround the form of the boulders as you clamber words “Tolfin was here” scraped in runes their office complexes with stone structures over them. Writing a poem has some of on the stone. The words, she suggests, that suggest strength, integrity, stability, that same joy, the words taking your own carry this message: “Life is short, the ma- and endurance. Today’s Latino stonema- shape as you wander through creek beds terial was intractable, someone was here.” sons often apprentice with the crusty, older of syllables, with your own life rolling over My poems often seem to me like those Italian, English, and Irish masons. Living them. I discover the thrill of unearthing seemingly immutable chicken scratches on in Hastings-on-Hudson in Westchester (19 the right rock for a particular spot on the the stone prison wall that say, “I was here.” miles from Grand Central Station and defi- wall, just as I would sometimes come But my wall is an exercise not in writing nitely “downstate”), perhaps I was trying upon the perfect word or line for a poem. on but composing with stone. From to prove to Amanda that I could do some- I marveled at the way a stone wall—made nature’s wondrous shapes, I labor to cre- thing productive with my hands (not of one of the heaviest objects on the planet ate a functional work of art in my back- something I’m known for in the family), (rocks)—had a lightness and delicacy about yard. Life is short, the material intractable, or that I could muster the machismo of it as the stones touched and balanced. The but still, undaunted, I continue to build the masons for my backyard masterpiece. best poems—made of the lightest things walls of rocks and words on the unyield-

Besides, I reasoned, poems are just a few on the planet (words)—demonstrate a ing landscape. How else to get blood from DOWNSTATE coded chicken scratches on papyrus, or dots sturdiness, coupled together so perfectly a stone? on an electronic screen. A stone has weight that a single one cannot be removed from and mass, and exists as an object in the the whole. real world. My poems kept me at my com- Soon after I finished my motley 15-foot puter, but finding stones for the wall ne- wall, I paid a pilgrimage to artist Andrew cessitated a journey. Goldsworthy’s inspired 2,278-foot stone Steve Zeitlin is the The journey led me on a pilgrimage back wall—a grand epic poem—at the Storm director of City Lore. to boyhood. With the years, we forget how King Art Center about an hour north of An early version of this essay appeared a rock rests in our hands, how a boulder Hastings. The five-foot-high wall was built as an afterword to feels beneath our feet. Searching for stones with the help of five master stonemasons his book of poems, I Hear American took me into crooked streams and vacant from England and Scotland, masons who Singing in the Rain. lots in Hastings—Steve Zeitlin, Master of (unlike me) know how to split a rock along

Fall–Winter 2004, Volume 30: 3–4 5 The Vietnam Veterans ORAL HISTORY and FOLKLORE PROJECT

BY LYDIA FISH

The songs of Americans who served in the Vietnam War follow in the tradi- grew directly out of the Vietnam experi- tion of the music composed by soldiers in the world wars and Korea, focus- ence. ing on loneliness, camaraderie, the opposite sex, and humor. The music is Music served as a strategy for survival, as usually in folk or country style but sometimes soft rock. In an ongoing ef- a means of unit bonding and definition, as fort, musicians and scholars have been collecting old recordings of these entertainment. The songs also provided a songs and encouraging veterans to contribute their tapes and recollections. means for the expression of protest, fear, and frustration, of grief and of longing for ince 1983 the Vietnam Veterans Oral brary of Congress. I purchased copies of home. All of the traditional themes of mil- S History and Folklore Project, a loose the tapes from the library and began track- itary folksong can be found in this music: association of singers, songwriters, and ing down the singers. The results of my praise of the great leader, celebration of he- scholars of military occupational folksong research was an article, “General Edward G. roic deeds, laments for the death of com- of which I am director, has been engaged in Lansdale and the Songs of Americans in rades, disparagement of other units, and an undertaking to collect, preserve, and the Vietnam War,” published in the Journal complaints about incompetent officers and make better known the folksongs of Amer- of American Folklore in 1989. vainglorious rear-echelon troops. Like all icans in war. We have been collecting the Because of Hollywood’s use of the pop- soldiers from time immemorial, the troops tapes and songbooks that circulated infor- ular music of the era in the soundtracks of in Vietnam sang of epic drinking bouts and mally in Southeast Asia and attempting to films about the war, for most of us the encounters with exotic young women. locate the singers and songwriters. Vietnam War has a rock-and-roll soundtrack. Civilians serving with agencies such as In 1987 I published my study of the Viet- The songs of the sixties were part of life in AID, JUSPAO, CORDS, and the State De- nam Veterans Memorial, The Last Firebase. the combat zone; troops listened to music partment had their own songs. The Cos- For the two preceding years I had spent a in the bush and in the bunkers. But there mos Tabernacle Choir comprised CIA great deal of time interviewing veterans were other songs in Vietnam, too—the agents who used to meet in the Cosmos from all the armed services, and in the course songs composed by the American men and Bar near the American Embassy. Women of conducting these interviews I became fas- women, civilian and military, who served serving with the Red Cross and Special Ser- cinated by the occupational folklore of the there, for themselves. vices sometimes sang songs of their own military. In 1986 a former student, Michael Some of these songs were part of the composition to the troops. Licht, now a freelance folklorist in Wash- traditional occupational folklore of the mil- In some cases both the words and the ington, D.C., and at that time a contract itary. The pilots who flew off the carriers music were original, but usually new lyrics worker at the American Folklife Center, told and out of Thailand sang songs that were were set to existing folk, country, or popu- me about two collections of military occu- known by aviators in the two world wars lar tunes. Barry Sadler’s “Ballad of the Green pational folksongs of the Vietnam War, and the Korean War; the infantrymen knew Berets” alone spawned dozens of parodies. made by General Edward Lansdale, in the songs that had been sung by their grandfa- The influence of the folksong revival was archives of the Music Division at the Li- thers in the trenches in France. Other songs strong, especially in the early, adviser period

6 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore of the war. Many of the soldiers, particu- Records, which was nominated for both the When the Veterans History Project at the larly the young officers who had been ex- Grammy and the Indy awards. Articles about Library of Congress was initiated in 2000, posed to the revival in college, were already the project have appeared in the New York the Vietnam Veterans Oral History and Folk- experienced musicians when they arrived in Times and the Christian Science Monitor, and lore Project was invited to become an offi- Vietnam. Often they sang together in King- on April 21, 2000, it was featured on Morning cial partner. The following year I was select- ston Trio–style trios or quartets: the High Edition on National Public Radio. The pub- ed by the American Folklore Society to be Priced Help, the Merrymen, the Blue Stars, licity generated by these activities has inspired one of the folklorists giving oral history the Intruders, the Four Blades. Country many veterans who have tapes of the music training workshops to volunteers. So far I music groups were also formed in Vietnam, they made or heard in Southeast Asia to of- have done three and have enjoyed them and many songs are based on country fa- fer them to the project for copying. immensely. The quality and enthusiasm of vorites. Later in the war, many of the young Since 1991 I have been owner of vwar-l, a the volunteers, especially at the Chemung soldiers had played in rock bands before Listserv discussion group instituted to fa- County Historical Society in Elmira, have being drafted, and this, too, is reflected in cilitate communication among scholars, been truly impressive. the music. Even the songs of the antiwar students, and veterans of the Vietnam War. As both a historian and a folklorist, I movement at home were sung in Vietnam. In 1998, I constructed a research-based web bring a slightly different perspective to my The same technology that made it possi- site on folklore of Americans in war in co- workshops. I encourage the volunteers to ble for the troops to listen to rock music operation with the graduate program in look at my web site before the workshop from the Delta to the DMZ provided ideal communications at George Mason Univer- and to read Bruce Jackson’s superb article conditions for the transmission of folklore. sity. Additional material flowed in, and the on personal narrative. I spend a lot of time The widespread availability of inexpensive project archives now contains more than five emphasizing the importance of document- portable tape recorders meant that concerts, hundred hours of recorded songs. ing folk speech, songs, customs, and sto- music nights at the mess, or informal bar One of the basic tenets of contemporary ries about everyday life in basic training and performances could be recorded, copied, and folklore scholarship is that the “folk” who base camps, as well as the “big” stories like passed along to friends. Some especially are the subjects of the scholar’s research the invasion of Normandy. I also explain popular groups made tapes for their fans, should both actively contribute to and ben- that oral history is not just about the narra- and several singers had records cut. Many efit from that research. Thanks to the gen- tor’s experiences, but may include traditional units published mimeographed song- erosity and enthusiasm of the singers and tales of folk heroes and characters, jokes, or books. songwriters who work with the project and ghost stories. Since 1986 I have been tracking down and who have often traveled at their own ex- The web site that the Veterans History copying these tapes, working with a talent- pense to participate in concerts for veterans Project has put together is extremely useful ed recording engineer and sound editor, and community groups, these songs now as a resource, especially the bibliography. I Gary Lee, who is the owner of Wild Cat enjoy a much wider audience. As a partici- suggest that the volunteers look at some Studios and Border City Records. Dozens pant in the New York Council on the Hu- studies of the informal culture of the mil- of scholars, singers, collectors, and veterans manities Speakers for twelve years, I was itary such as Les Cleveland’s “Dark Laugh- have worked with us. often able to persuade the sponsors of my ter” or Juliet Gardiner’s “Overpaid, Over- On July 13, 1989, the American Folklife lectures to include a concert of songs in the sexed, and Over Here.” Center at the Library of Congress in Wash- program. Since 1999 I have produced an The folklorists working with the Veter- ington, D.C., presented In Country, a sym- annual concert for the Society of Old Bold ans History Project convened at the Roch- posium and concert of songs of the Viet- Aviators, a Washington-based organization ester meeting of the American Folklore nam War, which was the subject of special dedicated to the preserving and making Society in 2003. I think it would be extremely broadcasts by National Public Radio and better known the traditional songs of mil- helpful if we could meet more often and Voice of America. On Veterans Day, 1992, itary aviators. share experiences and resources. I have sug- PBS broadcast an Austin City Limits special The technological innovations of the past gested a presentation by the New York State featuring singers associated with the project. few years have made feasible the production trainers at the Round Table and have put Other concerts have been presented in vari- of documentary recordings on a small scale. Saul Broudy’s excellent notes on presenting ous parts of the country, including one at Border City Records, a Buffalo-based com- these workshops on my web site, http:// the Smithsonian in summer 1994 and one pany, has already produced six superb record- faculty.buffalostate.edu/fishlm/folksongs/ for the National Archives–Central Plains ings of material from the project archives, as americansongs.htm. Region in spring 2000. well as two recordings based on the concerts In 1991 the project produced a recording presented by the Society of Old Bold Avia- Lydia Fish ([email protected]) teaches at Buffalo State College. of these songs, In Country, for Flying Fish tors, and several more are in the works. Copyright © Lydia Fish.

Fall–Winter 2004, Volume 30: 3–4 7 War Stories Vietnam Experiences Retold in Plastic, Dirt, and Paint

BY VARICK CHITTENDEN PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARTHA COOPER Reprinted with permission of University Press of Mississippi

It’s hard for [veterans] to tell the story, but they want the public to know what happened in Vietnam. And that’s basically what I’m doing, telling the public,“Hey! War sucks!” There is no good in war. Both sides lose. My scene must be real to the Vietnam vet when he or she looks at it. And it is. The only thing is, it don’t have the sounds, the heat, the smells of the vegetation, whatever. But whatever you see in plastic, dirt, and paint is a story that happened to a Vietnam vet.

hen he was 17, Michael Cousino returned to the United States for rehabilita- W left Gouverneur, New York, for the tion and discharge. For the next several years U.S. Marine Corps and after training was sta- he struggled with his injuries, both physical tioned near the DMZ in Vietnam. A battle and emotional. Shortly after returning to St. injury ended his thirteen-month tour of Lawrence County, he joined a veterans’ group duty as a “grunt,” or ground soldier, and he for counseling. text continued on page 11

This is the first piece I ever did…. It shows a patrol whose mission is to search for and destroy the enemy. Here they have found weapons in a small village. One American was wounded, then died of those wounds. They also interrogated the VC [Vietcong] who did it. In this scene you’ll also see the enemy, a North Vietnamese soldier, wearing a helmet. I’m in the scene carrying a machine gun with two belts wrapped around my chest.

8 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Left: Checkpoint Charlie – It was typical of every military base in Vietnam, you al- ways had a checkpoint, the main entrance for going on and off that base. Checkpoint Charlie at an American fire base depicts a bunch of grunts, infantry. Their job is to look for weapons, check ID, make sure that the picture that’s on the ID resembles the person that was holding it, to stop the Viet- namese from infiltrating onto American bases.

Right: Agent Orange – Agent Orange is a story which depicts the jungle foliage—the trees, the grass—no longer there. You see dirt, dead things, brown things that are not supposed to be there. You can see the punji stakes, the Malaysian gate, the skeleton of an American or possibly of the enemy that fell in the trap. Agent Orange was sprayed heavily in Vietnam. I later found that it was sprayed by the U.S. Marine Corps in every area that I served.

Left: My Hootch – My Hootch at Red Beach, or An FNG’s First Impression of Nam, is what I first saw of Vietnam. The scene depicts me with a seabag and pack on the boardwalk of my hootch, the Vietnamese word for small house. In the countryside, the hootches were very primitive struc- tures, made of bamboo or like that, but we called these American military struc- tures hootches anyway. The other guy is hollering ‘F-N-G!’ He’s saying ‘Your FNG is here!’ And I didn’t understand what FNG meant. I soon learned: Fucking New Guy. Or we called them Cherries, meaning brand-new guy in Vietnam. So this was my first impression of life in-country. It looks very peaceful. In fact, I still have a picture of myself by a hootch in Khe Sahn in ’68 which I sent home to my family.

Fall–Winter 2004, Volume 30: 3–4 9 Left: Our First Meeting – Our First Meet- ing: Folk Artist and Folklorist depicts the first time that Varick Chittenden came to my house to see my artwork. I guess when we first met, we didn’t know where this would go. He called me a folk artist or storyteller. I just called myself a diorama builder. Eight years later [1995] we are still doing shows, etc. Varick is a friend who has made a difference in my life, my family’s lives, and veterans.

Above: Don’t Forget Us, the POWs – Don’t Forget Us, the POWs is a very special scene, because I made it after I received an anonymous phone call at home after some of my stuff was shown on a local television program, shortly after I got started. Some vet in our area called me to say I was not talking about POWs or MIAs and went on for an hour and a half to describe some of his experiences. Being a prisoner of war is no picnic. You’re tortured daily, you’re beaten daily. They drag you through a village, from village to village, and try to break your morale, try to go against what you believe in, try Above: Cousino modifies commercial to show you that you are wrong, killing kids and women, things like that. As the plastic figures for his 1:32 scale survivors of a Viet Cong ambush, these two men were subjected to inhuman treatment. scenes. They were beaten, stripped naked, and paraded through the streets of North Vietnam. The idea was to strip the soldier of his morale, leaving him with guilt. This treatment either strengthened him or broke him. Vets experience great psychological anguish when attempting to describe such experiences because we feel deeply for each other.

10 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore When he had difficulty talking about his of being surrounded by the enemy, encoun- have been featured in museum exhibitions, experiences in Vietnam, a friend suggested ters with Vietnamese locals (friendly and un- including one-man shows in Albany, Buffalo, that he use his hands to make dioramas of friendly), and some hopeful examples of Binghamton, and Canton, and in newspaper specific incidents. What followed was a flurry healing in the years since that conflict, such as and magazine articles. He is the subject of the of activity as he modified plastic kits of group counseling and visits to the Vietnam book Vietnam Remembered: The Folk Art of models of World War II–era men and Memorial wall in Washington, D.C. Marine Combat Veteran Michael D. Cousino, Sr., women and machines and fashioned scraps Mike says that every one of his pieces, large by folklorist Varick Chittenden (University of plastic, wood, and metal from around or small, is a story, sometimes his own, Press of Mississippi, 1995). his house. Since those days, he has made sometimes that of a fellow veteran, some- This photographic essay is a small selection nearly three hundred scenes, many inspired times a generic experience of the period. Tell- of Mike Cousino’s dioramas, accompanied by painful stories shared in confidence by ing these stories—blending horror, humor, by transcriptions of the stories of each piece, new buddies and fellow veterans. The art- boredom, fear, and fun—seems to have in his own words. Original photographs and work has become therapy for Mike and his helped his own progress from confusion and recordings are in the TAUNY archives. friends, as well as a way for him to teach despair and, say many who have seen them, younger generations about the experiences helped other vets and their families, too. Varick A. Chittenden and Martha Cooper of the ordinary soldier. In the years since his return from combat, are the authors of Vietnam Remembered: The Folk Art of Marine Combat Veteran The details of his dioramas reveal his natu- Mike Cousino has completed a college degree, Michael D. Cousino, Sr. Copies signed by ral storytelling talents. He relies on memory worked as a job counselor for the New York Cousino and Chittenden are available from Traditional Arts in Upstate New York to illustrate military topics, like the use of State Department of Labor, and raised three (www.tauny.org). $12.95 paperback, Agent Orange, as well as recurring nightmares children with his wife, Patti. He and his work $24.95 cloth, plus tax and shipping.

Christmas in Vietnam – Christmas in Vietnam, 1968 depicts me when we were out setting up, and I heard this noise and a six- barreled tank came through the boonies and turned out to be a Marine Corps Ontos, which is a Greek word meaning six-armed, like an octopus. These guys were coming through and, since it was Christmas, they threw me a pack of cigarettes. In any of my stories that you look at, if you see a pack of Marlboro cigarettes whether on a helmet or close by, it depicts me.

Fall–Winter 2004, Volume 30: 3–4 11 Validating the Vets A Legacy of Experience and Service BY MARY ZWOLINSKI

he Library of Congress initiative to the students and the AARP members—and skirmishes throughout the Middle East or T collect the oral histories of Ameri- each posed challenges and opportunities. other far-off places. They had an enthusias- can veterans comes at a critical time. Our In developing contextual materials that tic and passionate teacher who had been col- country’s political and international history, would help the students understand the im- lecting the oral histories of veterans for many now more than ever, will be defined by its portance of the project, I asked myself sev- years; perhaps his dedication would moti- participation in military events away from eral questions. How do you describe to teen- vate some of them. In the end, however, I home. From aging World War II vets to the agers the significance that the military ser- couldn’t really know how many of the stu- most recent Iraq War participants, the first- vices and international conflicts have on their dents would be moved to one day think hand experiences of those individuals whose own current and future lives? How could I about or actively capture the stories of veter- lives were directly affected by their involve- convey to them the conflicting sense of pa- ans. ment in those events may prove to be the triotism coupled with the apprehension that Another workshop held for the same class most accurate and moving records of all. many young men and women—and their and teacher but different students more than But that’s my own perspective. My involve- families—feel when they decide to enter the a year later proved more fruitful. With the ment in oral history projects—including sto- military or are called by our government to war in Iraq more than a year old and U.S. ries of former residents of New York’s psy- go to war? What to make of the fact that military casualties increasing, most students chiatric hospitals and the recollections of previous wars influenced everyday life in felt strongly about the effort. The media had Puerto Ricans who moved to Amsterdam, America, from food rationing and the caught their attention. Before we started I New York, in the 1930s to work in the tex- women-led workforce during World War II polled them to find out who supported the tile mills—has had a profound impact on to the antiwar riots on college campuses dur- war and who didn’t. It was pretty evenly me. I have always been changed by the sto- ing the Vietnam War? How could any of mixed, with several students stating that they ries people share with me and humbled by these students relate to the wartime deaths weren’t sure. After the exercise I told them the things I’ve heard. The sharing of per- of close friends and family members or the that their opinions about the war didn’t mat- sonal experiences—happy, sad, embarrass- cultural and socioeconomic conflicts associ- ter for their work as oral historians: they were ing, or tragic—involves an intimate exchange ated with the draft during the Vietnam era? capturing someone else’s stories and reflec- between teller and listener. When I had the Leading an abbreviated workshop for the tions. Oral historians must be careful not to opportunity to be a workshop leader for the students was tough. They listened, but it project or inject their own views into the story Veterans Oral History Project, I was excited. was apparent that the learning curve was too being told to them. This was a group whose experiences I had great for such a short session and only a few The AARP folks had a better appreciation not heard or recorded from primary sources. students would be interested enough to for the topics and experiences talked about An oral history workshop leader has an im- pursue the project on their own. Those who by the veterans that day. Generational col- portant responsibility, because there may be were interested seemed more comfortable leagues, several of them had lived through only one chance to collect a story and, sadly, running the equipment than composing and the same times and cultures and could relate only one opportunity for someone to tell it. asking questions. This is a generation whose to the events and emotions being recorded. The first workshop I facilitated was for a experience in terms of “great wars” is lim- As active participants in the daily operations group of students at Shaker High School in ited. Perhaps their grandparents had been of AARP, they had a vested interest in pre- Albany. It was cosponsored by the AARP, involved in the Vietnam War or the Gulf serving the stories of their constituents and and several of their staff and board mem- War, but a close and direct link was tenuous the roles those individuals played in preserv- bers were there to observe and participate in at best. Their understanding of the military ing the freedoms many enjoy today. the interviews of local veterans. I was to lead was most likely based on old television foot- Another workshop given in Chappaqua, workshops for two very distinct cultures— age or the relentless coverage of more recent New York, at the Horace Greeley High School

12 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore afforded me the opportunity to work with a family in Schenectady didn’t know he was removed from the daily hazards of war. range of individuals. At that session, three coming home. It was dark when he stepped Those experiences would live with him for- teachers from the school, the school’s princi- off the train at the Schenectady station and ever—and his story, with me. pal, an administrator from the Bronx Veter- caught a cab to his house. He recalled walk- The experiences of all veterans are among ans Association hospital, a former veteran ing up the front steps of the house and the most important stories of our time. It is who would be the liaison with other vets, standing on the porch. Looking through the essential that students learn about those ex- and several individuals from Senator Hillary front window into the house, he saw his periences firsthand, from the men and Clinton’s staff offered differing perspectives father reading the paper, his young wife knit- women who have lived through them. And on the project and the roles they or their stu- ting, and his mother busy preparing supper. it’s important that we document those sto- dents could play in the collecting of oral his- Overwhelmed with emotion, he paused. It ries, remember them, and in whatever way tories. Senator Clinton has been a strong ad- was the happiest moment of his life, and we can, validate them. During such turbu- vocate of the Veterans Oral History Project, because he wanted to remember it, he just lent and troubling times as these, they are and bringing it home to the community of stood there in silence, watching the people more important than ever. Maybe I am naïve, Chappaqua was a supportive and logical step. he loved and had missed. but I believe that the stories that are being One veteran who was interviewed by an In my own visualization of the scene, I collected by the Veterans Oral History Project AARP board member as part of the Albany saw on the porch a very young man, tenta- can help shape global discourse and lend a workshop spoke for a long time about his tive and overcome with feelings, and for the human element to the overpowering effects experiences in World War II, the type of ships first time I began to comprehend the com- of war. he had been on, the kind of work he had plex emotions of someone returning from Mary Zwolinski (mzwolinski@ done. For myself, inexperienced with the war to his own small family in his own home- theartscenter.cc) is Director of Folk and technical aspects of war, it was interesting town, safe and sound but somehow forever Community Arts Programs of the Arts but not very moving. It wasn’t until he changed. I could only begin to truly appreci- Center of the Capital Region, as well as the current president of the New York started talking about the day he came back ate the depth of his experiences and how his Folklore Society. from the war that I truly began to listen. His tour of duty had influenced people far away,

Members: Order your copies of New York Folklore Society books at a members-only discount. To join the New York Folklore Society, see inside back cover. ADD THESE ESSENTIAL RESOURCES AND FASCINATING BOOKS TO YOUR LIBRARY! Working with Folk Materials in Self-Management for Folk Artists: Folk Arts Programming in New York State: A Manual for A Guide for Traditional Artists and New York State: A Handbook and Resource Guide Folklorists and Archivists Performers in New York State By Karen Lux Edited by John W. Suter By Patricia Atkinson Wells Written for anyone considering starting a folk With contributions by leading New York State This handbook is a must for traditional artists in arts program at their institution. Shows the archivists and folklorists, this manual introduces New York State interested in managing and potential of a broad range of different types folklore to the archivist and archives to marketing their own businesses. Topics include of folk arts presentations and provides folklorists. It is required reading for those promotion, booking, contracts, keeping records, information on how to carry them out. working with collections of folklore materials taxes, and copyright. 108 pages, paperback in any part of the country. 148 pages, loose-leaf notebook $10 $______168 pages, loose-leaf notebook $30 $40 nonmembers $______$25 $35 nonmembers $______TO ORDER Island Sounds in the Books subtotal $______Folklore in Archives: Global City: Caribbean A Guide to Describing Folklore Shipping and handling Popular Music and Identity Add $4 for the first book, and Folklife Materials in New York $1 for each additional item. $______Edited by Ray Allen and Lois Wilcken By James Corsaro and Karen Taussig-Lux Total $______Written primarily for archivists and others who A collection of articles focusing on the care for collections of folk cultural documenta- relationship of Caribbean popular music and Enclose check payable to New York Folklore tion, this manual describes the theory and cultural identity in New York City, this books Society and mail to New York Folklore Society, P.O. practice of folklore and provides essential examines a broad spectrum of New York – Box 763, 133 Jay St., Schenectady, NY 12301. based musical styles from Puerto Rico, the West information on how to accession, arrange, and ______describe folklore materials. Indies, Haiti, Dominican Republic, and Name Trinidad. 128 pages, loose-leaf notebook ______$25 $35 nonmembers $______185 pages, paperback Shipping Address $15 $17.95 nonmembers $______City, State, Zip

Fall–Winter 2004, Volume 30: 3–4 13 TellingTelling WarWar StoriesStories in Chemung County

BY HEATHER A. WADE

e began our efforts to document and funded by the American Folklife Cen- about the project, she will tell you about W the wartime activities of Ameri- ter and conducted by Lydia Fish, professor the typhoon that wrecked the Navy’s Third cans at the Booth Library of the Chemung at Buffalo State, that we hosted at our facil- Fleet off the coast of Okinawa on Decem- County Historical Society in Elmira, when ity in November 2002. Others I had trained ber 16, 1944. This storm was mentioned in we joined the Veterans History Project in individually. The Red Cross Youth Corps two separate interviews, by Robert D. Cut- November 2001. Interviews with veterans in Elmira, the New Visions class at SCT ting, a pilot with the Fifth Air Force, and by and civilians with firsthand knowledge of BOCES, and an anthropology class at Corn- Nicholas Lamberti, a sailor who served in World Wars I and II and the Korean, Viet- ing Community College collaborated with the South Pacific. nam, and Persian Gulf wars started a year us on the project by enlisting their students Cutting: The biggest thing that I was in- later. A local newspaper helped us publicize to interview veterans for community or class volved in, other than the flying, was we were the project and recruit volunteers, and Rep- projects. I asked all the interviewers to al- hit by a typhoon. And it swept through at resentative Amory Houghton, one of the low sufficient time to document the veter- about a hundred twenty to thirty miles per principal backers of the Veterans History ans’ stories, and with a few exceptions, I hour. It devastated our camps, our tents. Project in Congress, publicly endorsed our required the interviewers to conduct the Our whole area was just devastated. And local efforts and called attention to our interviews with one veteran at a time, in a the poor Navy with their ships, the battle- project throughout his congressional dis- quiet room where they were unlikely to be ships and the cruisers over at Okinawa. I trict. disturbed. think they had more casualties, more seri- Because we were then the only repository To date, we have collected more than two ous injuries to people and more damage to in the region collecting veterans’ interviews, hundred and fifty stories. Our volunteer their equipment at that typhoon than any many of the veterans who contacted us were pool changes frequently; by November other thing in the war.… Years ago, when from outside our traditional collecting area. 2003, we had nine core volunteers who had the Chinese were going to be invading Ja- We ultimately decided that geography was collected an average of seven interviews pan, it was called the Kamikaze wind. And irrelevant in this project, since most of the each. Through the stories, we are learning as you know, the Kamikaze were the death local veterans are transplants who moved about the major campaigns of the wars, pilots. These were the men that would au- here in the 1950s and 1960s to find jobs in but the larger service we are providing is ger in on a battleship—just dive in, straight Elmira and Horseheads. This in itself taught documenting the details that one could into it. But the wind was called at the time, us something unexpected about our resi- never learn from a history book—the prac- when China was invading, the wind was dents, and one of the standard questions tical jokes the enlisted men played on each called Kamikaze. It was a sacred wind that that we now ask is how the veterans came other, the food that they ate, the rivalries blew the Chinese fleet away. Here we are, to live in Chemung County. between the military branches, and the in- ready—believe me—ready to attack Japan, By February 2003, we had a list of more dividual sacrifices that each one, veteran or and the Kamikaze wind hit again. Interest- than a hundred veterans waiting to be in- civilian, made in wartime. ing. [Thomas Mailey, interviewer] terviewed and about thirty active volunteers. If you ask our volunteer cataloger, Lee Lamberti: I was really afraid that the ship Some of the volunteers had participated in Kiesling, who hears each interview at least was going to break apart, myself. It was dev- an oral history training workshop, designed twice, what she finds most memorable astating. I mean, if you’re out at sea and a

14 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore erans and civilians who have shared their wartime stories from both the battlefield and the home front. Three-quarters of the interviews that we have completed were with World War II veterans, and about a fifth of these were with servicewomen. We also have several interviews with Korean War veterans and a few with veterans of the Persian Gulf and Vietnam wars. Un- fortunately, we have not located any World War I veterans to interview in our region. Although it’s not in the scope of the na- tional Veterans History Project, locally we are collecting information from cold war- riors as well. Our project will continue indefinitely— presumably as long as there are wars and veterans to remember them. In the next phase of our effort, we want to focus on documenting the World War II home front in our region. We have already interviewed factory workers of that period, as well as relief society volunteers and even those who were children during the war, whose teach- ers encouraged them to collect scrap metal and taught them to knit to support the troops overseas. We hope to find people with firsthand knowledge of the federal Holding and Reconsignment Point in Horseheads, which also housed former Ital- ian POWs; the German POW camp in Van Etten; the conscientious objectors’ camp in Big Flats; and the manufacture of the top- secret Norden bombsight at the Elmira Remington Rand plant. Some of the people we have interviewed have been telling their stories for years, oth-

When he went to war in 1917, Harry A. Turner was enrolled in Zim’s Correspon- ers have never discussed the events with an- dence School of Cartooning, Comic Art, and Caricature, run by Judge artist Eugene other person, but all come prepared to share Zimmerman, of Horseheads, New York. “Zim” wrote to him, “If you keep up the work you may be able to put it to good use in the trenches. Anything any man at the their experiences. Their motives for partici- front writes or draws is gobbled up eagerly by publishers. Many young fellows are pating in the Veterans History Project vary. laying the foundation for an art career at the front. Your chance is just as good as the Don Quinn, whom I interviewed about the next fellow’s.” Turner carried his sketchbook with him throughout the war. Courtesy of the Chemung County Historical Society, Inc., Elmira, New York, Accession life of his brother, William Quinn, who died #2003.0030.0010.0001; Accession #2003.0030.0011.0007-0008. during World War II, summarized his rea- sons for taking time to be involved in this project: “Being the very last member of the wave comes and you’re on a flight deck and or the stern. There’d be a hollow … just like generation who experienced it, to the degree you look down—the center of the ship is a black hole. [Jason Harmon, interviewer] that I did, I figure have an obligation to bring on top of this wave, and you’d go to look Our volunteers have had memorable ex- it all together in a package that might be of down and there’s a hundred feet down. periences while conducting interviews, and interest to some person. Well, maybe that’s There’s nothing there on either end, the bow we have learned a great deal from the vet- happening now.”

Fall–Winter 2004, Volume 30: 3–4 15 … this droning of, like, ten billion bees … in the North Atlantic in December. That’s a called them—they’d be dancing with a girl, Alexander Bohen was born in Brooklyn in rough ocean. And we went up towards the and we’d just … we were used to cutting in. 1925. He enlisted in the Army on June 17, North Pole, back down, in a convoy of two And I tapped one, and he says, “We don’t cut 1943, and was discharged a sergeant, on Octo- hundred ships. It was the largest convoy that in over here, Yank.” And the next thing, push- ber 19, 1945. During World War II, he served ever went over the ocean. Two hundred ships, ing, pushing, fistfights, chairs flying around in the Fourth Armored Division, Thirty-Fifth loaded with men. And of course, the Navy the place. And they resented us because we Tank Battalion Recon Platoon, and saw ac- was protecting us. In the daytime we could were overpaid, and we probably ate better than tion in France, Germany, Belgium, Luxem- see the Navy ships out there, they were es- them, and we were getting the girls. The girls burg, and Czechoslovakia. Years after the war, corting us, so no subs. But in the daytime, thought we were terrific, ‘cause we had ciga- he came to Chemung County for a job at the they let us go up on deck and the captain rettes, chocolate bars, gifts, things from home. A&P plant in Horseheads. When we began would announce, “Anybody on the port The girls, you know, they dropped the En- to collect local veterans’ stories, Bohen was side”—that’s the left side—“you watch for glish soldiers. Not all of them, but when we among the first who volunteered. icebergs and the men on the right side, watch came, we danced, and we did the jitterbug, I met with him three months before his for the subs.” And I think I said, “I’m not and they liked us. They really went crazy for interview to explain the project to him and watching anything. I’m going down, there’s the American soldiers. And the British guys complete the paperwork required for the in- some crap games down in the hole,” and I hated us. In fact, after a while, things got so terview to become part of the Veterans His- played crap for almost two weeks. [Laugh- rough at the dances, that the canteens would tory Project collection. That day, he told me ter] And you couldn’t eat. Everybody was have signs out: Tommies and Canadians wel- amazing stories, and I will always regret not sick. Everybody was throwing up all over come.” And underneath, “Yanks not wel- having recorded the meeting. Shortly before the place. A lot of guys were from Ohio and come.” Right in there. “Yanks not welcome.” he enlisted, he remembered, he had been play- Indiana, they never saw anything bigger than Here we were, over there, three thousand miles ing “Post Office” with friends, and when a a lake or a river, and here they are in the North to try to save them from Hitler, and they girl gave him an “air mail delivery”—evident- Atlantic and the ship’s going up over and wouldn’t let us in the canteens. So there was a ly a French kiss—he nearly passed out. He under. Half of the ship was in sickbay. lot of hard feelings. But a lot of it was our contrasted that with his experiences in the war. Interviewer: You did fairly well, though. fault. The paratrooper guys, they were always He spoke of innocence lost, of watching Bohen: I did nothing. Because, living in looking for a fight. And the British guys, they friends die. “Hollywood never gets that right,” Brooklyn, at Sheepshead Bay, which is the fought this old way, and by the time they did he said, complaining about the popular war Atlantic Ocean, I had gone out fishing with that, they were knocked out. They fought like movies that show the dying man taking one my father in the Atlantic so I knew what they were gentlemen.… last drag on a cigarette before closing his eyes. rough water was. So I never got sick. But I We knew we were gonna relieve this Fourth Bohen: So, we sailed out of Boston, OK? I think a lot of it was mental. But anyway, Infantry, because we were armored, you see, was so loaded—we were all so loaded with there were guys yelling out, “Shoot me, kill and we could move. This one day … we heard stuff. We had to go up the gangplank to get me”—they were so sick, they wanted to die. this droning of, like, ten billion bees, and ev- onto the ship. I couldn’t make it up, so they They were actually green. And two weeks of erybody’s running out of their tents and look- had sailors on each side of the gangplank. this nonsense, and finally somebody was like ing up. And we see the bombers—fortresses, And they would grab you one by one, they Columbus. Every morning, they were, liberators—all coming across the Channel, pushed you and pulled you and in fact we fell “Where the hell is the land?” Finally, after bombing the front line of the Germans at St. on the deck. [Laughter] You know, there’s a two, two and a half weeks of being on the Lo. lot of weight there. North Atlantic in the middle of December, Interviewer: Was this our Air Force? Interviewer: How much weight do you think we saw the tip of Ireland, I guess. Every- Bohen: Our Air Force. Our Air Force. Hun- that you carried? body was cheering like we’d discovered Eu- dreds and hundreds. They would drop their Bohen: Probably carried about sixty, seven- rope or something.… bombs, go back to England, load up and go ty pounds with the rifle and all that junk on But the English soldiers hated us, because back, this went on—go back—all day long. you and overcoat and the steel helmet. You they said we were overpaid and overfed. I was This was the biggest air raid in the history of know, everybody was skinny. There was no making $50 a month. I don’t know what they the world. And I’m just—we don’t know fat guys in those days, especially after basic were making, but I was making more than what’s going on, you know. We knew it was training. So, anyhow, we got on the ship. We them. They didn’t like us. And naturally, they for bombing the German lines … and the were two weeks heading for England—two had canteens and they had girls—girls like our little fighter planes scooting in and out.… But weeks to go from Boston to England.… USO—and they would dance with the guys. the sky was so filled with planes that the anti- The German subs were going crazy. We were And the English soldiers—the Tommies, they aircraft from the German guns, you couldn’t

16 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore miss. There were just so many bombers. And the Korean War. He was discharged in 1952. stacked like cord wood. I’m telling you, it they were hitting the bombers, a lot of them, In 1997, along with Horseheads resident and was the most horrible thing you ever could not all of them. And then we’d look way up veteran H. James Wonderling, he cofound- see. And they were starting to decompose, and we’d see the little puff of smoke coming ed the Southern Tier Chapter of the New so we had to get rid of them.… out of the bomber. And then hopefully you’d York State Amphibious Forces Association. We was the last ship to leave the beach. An see little chutes coming out. And a lot of times Breitung keeps a scrapbook detailing his ef- LST works like when it hits the beach, it is you didn’t see the chutes.… It’s unbelievable. forts to stay in contact with land ship tank usually at low tide and just a couple hundred You’d have to have seen it. You couldn’t be- (LST) sailors nationwide. yards before it hits the beach—you gotta re- lieve this was happening. The sky filled with Breitung: I think the roughest thing we ever alize that they got a flat bottom, they got a bombers all day long going around. Anyhow, saw was in 1950, was the, well, they call them huge, huge anchor at the stern of the ship— but the lines were so close, when they dropped the Chosin Frozen. I don’t know if you ever and at a certain time they would drop this their bombs, they killed a lot of Americans, heard of them, but if you ever talked to a anchor and it would dig in and then the ship because, you know, with the bomb, they just Marine that was in the First Division that would go forward and it would hit the beach, can’t pinpoint bombs. But they did a lot of was there, you are in for the story of a life- and the bow doors would open up and damage to the German lines, and that’s where time.… They made a march up to the Cho- trucks, men and everybody would run out. my division moved in, Fourth Infantry. We sin Reservoir, which was well up into North But at Hung Nam it was just the opposite. relieved them. We broke through. We broke Korea. And it was Mother of God so cold. We hit the beach basically, sort of like the through the lines. And we had them on the It was so cold that you froze to death just high tide going into a low tide, and we took run…. standing still about five minutes. The the civilians and we took all the Marines and We could speak the language because when wind—temperatures could be thirty, thirty- we took everything that we could, and with we went into France they gave you a little five below zero, and you would get a wind all this weight and with the tide going out, booklet with thousands of American things out of Manchuria that would bring it down we couldn’t get off the beach. We were stuck. to talk … and then the French next to it. to sixty, seventy miles an hour. And Marines And you could literally see the North Ko- And so we’d say, “Ou sont les Boches?” The always had a motto that they never leave their reans coming down. OK? And I think that Boches were the Germans. “Where are the dead behind. This was the first time in hun- the biggest thing that helped us was that Germans?” And then the Frogs would say, dreds of years that they had to leave their they didn’t have, like, cannons or mortars, it “Je ne sais pas.” The Germans had just left men behind. You went to bed and didn’t was basically small arms, you know, you ten minutes ago. “Je ne sais pas. Je ne com- know if you were gonna wake up. would hear a ping now and then, but the prends pas.” … like if you didn’t have the And there was about, from what I gather, biggest lifesaver of all was in the vicinity was right accent through your nose, you know, about twelve thousand Marines, compared a seagoing tug. And every time, well, what they didn’t know what you were talking to sixty thousand North Koreans, who had you would do, you put the engine in reverse about. In fact, I saw a guy, one time, he was them actually surrounded. And they fell into and start a winch in the back and that would a big guy … and he’s asking the French in a trap. And our job was to wait at Hung pull you toward the anchor. Well, the bot- this little town, he’s asking them for eggs, Nam and they was marching down to Hung tom was more muddyish than sand and in- and he’s saying, “Avez-vous des oeufs?” You Nam and we was gonna pull them out. And stead of we being pulled to the anchor, we know, “Have you got any eggs?” And all the they had the Marines bottled in, and every were pulling the anchor towards us and we little people are gathered around, all the Frogs, time that in front of them there was a bridge were hung up on the beach. We got this sea- “Ah, je ne sais pas. Je ne comprends pas.” of any sort going over the rivers, the North going tug and between us trying to get off You know, they don’t know what he’s talk- Koreans would blow [it] up and the Army with our power and the seagoing tug pull- ing about. So finally, he squats down, and he engineers had to make temporary bridges to ing, we made it. But we were the last … we goes like a chicken [Bohen flaps his arms]. get them out. This happened, well let me were the last ship off the beach and it was And they all say, “Ah …” Like, “Why didn’t see, Thanksgiving they ate like kings, and the close. And I tell you, at the age of eighteen, you tell us in the first place?” [Laughter] Poor day after Thanksgiving it started. And by the nineteen, you can crap your pants. guy. He got his egg. time I got down to Hung Nam—you never [Excerpts from an interview with Robert J. Brei- [Excerpts from an interview with Alexander saw anything like this in your life—we took tung, interviewed by Tom Mailey] Bohen, interviewed by Marlene Zecca] on Marines that were just literally wiped out, half frozen. We took their dead because, what Heather A. Wade (archivist@ “We was the last ship to leave …” they wanted to take, we took some civilians, chemungvalleymuseum.org) is the archivist at the Booth Library of the Robert J. Breitung enlisted in the Navy as and the dead had to be taken out to the hos- Chemung County Historical Society, a private, third class in 1948 and served in pital ship hull because they were on the deck Elmira, New York.

Fall–Winter 2004, Volume 30: 3–4 17 Everyday History BY GREGORY M. LAMB Saved on Tape

ell me about your first kiss. What At Telling Lives, visitors sit down at a “It’s very important for us to understand T was the neighborhood like that you computer terminal and record a ten-minute how important our own stories are and to grew up in? What was your happiest mo- video about their early school days. They’re celebrate and honor that,” says David Isay, ment? What should the next generation prompted by a set of questions generated a public-radio documentary maker and the know about our family? by the computer program, such as “I am founder of StoryCorps. Intriguing questions. The answers help (am not) the person I was in school.” In fall 2003, this nonprofit organization form the history of a family. And every fam- In a waiting area outside the recording installed a soundproof StoryBooth at ily has its own story. More and more, they’re cubicle, a videotape of previously recorded Grand Central Terminal in New York. recording it for future generations. interviews primes the mental pump for visi- Aided by a facilitator, visitors record their For years Americans have traced their ge- tors. On it, one woman recalls how she took personal histories on a 40-minute audio CD nealogies. But the coming of the new mil- grade school so seriously that she was dis- for a nominal fee. StoryCorps will retain a lennium and life-changing events such as dainful of other girls who brought their copy for its database and for possible use in September 11 have spurred new interest in dolls to the first day of school. making public radio documentaries. gathering contemporary accounts from Another remembers a student who paired Isay (pronounced EYE-say) hopes to win family members while they are still here to up with a deaf girl to help her learn to read funding to install StoryBooths around the record them. and in turn learned to read herself. Yet an- country. For those unable to come to a Now two programs using twenty-first- other adult tells of having a science project booth, his organization will offer StoryKits century technology are making it easy for rejected because the teacher doubted the for recording personal histories anywhere. family members to record their stories. student had the ability to do it. They’ll include a minidisc recorder, micro- “Telling Lives” is a pilot project of the Eventually, Rabinowitz hopes to store the phone, headphones, and instructions. American History Workshop, a consulting recordings at the University of Toronto so Today there’s a “need for individuals to group founded by Richard Rabinowitz in they can be easily searchable by topic. If the tell their own story, maybe because there’s a 1980 to bring together historians, scholars, program wins funding to continue, he need for it in a culture where mass media curators, filmmakers, artists, designers, and wants to explore other themes, such as fam- flattens out the contours of individuality,” architects to find new ways of engaging citi- ily meals (which should reveal regional and says Mary Marshall Clark, director of the zens with history. It aims to create a North ethnic differences), learning to drive (atti- Oral History Research Office at Columbia American databank of memories from tudes toward technology), and “my first University. She notes that oral history is 100,000 people. job” (attitudes about work). “unabashedly” about each person’s unique The first location, at the New York His- identity: “It’s about their gender, their cul- torical Society, captured people’s stories Ordinary People ture, their color, about their work.” about their early school experiences. The Telling Lives project is “part of a larger Recording of audio or video reminis- The interest in the lives of North Ameri- cultural trend that says we’re interested in di- cences has taken hold since the invention cans—ordinary and extraordinary—has versifying the voices of the stories that are in of the portable tape recorder. Perhaps the been growing, say Rabinowitz and others museums, we’re interested in the museum most famous example occurred in the 1930s in the field. Biographies of both the famous as a place of dialogue, we’re interested in in- when the federally funded Works Progress and not-so-famous have become popular. volving visitors as historians,” Rabinowitz Administration hired three hundred unem- “We’re [still] interested in Ben Franklin or says. “In the last twenty-five years we’ve be- ployed writers to interview about twenty- John Adams, but from a much more whole come much more interested in social history three hundred former slaves. Those record- perspective,” he says. and the history of ordinary people.” ings have become an invaluable resource to

18 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore researchers studying African American his- For Cathy Ogden, who heads an oral his- ‘Disney memory’ people have, instead of tory. tory project for Greenwich, Conn., these their own memory. More recently, filmmaker Steven reminiscences can provide gripping evidence “The stories of ordinary people are more Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation videotaped of the past. The town has collected more important and more interesting than the some fifty-one thousand Holocaust survi- than 700 recollections since 1973, produc- stories of celebrities,” he says. “Certainly vors, who told of their experiences. And ing 131 bound volumes of material. to the families themselves.” today, the Veterans History Project, spon- One of those accounts is from a man sored by the American Folklife Center at who recalls the 1938 hurricane that hit the Recording Oral History the Library of Congress, is in the process town. He was only fourteen at the time and You don’t have to be a professional his- of collecting reminiscences from veterans walking near a seawall when a giant wave torian or researcher to record wonderful oral of World War I through the 1991 Gulf War. washed his friend off his feet. While the histories of your friends and family. But a Besides these large efforts, smaller friend clung to a telephone pole, he man- few tips may make the experience more en- projects have collected stories such as those aged to throw him a rope and rescue him. joyable and yield better results. of the Assiniboine Indians, passed along When listening to this story, Ogden says, If you’re interviewing someone you by those who watched the Lewis and Clark “you just go right back to that scene” with know well, for example, some special care expedition cross Montana, and the braceros, that boy. is needed. Mexican immigrant farm workers who Both Rabinowitz and Isay emphasize that At first you may get very short answers or played a key role in America’s food produc- they want to make “living” archives of evasions, such as “Why are you asking me that question? You know the answer” or “Just like I told you last time,” says Mary Marshall Clark, director of the Oral-History “We are in danger of losing a sense of Research Office at Columbia University. who we are, and [are] adopting a kind of In this situation, create a little formality by thinking of yourself as an “interested identity that really is rooted in stories that stranger,” she suggests. Imagine you’re re- cording for a grandchild two generations are generated by other people. It’s a kind down the line who won’t know the specif- of ‘Disney memory’ people have, instead ics of today’s world. So don’t be afraid to ask about the ordinary: Fifty years from of their own memory.” now the price of a subway token or a ham sandwich will actually be interesting. Be sure to ask people how they felt about tion during World War II. And all across people’s lives that can and will be utilized events, says David Isay. That will get them the country, towns and historical societies and enjoyed. They don’t want to, as away from “the rehearsed narrative of their have made individual efforts to capture the Rabinowitz puts it, “wind up with a shoebox lives.” recollections of local citizens. of tapes” that no one ever listens to. Other suggestions from Clark, Isay, and Telling Lives is funded by the Institute “Each of us is uniquely a bridge to the other oral historians include the following: of Museum and Library Services and the past which would be lost if it were not for • Decide on your equipment and me- University of Toronto. our history, our memory,” he says. Each dium: An audio interview (on a tape re- person “may be the only witness, the only corder) may be less intimidating for the Technological Help connection” to some past event. Capturing subject than speaking into a video camera. Today, laptop computers with CD burn- those memories is “just tremendously im- Highly recommended equipment includes ers and DVD players, along with high-qual- portant. headphones that allow you to hear how ity, low-cost digital audio recorders, make it “We’re all getting filled up with images the interview is sounding and a separate easy and cheap to capture and edit personal generated by the media, and I’m very con- microphone (clipped on or hand-held) that histories. cerned that we are forgetting, we’re just eras- can be put near the mouth of the speaker. “My dream is that someday kids will be ing a lot of history all the time,” Rabinowitz • Try to learn about the person before- passing around MP3s [compressed music adds. “We are in danger of losing a sense hand. Read about the times and places in files] of the oral histories they’ve done, and of who we are, and [are] adopting a kind of which he or she has lived. put together with music or whatever,” Isay identity that really is rooted in stories that • Bring along old family photos or let- says. “I think that would be amazing.” are generated by other people. It’s a kind of ters to jog memories.

Fall–Winter 2004, Volume 30: 3–4 19 • A chronological approach makes for an your grandparents like? How did you know easy format: Just begin at the beginning. that your spouse was “the one” to marry? • Allow silences and take breaks if you’re But remember that it’s crucial to follow doing an extended session. Remember that up with your own spontaneous questions, the result may not be a tidy summing up including “why?” Let the interview grow of the person’s life. Real lives are complex “organically,” Isay says. “And you always fol- and “often there’s no good end to a story,” low the good stuff. When I’m doing an Clark says. interview and something interesting hap- • Try to keep remarks tied to events the pens, it’s almost like you can see the sparks person witnessed firsthand rather than coming out of people’s mouths.” events he or she might have heard about If you listen closely, listen with respect, secondhand. and treat your subjects with dignity, he adds, • “Don’t stay away from the tough stuff,” “amazing things will happen.” To continue to Isay urges. He once interviewed his Uncle Sandy and asked him about the death of receive Voices his wife. Afterward, his uncle was glad he’d and enjoy the full spoken about it. “He said, ‘It’s good to be able to cry and talk about this stuff.’ Telling range of the truth always feels good.” Gregory M. Lamb is a staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor. This New York Folklore What questions to ask? The list is end- article was first published on Septem- less: Did you have a nickname growing up ber 10, 2003, and is reproduced with Society programs, permission of the publisher. Copyright © and why did you get it? How much money 2003 The Christian Science Monitor become a member! did you make on your first job? What were (www.csmonitor.com).

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20 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore LAWYER’S SIDEBAR OPP (Other People’s Photographs) BY PAUL RAPP A recurring issue confronting folklorists, his- search yourself. I consider this an extreme last Should you get the dreaded letter from torians, and librarians who publish is how to resort to be taken only if you are going to someone claiming copyright (if you’ve been handle old photographs: You see a photo- make a huge, and potentially hugely profit- diligent in your research, the likelihood is very graph in an old book you’d like to reuse, or able, use of a work. A formal copyright search slim), your exposure will be limited. Chances someone brings you a box of unmarked pho- can be prohibitively expensive and time con- are you’ll get permission for a modest license tographs found in an attic. How can you en- suming—a look at the Copyright Office’s Cir- fee or no fee. And should you be the unfortu- sure that you’re not violating the cular 22 (http://copyright.gov/circs/circ22.html) nate recipient of the standard corporate An- photographer’s rights? will show what I mean. gry Lawyer Letter in which you’re threatened It is my opinion that the risks involved in O.K. Let’s say you’re stuck. You’ve got this with legal actions, penalties, and death by hang- publishing old photographs often are more photograph you’d like to publish, but you can’t ing, don’t be bullied. Having written many hypothetical than real, and that the folklorist’s locate (or even identify) the photographer or of these letters myself, I can tell you that they mission is best served by a realistic under- publisher. In my view, the wrong thing is to are ninety-nine percent bluffery. Any lawyer standing of these risks. I think that you should say, “Well, I don’t want to do anything illegal,” who writes one to a nonprofit, educational go ahead and publish old photographs when and not use the photograph, on the off-chance society should be banished to Litigation Hell. an informed assessment indicates a low risk that you may violate someone’s copyright. If you are on the fence about a photograph, that anyone will complain about their not- This is where a reasoned weighing of the talk it over with your colleagues or consult an for-profit use. risks comes in—a balance between respecting attorney with experience in publishing and Here is what you need to look for. First, try the rights of others and a realistic view of the copyright. But again, it’s my opinion that the to determine whether the photograph is in the photograph. You may have a casual snapshot, folklorist’s mission is accomplished through public domain. Because the law has changed and the photographer doesn’t care about his the preservation and dissemination of im- several times in the recent past, this can be or her rights in the work. Heck, the photogra- ages and information, and that paranoia about daunting. Refer to a one-page chart entitled pher might not even remember having taken an infinitesimal risk of infringing an unknown When Works Pass into the Public Domain, at http:/ the picture! You may be dealing with a de- person’s rights benefits no one. /www.unc.edu/%7Eunclng/public-d.htm, and note funct publisher, an expired copyright registra- Here’s the way John Schultz and Barbara the three important facts to determine: tion, or a dead photographer with no heirs. Schultz put it in their book, Picture Research: • When was the photograph created? Keep a detailed log of your efforts to locate A Practical Guide (New York: Van Nostrand, • Has the photograph been published—that the copyright owner. This will establish that 1991: 216): is, has it appeared in a book or been repro- you made a good-faith effort and are not a “Pictures can fall into a murky area where duced and distributed in multiples? wanton exploiter of others’ works. they may or may not be copyrighted. These • Does the © copyright notice accompany the Examine the photograph—is it an actual situations are perilous to the user, and vexing photograph, either on the photograph itself print, or is it from a publication? Does it ap- to the picture researcher or permissions re- or in the book in which it appears? pear to be a professional photograph or an searcher who must try to assure the publisher If you determine conclusively that the pho- amateur snapshot? Is there any text accompa- that he owns the legal right to reproduce. tograph is in the public domain, then of course nying the photograph? When copyright is unknown or ambiguous, you are free to use it. If it is likely subject to a Then it’s time to make the judgment call: to publishers have to make calculated risk deci- copyright and you have some indication of publish or not to publish. And it really comes sions.” who the copyright owner is, you can ask the down to this—given the apparent age of the Paul Rapp owner for permission. To get the contact in- photograph, its apparent pedigree, its subject ([email protected]) formation, you may have to spend some qual- matter, and all the other circumstances, is this a maintains a ity time on the Internet—you can Google the photograph that is likely to have rights still at- practice specializing in photographer or publisher, or look at the tached to it, or rights that anyone cares about? intellectual Copyright Office’s online database, located at If you do publish the photograph, include property law in Housatonic, www.copyright.gov (note that the database cur- whatever crediting information you’ve been Massachusetts. rently only goes back to the late 1970s). You able to discover. You might even print a dis- He also is adjunct professor of can also ask the Copyright Office to search claimer stating that you’ve made an attempt copyright and art their files to see whether a particular work has to determine the rights to the photograph, and entertainment law at Albany Law an existing copyright registration, or go to the and anyone who may hold such rights should School. Photo: Copyright Office in Washington and do the contact you. Buck Malen

Fall–Winter 2004, Volume 30: 3–4 21 The Survival of Blackface Minstrel Shows in the Adirondack Foothills

BY SUSAN HURLEY-GLOWA

Long after most Americans had found blackface minstrelsy demeaning, culture; their white, working-class popula- performances continued in isolated rural areas, with no apparent racist tions have never included a statistically sig- intent. In one declining community in New York’s North Country—a place nificant number of people of color. whose residents had virtually no contact with African Americans and no Tunbridge’s population, based on English reason to feel uneasy about “the other”—minstrel shows may have served stock, had peaked by 1820, about the time to honor a folk tradition and to express community solidarity in the face of Colton was first settled. After 1850, newcom- economic hardship. Respect for the show’s directors and self-conscious ers to Colton found work in the local tan- reflection on the town were additional factors. I explore the meaning, struc- nery, lumber industry, dairy industry, and ture, and function of blackface minstrel shows in the context of Adiron- pulp mills. Colton reached its maximum dack community life. population between 1890 and 1910 and then began to decline (Hepburn 1976). Although n the back of my grandparents’ closet in ularity, however, and foremost among the the original settlers were primarily English I Colton, New York, where we sought out functions they served their white audiences Yankees, industries brought new people to old prom gowns for dress-up games, was a (Lott 1993; Averill 2003) was enabling actors Colton, notably French-Canadians and Irish relic—a wood silhouette in the shape of a to comment on their own culture in an un- immigrants. When those industries closed, banjo. It had strings painted on the front inhibited way. Musicologist Charles Hamm Colton and other towns in St. Lawrence and lines of text on the back. My father told (1995) has taken this analysis further, sug- County began a decline from which they have me that it had been my Grandfather Hur- gesting that the persistence of blackface min- never recovered. ley’s stage prop when he played a blackface strel shows in small-town America was a Although Tunbridge has a more homo- character called Tambo in Colton minstrel nostalgic idealization of nineteenth-century geneous white population than Colton, both shows in the 1950s, and that the words on values and a rejection of twentieth-century communities lack contact with African Amer- the back were entrance cues. multiculturalism. Based on interviews with icans. Whereas in the American South or Professional blackface minstrel shows were living participants and a study of scripts, northern urban areas, people regularly en- popular throughout North America from scores, and photographs, I maintain that counter different skin colors and ethnicities 1850 until the 1920s or so. Amateur groups there were other important reasons why the (and the racial tensions that sometimes re- then performed minstrel shows until the people of Colton participated. sult), in Colton and Tunbridge, African form gradually disappeared in the 1950s, but Hamm studied Tunbridge, Vermont, American culture has been primarily an ab- the Colton community productions sur- where the last blackface minstrel show was straction. vived into the 1990s. Why did the people of produced in 1991. Colton and Tunbridge re- Colton perform in blackface and continue semble many small communities of the Blackface Minstrel Shows this practice so long? Northeast: They are sited along rivers that Blackface minstrelsy in America began with Shows in blackface are undeniably hurtful once powered small mills and industries; they blackface song-and-dance routines in the and demeaning. Recent scholars have argued have harsh winters, short growing seasons, 1820s. Full-length minstrel shows per- that racism alone does not explain their pop- and rocky soil unsuitable for large-scale agri- formed by whites for whites were formal-

22 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore ized by the early 1840s and quickly became popular across the United States (Hender- son n.d.). Countless professional groups formed, and these barnstorming troupes reached northern New England and New York State by 1850. They were particularly popular in small cities and rural areas. North Country historian Linda Casserly (1998) has documented the annual arrival of minstrel show troupes by train in Canton, New York : The performers would announce themselves with a midday parade and then play to packed houses for many consecutive nights. Such troupes toured until the late 1920s. As they disappeared, amateur com- munity groups took up blackface perfor- mances, finding new homes in fraternal or- ganizations, summer camps, civic clubs, and churches. Post-1920 amateur shows retained many features of the earlier professional produc- tions. Entertainers appeared in a semicircle, with Mr. Interlocutor, the master of cere- monies, in the middle wearing a suit, a top hat, and no black makeup. On either side of Mr. Interlocutor sat the blackfaced end men dressed in ragged or outrageous costumes. Chorus members, including women in black- face makeup, party dresses, and kerchiefs, sat in rows near them. Earlier shows were gen- erally in three acts, but the amateur shows typically had two, both of which began and ended with ensemble numbers. The first act featured Mr. Interlocutor and the end men, who each performed a solo number, with an exchange of jokes between selections, and often ended with a cakewalk—a stylized, Charles Palmer from Norwood, N.Y. as Al Jolson in the October 1958 Colton Community strutting dance. The second act, called the Minstrels production 23 Skidoo: A Musical Revue of the Nine-teen-Twenties. Photo courtesy of the Colton Historical Society. Olio, featured a succession of solos, dances, skits, and recitations, before everyone joined sic itself but on the image of black music Persistence of Blackface for the closing number. imprinted on the American consciousness Hamm suggests that the survivals of black- The music performed in Tunbridge drew by the minstrel show” (Hamm 1995: 359). face minstrelsy in Vermont are the last cry of a from a wide range of styles, genres, and time This is clearly evident in the Colton shows as threatened subculture that strongly identifies periods but was mostly Anglo American, well: Authentic African American elements with the past and clings to nostalgic notions with a heavy concentration of Tin Pan Alley were largely absent. Rather, the shows used of nineteenth-century morality and mentali- and vaudeville numbers. The Colton shows clichés of the old South as the sentimental ty. Although he calls Tunbridge’s tradition often featured songs with Irish roots—not framework, often featuring Stephen Foster “the last minstrel show,” Hamm (1995: 363) surprising, considering the town’s significant parlor songs that presented a romantic view allows that more may still exist: Irish population. of pre-Abolition plantations, such as “Old In Tunbridge, many of the Tin Pan Alley Black Joe,” “Swanee River,” and “My Old If blackface shows still exist, they’re to be found in places like Tunbridge: iso- songs drew “not on African-American mu- Kentucky Home.” lated agricultural towns with homoge-

Fall–Winter 2004, Volume 30: 3–4 23 nous populations descended chiefly from settlers of the eighteenth and nine- teenth centuries which reject the multi- culturalism of contemporary American life, towns too small and isolated for the country at large to care what goes on in them.

Like Tunbridge, Colton was settled in the nineteenth century and is today isolated and homogeneous. Can the Colton shows be understood as the “last cry” of townspeo- ple clinging to the memory of more pros- perous times, when blackface minstrelsy was a favorite entertainment? Do they represent a rejection of multiculturalism, or worse yet, the embrace of racist views and political ide- ologies? In the Colton Town Museum, I found scripts, sheet music, programs, photos, and joke books from shows that began in 1954 and ran until 1969. The shows were revived in a new series—without blackface—that ran from 1984 to 1993. Although the first Col- ton Community Minstrel Show benefited the Masons, subsequent shows raised schol- The Colton Community Minstrels present the Second Annual Old Time Minstrel. October 20-21, 1955. arship money for college-bound seniors. The of the same row. Mr. Interlocutor (Bob Flavin) is seated in the center in whiteface, and the musical di show became the Colton Community Mu- community. According to them, the shows the crude parodies of black southern dialect, sical in the late 1980s, then evolved into a were not about “making fun of blacks,” they as well as what ethnomusicologist Gage Aver- variety show before ending in 1993. were just the style of musical comedy that ill calls “an entire code of black simulacra, In August 2003, I met with the original suited them best. including stereotyped motions, gestures, music directors for the shows: Evelyn Riehl The desire to portray “the other” was as steps and moves that were thought to repre- (who with her husband Bill revived the local important an aspect of these blackface shows sent black plantation body language” (2003: tradition in 1954), and Cindy Hennessy, both as in other theatrical reversals—from the an- 33–34). In the interviews, I asked how music teachers. These elders of the commu- nual outdoor “Winnetou” reenactments in townspeople learned to play characters in nity were somewhat uncomfortable discuss- Bad Segeberg, where Germans don cowboy blackface. The informants explained that the ing the minstrel shows because they know and Indian garb to create an imaginary Amer- style was passed down in part through fa- that blackface is now taboo. They described ican West, to the northern New York cross- miliarity with local blackface minstrel shows, the show as part of a tradition: it was family dressing mock wedding ceremonies de- and in part through representations of blacks and community oriented, involving people scribed by Brenda Verardi (2002). The shows in films, radio, television, and printed sheet of all ages and professions; it raised money always contained social commentary on local music. for local scholarships; it was good homespun happenings and personalities, often in the Blackface theater was what this public knew entertainment that allowed townspeople to form of corny jokes and homespun humor. and liked. On a practical note, minstrel shows laugh at themselves. They believed that im- A typical one-liner concerned Town Supervi- were probably the only form of theater that personating blacks in today’s world would sor Harold Buck, who owned the local fu- many North Country men would have par- be racist and offensive, but they stressed that neral parlor: “I heard Harold Buck sold his ticipated in; more “refined” types of acting the shows in the 1950s and 1960s were “not funeral business—I guess business is pretty would not have been acceptable masculine about race.” Indeed, there is no evidence to dead!” behavior. In addition, the shows were ideal- support any link to organized hate groups When the shows were revived in the 1950s, ly suited to small-town talents: The format or racist ideologies. Rather, the directors said older townspeople who had participated in was flexible enough to allow contributions they were reviving a familiar theatrical form blackface minstrel or vaudeville shows early of all sorts, from tap dancing and square with a long history in the region, using “the in the twentieth century shared their knowl- dancing to barbershop quartets and tradition- exotic” as a way to comment on the local edge and experience: the repertoire of songs, al ballad singers. The shows’ survival with-

24 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore 1919, and 1959. My informants cited the Col- ton Community Minstrels’ alternation be- tween blackface and other types of shows as confirmation that their aim was not to make a statement about race. The classic Anglo American folk ballad “Jam on Gerry’s Rock” (“Gary’s Rock” in this version), about a fatal river drive, was performed unaccompanied during this show, as it would have been heard in the lumber camps. By including this bal- lad, the shows preserved some of the oldest Anglo American folk traditions around: the repertoire of the Adirondack storytellers, woodsmen balladeers, and fiddlers—the Colton culture bearers documented in folk- lorist Robert Bethke’s (1981) book Adiron- dack Voices. Ham Ferry, a well-known local storyteller and folk poet, contributed a reci- tation to each show, and Bill Smith, the high- ly respected Adirondack storyteller and bas- ketmaker, participated in at least one show as a young man. 23 Skidoo: A Musical Revue of the Nine-teen- The 4th adult (front row left) is Steve Hurley, and the “banjo relic” from his house is at the far left Twenties, of 1958, was also nostalgic: It was rectors (Evelyn and Bill Riehl) are standing behind him. Courtesy of the Colton Historical Society. set in the Hollywood Hotel, an Adirondack out blackface makeup suggests that the The text, with stereotyped references to great camp on the Jordan River near Sevey’s community-based form of the production southern plantation songs and life, was meant Corner that had recently been razed for the was perhaps more important than its por- to serve as a cheerful welcome to the audience, new hydroelectric power project. In this trayal of blacks. setting the mood for a show with a southern show, actors impersonating blackface per- The October 1955 show, The Second An- theme. This was followed by a series of solos formers like Sophie Tucker, Al Jolson, and nual Old Time Minstrel, began with a chorus and silly banter, with large ensemble numbers Helen Morgan appeared as acts at the hotel. set to the tune of “Robert E. Lee.” closing each act. Here, the Colton musicians were not repre- Tambo was played by my grandfather Steve senting blacks; rather, they were portraying Come on let’s get started The curtains have parted Hurley, an Irish barroom tenor. Relatives re- professional white singers who sometimes The lights are a-shinin’, member his bringing down the house with sang in blackface. For laughter we’re pinin’, “That Old Gang of Mine,” but the show And a Minstrel show is aboard so come. While we are waitin’, materials suggest he also sang “The Preacher The Meaning of Minstrel The banjos are syncopatin’. and the Bear,” whose lyrics are indisputably Like the shows in Tunbridge, Vermont, Sambo and Tambo, And Skinhead and Bonehead, racist: the black preacher, a “coon,” is treed by Colton’s minstrel shows were full of contra- There’s Rastus and Tiny, a bear and then mauled, all the while praying dictions and mixed messages. Actors por- And Bones and Smoke. for deliverance. Steve Hurley certainly knew the trayed plantation slaves, yet the interviewees They’re all a Minstrel crew That will charm you all racist song because he passed it down to my believed the performances were not about And send the blues away. father, who can still perform it, although he race. They performed in blackface, but their Here’s our opening song, Come let’s move along. never taught it to my generation. Similar racist performance style was only marginally influ- Our jokes are new, old, hot, cold, songs were part of the local tradition and were enced by African American music. Their jokes Come on let’s get started, considered funny and harmless at that time. primarily made fun of locals, but some We said let’s get started, We have dancers light on their toes, The Histerical Historical Colton show from songs were clearly racist. Eric Lott (1993) has You’ll forget all your woes. 1959, which was not performed in blackface, pointed out the complex racial relationships For it’s a minstrel show on board this evening. contains deliberate nostalgic references to the in minstrel shows: Some scholars suggest Everything is ready, Let’s go! past. It was organized into four acts, repre- that whites have often borrowed or stolen senting the Colton community in 1859, 1909, aspects of black performance to enrich and

Fall–Winter 2004, Volume 30: 3–4 25 vitalize their own performance styles. It has also been noted that taking on the persona of “the other” can help a group deal with social tensions or express sincere interest in a different culture. In Four Parts, No Waiting, Gage Averill (2003: 33) writes, “Decades of research have substantiated and document- ed the fascination that blackness has held for whites.” Portraying blacks may be a manifes- tation of this interest. Love-hate contradictions and a fascination with blacks were clearly present in my grand- father’s racial attitudes. Because there were few African Americans in the North Coun- try, he never really knew any and believed he wouldn’t like them if he met them. Yet he worshiped baseball’s Willie Mays and was a great fan of the Mills Brothers, the famous African American vocal quartet popular in the 1950s. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of my grandfather singing Mills Brothers tunes in close harmony with his sons after a holiday meal. This fascination with the “exotic other” needs to be more fully explored in the context of Colton’s per- formances. Blackface minstrelsy is no longer accept- able, and it is hard to imagine that anyone would mourn its passing. Although it may be difficult for outsiders to view these black- face minstrel shows as a bona fide expres- sion of folk theater, it is much easier to see how they served the needs of Colton. The Sophie Tucker from the October 1958 Colton Community Minstrels production 23 minstrel shows helped establish communi- Skidoo: A Musical Revue of the Nine-teen-Twenties. Photo courtesy of the Colton Historical Society. ty solidarity through music, strengthening bonds by involving citizens of all ages and has suggested? I think “the other” was too They had to have talent, yes, all they occupations and providing an opportunity much of an abstraction to threaten mem- could fine And among all you people, they found to reflect on Colton’s past and present. Put- bers of this homogeneous group with no the best kind. ting on blackface allowed the local commu- population pressures from outsiders. Rath- They needed suggestions and gimmicks to try, nity to mock itself in an open and uncon- er, I think that the lyrics from the 1963 open- From telling true stories to telling white lies. strained way, something that seems to occur ing number, sung to the tune of “On Top They told jokes on Piel Farmer, Kate whenever people put on masks. of Old Smoky,” provide a glimpse of what Klein did a dance, And poor Harley’s coffee did not stand One reason for the persistence of the tra- the Colton Community Minstrels thought a chance. dition may be Colton’s isolation, as Hamm they were doing with their shows. How they They blackened their faces, they let down suggests. But I think that the active role of their hair, will be judged by the outside world is yet to And hoped they’d be welcomed, to the town’s popular music teachers in the pro- be determined. come back next year. ductions and their students’ positive musi- Now singing’s a pleasure, rehearsals are fun, Gather round all ye people, and listen You’re welcome to join us, we need ev- cal experiences in the Colton public schools to me eryone. kept people coming back. I’ll try to tell you, how we happen to be. Thru meeting together, there’s one thing we found: Does the persistence of the shows indi- Now as I recall it, it was nine years ago That a group of good people put on The world’s greatest people live right cate a rejection of multiculturalism, as Hamm the first show. around town.

26 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore In the Minstrels’ Words

Evelyn Riehl: It was 1948 when Bill [Riehl] can’t remember whether she ever sat in the Riehl : And you called it a variety show, and I came, and we both joined the Eastern circle. I hope you know what we mean by the didn’t you? Star and the Masons, which were Masonic circle. The curtain would open, and Mr. Hennessy: It was called Colton Community things. We were approached as musicians to Interlocutor would be on some kind of a Musical but we still followed the format by put together a money raiser for the Masons big seat, and the black men were around on at first having end men, in whiteface. And and Eastern Stars. And that’s what we did. either side. That is what was known as the we used the same old jokes that you used, In those days, you’d just let the word get circle. the same [published joke] books. We just out—sometimes you’d put it in the paper— Interviewer: He would be in whiteface, right? changed the names and the circumstances. that we were getting together a show, and Riehl : Oh yes! And he was dignified; he Riehl: Well, there were some good jokes in people would show up and people would had a dress suit on. He was Mr. Interlocutor, those books. volunteer to do the things that they did well. whatever that happened to mean, I don’t Interviewer: I still laugh at them. And that blackface minstrel format was what know…. And he was always the one who Riehl: Yes, it is awfully hard not to go they were used to. And so we did it for years, was straight up and down; a straight-arrow through them and read them and chuckle! and these were just wonderful people. A kind of a guy, and those men who were in Hennessy: And we used the same songs man, Ova Bancroft was his name, he played blackface [the end men] were atrocious. They that you used, basically. At the intermission, piano, he was one of those folks … he was a were totally free to do any silly thing that we’d have a sing-along. huge man—did you ever hear him sing? He they could dream up as we developed the Riehl: Yes. was a huge man, and he had a voice to match. show. Then after the circle was completed … Hennessy: Everybody sang right out. And he had the biggest heart in the world. each one of the end men had some kind of Interviewer: So a lot of times you’d use And he played piano, anything you wanted a musical number or a monologue, or songs everybody knows, but change the in any key! You know, one of those something; whatever their strong point was. words to them? wonderful musicians? So we relied on him At the end of that circle, there was Riehl: Well, in the circle, that’s it. We always for the beginning of them. And everybody intermission. I think that the cake walk was poked fun at local folks. That was part of came to the shows, men and women. part of the second section. And that Olio, it the routine. You had to pick the ones you Actually, there were no women on stage in was just a series of solos and dances after the love—Blanchard Howe, and just a whole list; the circle because that was not traditional, intermission. they are all in there. Because they were people they were all men. But as time went on, I Interviewer: The perfect format for a small that people loved, you just poke fun at them. noticed in the later ones we had women in town because everybody could do something. And everybody was perfectly gracious about them. Riehl : Absolutely. It fit for everybody. [To it. Actually they were tickled to death to be Interviewer: Yes, I saw Kate Klein was in Cindy Hennessy] Can you remember how named in the show! them. you adapted what we had done? Hennessy: Oh, people really laughed their Riehl: Well, Kate was always a star Cindy Hennessy: We turned it into more of heads off when they heard their family name performer of one kind or another. And I a variety show. said in there.

REFERENCES Show?” In Putting Popular Music in Its Place. Verardi, Brenda. 2000. “I Do? Northern New Averill, Gage. 2003. Four Parts, No Waiting. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. York’s Mock Weddings.” Voices 26(2); 37– New York, Oxford: Oxford University Henderson, Clayton W. “Minstrelsy, Ameri- 42. Press. can.” In Grove Music Online, edited by L. Bethke, Robert D. 1981. Adirondack Voices: Macy. www.grovemusic.com. Accessed 10 Woodsmen and Woods Lore. Urbana, Chica- July 2004. Susan Hurley-Glowa (shurleyg@ go & London: University of Illinois Press. Hepburn, Lionnel. 1976. “Colton and the fandm.edu) is assistant professor of Racquette River.” In Colton, New York: Sto- music at Franklin and Marshall College, Casserly, Linda. 1998. Canton, NY: St. Lancaster, Pennsylvania. A version of Lawrence Plaindealer, October 6, 13. ry of a Town, II. Colton Historical Society. this paper was presented as Colton Historical Society. 1993. Colton, New Baltimore: Gateway Press, Inc. “Authenticity, Representation, and York: Story of a Town, II. Baltimore: Gate- Lott, Eric. 1993. Love and Theft: Blackface Min- Blackface Minstrel Shows in an strelsy and the American Working Class. New Adirondack Hamlet” at the Society for way Press, Inc. Ethnomusicology annual meeting in Hamm, Charles. 1995. “The Last Minstrel York, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Miami on October 5, 2003.

Fall–Winter 2004, Volume 30: 3–4 27 Black-and-White Blues BY MARTHA COOPER

I haven’t shot a roll of black-and-white film Now, however, Adobe Photoshop can do ed channels. The very different results will in over a year. This staple of amateur and a better job than film of converting a color depend on the colors in your original im- professional photographers since George image to black and white—if you know age. For the most precise results, you can Eastman’s invention of flexible film in 1888 how to use it. Start by watching an experi- mix channels. This takes practice but you is on its way out. Artists may continue to enced user run through the conversion vari- will be able to retain details lost in the oth- shoot and print in black and white, but for ations on your photos, or take a course or er methods. folklorists, I strongly recommend shoot- buy a book. Constrained here by space, I Aesthetically, shooting in black and ing only in color. will briefly describe a few ways to convert white is different from shooting in color. Color is often an important component color images to black and white. If the orig- A spot of red in an otherwise muted scene of documentation, especially in this multi- inal is on film, first get it scanned. can draw the viewer’s attention but would cultural society. Symbols of ethnicity, now 1. Desaturate: Go to Image/Adjust and hardly be seen if the same photo were in found on everything from cars to clothing click on Desaturate. This is the easiest but black and white. If I know that my photo to crafts, must often be seen in color to be worst method. will be used in black and white, I imagine understood or even noticed. Isn’t it better 2. Grayscale: Go to Image/Mode/Gray- the scene in black and white as I frame the to scoop up all the information you can? By scale. Click OK when the “Discard color in- shot: I convert the scene in my head. Since shooting with black-and-white film or with formation” box appears. I often use this I grew up in the 1950s shooting only in

EYE OF THE CAMERA EYE OF the black-and-white option on some digital method for a quick look. Sometimes it ac- black and white, this comes naturally to cameras, you may be discarding important tually works well but I can usually do a bet- me but will take some practice if you’ve information that you or someone else with ter job with the next two options. never tried it. a different point of view will want later. 3. Lab color: Go to Image/Mode and click When I was a budding photographer at In olden times, back in the 1990s, pho- on Lab Color. Then, in the channels pal- age three, my family went to Sherwood tos destined to be printed in black and ette, click on Lightness Channel, go to Mode Gardens in Baltimore to see the tulips in white—were best shot on black-and-white again and click on Gray Scale to discard the bloom. As I was about to take a picture of film. The process of converting from color color. This often best preserves the tonal the brightly colored flowers with my Baby originals was expensive, and the images in- range. Brownie, my dad explained that they would evitably lost detail and contrast. Those were 4. Channels: Go to the channels palette turn out in black and white. To the amuse- the predigital days of printing from interne- and then try selecting the red, green, or blue ment of the adults, I immediately replied gatives using special filters on Panalure vari- channel to see which works best. Then click that I would only take pictures of the white able-contrast paper. on Mode/Grayscale to discard the unwant- tulips, an unnecessarily extreme solution to the conversion problem. Being aware, while shooting, of how color translates into black and white will improve your photos. By converting color photos to black and white in Photoshop instead of in the camera, you have the potential to make them look even better than if they were shot in black and white in the first place.

Martha Cooper is the director of photography at City Lore. Her images have appeared in museum exhibitions, books, and maga- zines. If you have a I converted this color photo of a girl wearing a skirt made from the red, yellow, and question that you’d green Guyanese flag by different methods in Photoshop. Different photos require like her to address, different methods depending on the colors. Left: Desaturate; center: Lab Color, send it to the editor Lightness Channel; right: RGB, Red Channel. of Voices.

28 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore InfusedInfused withwith SpiritSpirit NationalNational HeritageHeritage FellowFellow ChuckChuck CampbellCampbell

BY ROBERT STONE

ochester resident Charles T. R “Chuck” Campbell has been award- ed the National Heritage Fellowship in rec- ognition of his artistic excellence and life- time contribution to the African American sacred steel guitar musical tradition. The fellowship, awarded by the National En- dowment for the Arts, recognizes lifetime achievement, artistic excellence and contri- butions to our nation’s traditional arts her- itage. In addition to being a master of the art form, Campbell serves as a role model for the dozens of steel guitarists who play for House of God worship services. He is also a tireless advocate for their unique and compelling musical tradition. The House of God, a Holiness-Pente- costal denomination, was founded in 1903. The electric lap-steel guitar was first com- mercially produced in the 1930s, when Ha- waiian music was a significant component of mainland U.S. popular music. Inspired by the singing sound of the electric steel guitar played by Hawaiian musicians, some House of God musicians bought instru- ments, took lessons, and began to play for worship services. Brothers Troman and Willie Eason of Philadelphia were among the most notable early steel guitarists in the House of God. Troman played in the straightforward, me- lodic manner associated with Hawaiian mu- sic, but Willie developed an approach that imitated the melismas and ornaments of

Chuck Campbell plays "Jump for Joy" at the Sacred Steel Convention, Sanford, Florida. 2001. Photo: Robert Stone

Fall–Winter 2004, Volume 30: 3–4 29 the African American gospel vocal style. a year later, he played in church for the first ers began to play for public presentations Willie Eason’s style became the basis for time, evidently a little too soon. “They told in 1998. Chuck serves as leader of the Camp- the steel guitar music heard in House of me to take it home. But I wasn’t discour- bell Brothers and is an articulate ambassa- God churches today. Over the decades, the aged,” he recalls. He learned by watching dor for the tradition. The Campbell Broth- electric steel guitar rose to the top of the steel guitarists such as Elder Robinson, ers perform about twenty-five dates a year, musical instrument hierarchy to become the Calvin Cooke, and the late Henry Nelson. largely at festival and concert venues on the driving force for the spirited services that Within a few years he began to gain a na- “cultural” circuit. To date, they have per- characterize House of God worship. tional reputation as a steel guitarist who formed in more than twenty countries. For nearly six decades, the music re- could help infuse congregants with the Holy Chuck and his brothers continue to play reg- mained virtually unknown to the rest of Spirit. ularly for worship services and special gath- the world. In 1995, the Florida Folklife Pro- Campbell’s greatest contributions to the erings but are not full-time musicians. All gram produced the Sacred Steel cassette al- tradition began when he started to play the but Carlton, now a college student, are fam- bum, which was licensed by Arhoolie pedal-steel guitar for worship services in the ily men with regular jobs. Chuck is a gas Records and distributed internationally in early 1970s. Lap-steel guitars commonly have service technician for Rochester Gas and 1997. Sacred Steel was heralded by folklor- six or eight strings and are tuned to an open Electric. ists, critics, and roots music fans as a signif- chord, a configuration with limited harmon- icant, compelling musical “discovery.” Sev- ic capability. Pedal-steel guitars usually have Preserving the Record eral more Arhoolie albums followed. ten or more strings (Campbell plays a Campbell recognizes the value of having Campbell represents the third generation twelve-string) and incorporate a system of his musical traditions documented. He was of House of God steel guitarists. He is foot pedals and knee levers to change the a facilitator in the production of several Ar- highly esteemed by clergy, musicians, and pitch of selected strings; that permits the hoolie Sacred Steel Guitar series albums re- congregants throughout the geographic musician to play chords and harmonic in- corded live on location at churches from New range of the House of God, which extends tervals not available on the lap-steel guitar. York to Florida. He also worked to ensure to twenty-six states, Canada, the Bahamas, Although not the first in the House of God that octogenarian tradition bearer Willie Ea- Jamaica, Haiti, and Africa. Today, a fourth to play the pedal-steel, Campbell was clearly son was recorded at every opportunity. He generation of steel guitarists in their teens the first to apply the technical advantages was indispensable in the production of the and early twenties is bringing the tradition of the instrument to the musical tradition. Arhoolie Foundation’s Sacred Steel documen- into the twenty-first century. Among the Through experimentation and innovation tary video: he arranged interview subjects, numerous musicians Campbell has directly coupled with a thorough understanding of facilitated logistics, served as an articulate in- influenced is Robert Randolph, the New the House of God musical tradition, he terview subject himself, and assisted with Jersey pedal-steel phenomenon who has developed a unique tuning and pedal set- audio recording. When the Sacred Steel video brought music based on the House of God up. In 1974, seventeen-year-old Campbell was shown at the 2002 American Folklore tradition to concert stages, jam-band festi- joined the elite group of three or four se- Society’s annual meeting in Rochester, he vals, and mainstream media, such as MTV. nior steel guitarists who play regularly at the took a few minutes from work to field ques- Randolph’s debut Warner Brothers album, annual House of God General Assembly tions. His sincere comments about how Unclassified, was nominated for two Gram- in Nashville, Tennessee—a position he much he appreciated the work done by folk- mys in 2003. maintains to this day. Campbell has been lorists in documenting traditions moved at influential among his peers. Elements of least two colleagues to tears. Steel Away his equipment setup and approach to play- Campbell accepts the National Heritage Chuck Campbell was born in Rochester ing the pedal-steel guitar are at the core of Fellowship with humility and grace. He con- in 1957. His father, Bishop Charles E. the music played by many steel guitarists siders himself a representative of all those Campbell, is the state bishop of New York active in the House of God today. musicians who went before him and takes and is also responsible for churches in Geor- Campbell’s family is rich in musical tal- seriously his position as a role model for gia, northern and western Florida, and parts ent. In 1997, he and his brothers Phil (gui- emerging younger musicians. “I am deeply of Texas. Chuck first heard the evocative tar) and Darick (lap-steel), and Phil’s four- honored,” he says. “But I want people to voice of the steel guitar when Elder Luther teen-year-old son Carlton (drums) teamed know that I accept this award on behalf of Robinson played in the Rochester House with Baltimore powerhouse vocalist Katie all House of God steel guitarists.” of God. He admired Robinson’s playing Jackson to record their debut album for Ar- and longed to have his own instrument. hoolie in 1997. Following their stunning Robert Stone ([email protected]) When he was twelve, his father bought him performance at the Folk Alliance Conference is the outreach coordinator for the a six-string lap-steel for Christmas. About in Memphis in 1998, the Campbell Broth- Florida Folklife Program in Gainesville.

30 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore LIBRARY ESSENTIALS Resources on African American Culture BY TOM VAN BUREN “Folklore is the science of the people,” said and good at the same time); “obscenity” (the stitutions. Fine presents a well-researched nar- Kemoko Sano, the former choreographer of many examples speak for themselves); forms rative about the history of stepping. Although the Les Ballets Africains of Guinea and now a of performance such as rap, boasts, and “signi- she discusses at length the role of this practice resident in New York. He offered this rationale fying”; and such topics as the process of learn- in building group cohesion and discipline, she for his use of folklore fieldwork to inform his ing, and performance style. Jemie notes paral- does not venture very far beyond the academic dance arrangements, explaining that the daily lels to verbal culture in Nigeria and other parts setting to seek out the historical and commu- cultural practice of a people is to interpret and of Africa but stops short of attributing causal nity roots of stepping. mitigate the world according to their accumu- relationships, preferring to recognize the par- When discussing the considerable political lated experience, knowledge, and wisdom. I ticular tenacity and genius of the African Amer- implications of stepping and related symbolic am reminded of his words when considering ican cultural sensibility in its own right. Never- and verbal practices, she settles for a chronicle two new works in African American cultural theless, his perspective on this subject is fresh of published opinions of African American studies that are helpful in looking at contem- because he is an outsider who through lan- writers, speakers and scholars, falling short of porary African American culture in its commu- guage relates African American verbal lore to attempting much of her own analysis. In the nity context: Onwuchekwa Jemie’s edition ti- its underlying cultural routes in Africa and to final chapter, she quotes two African American tled Yo’ Mama: New Raps, Toasts, Dozens, Jokes the subversion of racism, colonialism, and ex- graduate students, whose contradictory state- & Children’s Rhymes from Urban Black America ploitation. ments on stepping are held as emblematic of (Temple University Press, 2004), and Elizabeth In a particularly succinct analysis, he describes the symbolic internal dichotomy of the prac- Fine’s Soul Stepping: African American Step Shows the practice of verbal denigration of another’s tice. They argue, although stepping may en- (University of Illinois Press, 2003). mother in the “dozens” (hence, the book’s ti- hance group unity and morale, it may also have In my research and presentations of tradi- tle) as a male coming-of-age ritual. This serves the negative effect of impeding integration and tional immigrant artists in New York City and the dual purpose, Jemie writes, of asserting encouraging negative stereotypes among stu- in Westchester County, I have not focused independence and of mitigating the pain of dents. Rightly, Fine notes the development of enough on the heart and soul of what is unique seeing the dominant society’s fundamental these arts within the context of societies whose about America – the creativity and resourceful- abuse of the African American family and its membership extends for life and has played an ness of its citizens of African descent. The women in particular. Ultimately, Jemie notes important role in members’ professional and mainstreaming of jazz into a classical form and the role of humor and the verbal shock of personal advancement. Despite some prob- the adoption of black speech and humor into obscenity in the formation of community folk- lematic aspects, Fine has assembled a thorough commercial media seemed at odds with the lore. The ability to dish out and withstand de- study with ample references that will help the focus on the traditional folklore and music of rision, satire, and parody is a marker of cultural researcher, the applied folklorist, or the merely immigrant ethnic artists that folklorists are unity in its own right. In addition to his own curious to come to a better understanding of drawn to. But to echo Louis Armstrong’s ob- comparisons with African verbal lore and prac- stepping. servation that “all music is folk music,” we can tice, Jemie also make ample reference to African The verbal and gestured expressions of black conclude that all culture is folk culture, if we see American writers and their use of and com- culture are the product of their folk roots, and it as a dynamic, interpretive, and creative pro- mentary on the vernacular tradition of black they inform African American youth in partic- cess grounded in its particular roots. urban America. Foremost among those cited ular; no folklorist working in this field can or Jemie, a Nigerian and professor of African is Langston Hughes, the subject of some of should disregard them. Jemie and Fine offer American literature at Howard University, has Jemie’s earlier publications. useful resources that help us to see folklore as a compiled more than two hundred pages of Elizabeth Fine, of Virginia Tech, is more dynamic cultural process and a current mani- black verbal lore, collected mainly in New York narrowly focused on African American step- festation of a people’s creative reaction to the and Philadelphia by student researchers from ping, a practice that originated on black college otherwise destructive forces or history. 1969 to 1973. This study has long been in the campuses and is still found mainly in academic making. Jemie explains that after assembling settings. Having attended the step shows of Tom van Buren this work, he laid it aside. Finally, thirty years “Greeks” (fraternal societies) at her institution, ([email protected]) is later, he has published his results. The study she researched the history of stepping within archivist for the Center for includes ninety pages of analysis grouped into the fraternities and sororities, which are well Traditional Music thematic categories, including “hyperbole” (ex- documented in the Howard University archives, and Dance and folklorist for the aggerated and usually derogatory comments); a source for many of the photos in the book. Westchester Arts “inversion” (when bad means both really bad From there, she widened her view to other in- Council.

Fall–Winter 2004, Volume 30: 3–4 31 CatskillCatskill FolkFolk Festivals:Festivals: AA SenseSense ofof thethe DanceDance ofof LifeLife

BY KARYL DENISON EAGLEFEATHERS

The Catskill Folk Festival—in both its original form of the 1940s and 1950s and Festivals: Campers go on trips into the moun- its late-1970s revivals—gave upstate New York tradition bearers an opportuni- tains and collect songs and stories from the ty to share their world with city dwellers. The later festivals were reunions that residents. The festival can publicize Camp featured many of the earlier fiddlers, singers, dancers, and storytellers, all per- Woodland and bring in a tremendous har- forming the same pieces they had presented in the 1940s and 1950s. The vest of songs and stories” (Studer 1962a). audience, however, had changed—from the young children of Camp Woodland Here, Studer outlines the multiple purposes to a more general community. The revived folk festival ended soon after the of the early festivals: to be part of the camp death of Camp Woodland’s founder, Norman Studer, but the traditional music, curriculum that exposes young people from dances, and stories of the Catskills still draw performers and audiences. the city to mountain communities, to gener- ate publicity for Camp Woodland, and to eople have always come together to area (Johnson 2002). Norman Studer, camp conduct pure research concerning oral and P share traditions in celebrations that director, felt that the folk festivals were a nat- musical traditions. provide respite from the world of work, an ural extension of the progressive education- opportunity to reaffirm community, and al philosophy and democratic principles that Primary Research events that are characterized by inclusion rath- were at the heart of the camp experience. Particularly from 1940 to 1962, when it was er than exclusion. Fiddle contests, house Notes from a camp staff meeting reveal that an extension of a children’s camp and a direct parties, community get-togethers, and fairs the purpose of the camp was to give camp- result of primary folklore research, the Catskill have been part of U.S. history since northern ers “a sense of the dance of life”: Folk Festival had a different character from Europeans made North America their home the more public and commercialized festivals The nub of the whole thing is that (Whisnant 1998). These have been events by … we are trying to … provide an op- that were beginning to grow as the folk music the people, for the people. The “folk festi- portunity for our children to live in a revival inspired reverence for traditional per- val” planned and staged by people outside a dual culture, to have their roots in two different types of community—rural formers. Norman Studer developed a practice traditional community to present tradition- and urban communities.… of taking the summer campers to visit Catskill al dancing, singing, and storytelling came in The important function of an educa- residents who were rich in traditions. Studer tional institute is to preserve and keep the twentieth century, after the changes cultural traditions. Camp has attempt- would lead conversations between tradition wrought by the industrial revolution left ed to do this—collecting folk songs and bearers and the children. Campers came to people nostalgic for the past. Among the folk lore. Another important function of an educational institute is to give know the people of the Catskills in the set- oldest of these—preceded by the 1938 Na- young people a feeling of taking part in ting of their native communities. Orson Slack, tional Folk Festival—is the Catskill Folk Fes- a community life of the area, which we for example, who performed at the festivals do through our folk festival…. tival. Our relations with a community of the 1940s and early 1950s, had a saw-filing The Catskill Folk Festival was held annu- should be as broad as life itself—not business in Arena, New York, which the chil- ally from 1940 to 1962 and later revived in interested in the past for itself—and that we learn through actual experiences with dren visited. George Edwards, another early 1977, 1978, and 1979. For the first twenty- the community—getting things at first festival performer, had shared his seemingly three years, the festivals were a celebration at hand. All the folk songs we have learned endless repertoire of songs at the children’s from hearing them sung by people in the end of the Camp Woodland summer the community (Studer 1962a). campfires. camp season. The camp operated in the Not only did campers visit the mountain Catskills near Phoenecia, New York, serving Among Norman Studer’s papers is this communities and enjoy visits of the region- children from the New York metropolitan note about the festivals: “Purposes of Folk al people to the camp, the campers delighted

32 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore the camp and its festivals, and he eventually made an enormous contribution to folk mu- sic through his years of work at the Smithso- nian Archive of Folk Music. Another camper introduced to folk music, folklore, and folk- lore research was Richard Bauman, who later trained a generation of folklorists as the chair of the Folklore Department at Indiana Uni- versity and as professor of folklore at the Uni- versity of Texas in Austin. Other former camp- ers have applied the early lessons of the camp and festivals. For example, several now sit on the board of the Manhattan Country School, which occupies a farm in Delaware County and has a curriculum that includes folklife, folk mu- The earliest Catskill Folk Festivals were produced in the Chichester Town hall. By sic, and folkways of the Catskills. 1954 they moved to Simpson Ski Center near Phoenecia. John Coss, Grant Rogers, Ernie Sager, Marvin Atwell, Norman Studer, and Murray Rogers enjoyed conversation Although the impact on the general pop- behind the stage at a late fifties festival. Four of these men were part of the revived ulation of the Catskills was limited, the fes- festivals twenty years later. Photo: Norman Studer Papers, M.E. Grenander Depart- ment of Special Collections and Archives, University at Albany Libraries tivals were an opportunity for local perform- ers at a time when television was becoming their new acquaintances by creating and per- for water (Studer 1962c). Other cantatas in- available in most homes and people were forming songs and dances based on the tra- cluded “Boney Quillen,” based on stories both staying home and traveling farther for ditional material they had learned through about a folk hero collected by the campers entertainment. their friendship. The audience for the early during their forays into the mountains; “So- festivals included the campers and their fam- journer Truth,” about the Catskill woman’s The Festival Redux ily members, the performers and their fami- struggle for abolition and women’s rights; The earliest festivals, from 1940 to 1953, had lies, and some locals in Ulster County, as well and “We Build a Land,” supported by a cho- been held in the town hall in Chichester, but as hundreds of radio listeners who heard rus of a hundred children’s voices, about the after the building was sold to a private wood- the radio shows that were produced for immigrants who contributed to America. Still working factory, the festival moved outdoors some years by the camp. other cantatas were titled “Together Sing for to the Simpson Ski Center near Phoenicia. When The early Catskill Folk Festivals always in- Victory,” “Live Bones,” and “The Lonesome Norman and Hannah Studer wanted to hold a cluded folk music performances by traditional Train.” reunion festival in the mid-seventies, they ap- musicians from the Catskills’ mostly Scots- proached the McIntosh family, who owned the Irish settlers. For most of those years the Spheres of Influence Catskill Ski Center in Andes, some miles north- festivals also included storytelling, jigging, The legacy of Camp Woodland and the west of Phoenecia, to discuss the potential of square dancing, fiddling, children’s perfor- Catskill Folk Festivals is noteworthy. In its reviving the Catskill Folk Festival. mances, craft demonstrations and exhibits, documentation of regional folklore, it resem- Through meetings and correspondence be- which grew into a folk museum by the 1950s. bles many Works Progress Administration tween the Studers and the McIntosh family, the At least three of the festivals included plays, collections developed about the time Camp Catskill Folk Festival was reimagined and re- such as Dingle Hill, written by Norman Studer Woodland began. But because the festivals vived in 1977, 1978, and 1979. Norman and and Norman Cazden. In the tradition of spanned nearly forty years, the documenta- Hannah Studer—whose own relationship was Stephen Foster, who lived a century earlier, tion, particularly of regional folk music, is grounded in commitment to freedom, creativ- and Béla Bartók, who died in New York in extensive. This sustained and focused docu- ity, progressive education, and the necessity of 1945, the festivals commissioned composi- mentation resulted in a significant record of community—were natural collaborators. Liv- tions based on local history and folklore. Catskill folksongs, Catskill Folk Songs, by ing in Manhattan, they successfully worked with The first of these compositions was the Norman Studer, Norman Cazden, and Her- a family 150 miles away to plan the festival re- 1945 “We’ve Come from the City,” a cantata bert Haufrecht (1982). vivals, without e-mail, photocopiers, or unlim- by Herbert Haufrecht. With a theme of city The way Camp Woodland and the Catskill ited phone minutes. They found that the McIn- and country in conflict and unity, it tells the Folk Festival influenced the young campers is tosh family shared their passion for tradition story of the building of reservoirs in the also part of the legacy. Camper Joe Hickerson and the way that traditional knowledge creates a Catskills to meet New York’s growing need was first introduced to folk music through sense of individual wholeness that contributes

Fall–Winter 2004, Volume 30: 3–4 33 to, as it gained sustenance from, wholeness in Nellie Bly Ballard, who had been document- Catskill repertoire that still communicates a community. ed by campers in the early years, and exhibits sense of place and community. The later festivals had a different character of wood and stone carving, demonstrations Etson Van Wagoner and George Edwards because Camp Woodland had been closed for of tartan weaving, woodworking, wood carv- told Norman Studer that they thought their more than fifteen years, and the festival reviv- ing, quilting, rug braiding, rug hooking, tat- music would die with them (Studer 1962d), als were not aimed at children’s education. The ting, spinning and weaving, pioneer toys and but it lives on. As Pete Seeger sang at Norman festivals of the 1970s were instead developed games, stone laying, woodstove cookery, ma- Studer’s memorial service in 1979, may all our equally as celebrations among the mountain ple syrup making, fly tying, canning and food children and our children’s children “guard well folk and as performances for city people, show- preparation, chair caning, horseshoeing and our human chain, watch well and keep it casing the experiences, skills, and ways of life hoof trimming, and trapping, as well as dows- strong, as long as sun does shine.” of the people of the Catskill Mountains. A ing and dowsers. wonderful mirror for the people of the Jigging and poem recitations had disap- Literature Cited Catskills themselves, they were also an op- peared from the 1970s festivals, even though Note: Norman Studer’s documentation on portunity for people from the city to glimpse in 2004, at any event with live music in the the Catskill Folk Festival is in the M.E. the depth and beauty of traditional country Catskills, one can readily observe men from Grenander Special Collections and Archives in life in upstate New York. Camp Woodland families that have been in the mountains for the University at Albany Archives, and Nor- had created a community of affinity, and Stud- many generations dancing to country music in man Cazden’s materials are in the Maine Folk- er gave voice to his longing for this commu- a fashion resembling the earlier jigging that came life Center. Some tapes of the earlier festivals nity in a letter to the McIntoshes in 1977, say- over from the British Isles. reside in the American Folklife Archive at the ing, “I hope the folk festivals will take on the Library of Congress. character of reunions in the years to come.” An Enduring Tradition Cazden, Norman, Herbert Haufrecht, and Nor- And reunions they were. Herbert Haufrecht Norman Studer died on October 27, 1978, man Studer. 1982. Folk Songs of the Catskills. Albany: State University of New York Press. and Norman Cazden, who had served as mu- and the Catskill Folk Festival the following sum- Johnson, Dale W. 2002. “Camp Woodland: sical directors of Camp Woodland, and Pete mer was dedicated to his memory. Grant Rog- Progressive Education and Folklore in the Seeger, who had been a skinny youngster with ers, a central character in the festivals since 1950 Catskill Mountains of New York.” Voices: a ragtag group of puppeteers in the camp’s who performed in the 1977 and 1978 festivals, The Journal of New York Folklore 28: 6–12. early years, were all part of the Catskill Folk also died and was honored at the 1979 festival. Studer, Norman. 1962a. Philosophy of Camp Festival revival. Three Delaware County musi- Norman Cazden died in 1980. Herbert Hau- Woodland. Outline of Goals of Folklore Ed. Studer Papers, Series 4: Camp Wood- cians, Grant Rogers, Ernie Sager, and John frecht held a few events that were an echo of land, Subseries 1: Administrative, Box 12, Coss, Sr., contributed to both the original fes- the festivals, but they were not sustained. Folder 5. University at Albany Archives. tivals and the revivals. Mary Bogardus and Joe Although the festival has not been held for ———. 1962b. Studer Papers, Series 8: Writ- Hickerson, also participants in the earlier festi- twenty-five years, Catskill traditions are still ings, Subseries 1: Writings, Box 21, Folder vals, were lined up for the festivals during the strong, and people who were influenced by 13. University at Albany Archives. 1970s. the festival in their youth are telling the stories ———. 1962c. Studer Papers, Series 4: Camp Woodland, Subseries 4: Administrative, Box With the exception of the cantatas and plays, and singing the songs they heard. Little Ira 12, Folder 5. University at Albany Archives. the revivals at the Catskill Ski Center included McIntosh was six years old when the festivals ———. 1962d. Studer Papers, Series 4: Camp almost all of the performance types and partic- began at the Catskill Ski Center. He spent his Woodland, Subseries 2: Activities, Box 12, ular songs of the earlier festivals. Folksongs, childhood visiting the old ones who per- Folder 35. University at Albany Archives. fiddling, storytelling, and square dancing were formed in the festival, listening to their sto- Whisnant, David E. 1998. “The White Top still strong in the Catskills. Studer’s film, Indian ries and music. Over the years he has played Folk Festival: What We (Have Not) Learned.” Paper presented at Virginia Highlands Festi- Summer, about the building of the Cannons- music with many of them. In 2004, he and val, Southwest Virginia Higher Education ville Dam, was shown at both the early and the wife Laurie received a New York State Arts Center, Abingdon, Virginia, August 6. later folk festivals. There was still storytelling Council grant to produce Catskill Tales and and singing around the campfire, and the great Tunes, a series of concerts throughout the Karyl Denison (McIntosh) Eaglefeathers circle dances of performers and audience that Catskills to celebrate the centennial of the ([email protected]) worked with Norman Studer to direct the ended the festivals on the Simpson ski slopes Catskill Park. They relate stories of Mike Todd, Catskill Folk Festivals in the 1970s. also brought the festivals to a close at the Catskill of the blue stone quarries, of hunting in the After the last festival in 1979, she began studying for her Ph.D. in folklore Ski Center. hills, and they sing “I Walk the Road Again,” at Indiana University. She is now an By the 1970s, the folk museum had been “Blue Stone Quarry,” “The Second Dam assistant professor at Empire State College. Her son Ira McIntosh, a full- replaced with a “School for Country Living”; Song,” “The Delhi Jail,” and “How Slide time musician, makes his home at the it included exhibits of the folk paintings of Mountain Got Its Name” as part of their base of the Catskill Ski Center.

34 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore FOODWAYS The Thousand Islands Shore Dinner BY LYNN CASE EKFELT

“Wind from the east, fishing’s the least,” The live well slowly fills up with our Jim Brabant intones. He should know— “keepers”—seven perch and eight bass, Shore Dinner for more than thirty years he’s been guiding enough to feed our group of six despite French Toast fishermen, working out of Clayton in the the east wind. We head for land to a wooded Thousand Islands. Tourism has long played spot rented by the guides and outfitted with 2 pints heavy cream, divided a large role in the economy of the river a large grill, a woodpile, and two picnic 4 eggs towns, and many residents have made a tables. Before we even leave the boat, Jim Cinnamon to taste living for themselves and their families by plugs in an electric knife, and in minutes he Crusty Italian bread, sliced 1 inch thick guiding visitors to the area’s best fishing has cleaned the fish so deftly that not a trace Maple syrup spots. But taking fishermen to the fish and of skin remains on the fillets. The whole Grand Marnier, bourbon, or Scotch helping them to land a big one is only part idea of filleting—especially with an electric Frying pan filled with oil of the responsibilities of a member of the knife—is one the old guides scorned, Clayton Guides Association. A guide also preferring to slice the fish into serving pieces, Whisk together 1 pint heavy cream, has to be a chef par excellence, able to then pull the skin off with pliers, leaving the eggs, and the cinnamon. Dip the prepare a traditional shore dinner for his the backbone to anchor the meat so it bread slices into the cream mixture, clients, hungry from a day on the water. wouldn’t break apart during the cooking. turning them over so both sides are well Although we know that shore dinners have The shore dinner menu never varies, and soaked. Place the bread slices in the hot been part of these fishing excursions since its creation is almost balletlike—not a single fat and cook them, turning occasionally, early in the 1900s, we are a little concerned wasted motion. Each of us grabs a box or until they are golden brown and crisp on by Jim’s prophecy. Since the wind is cooler to carry up to the picnic area, then the outside (about 3–4 minutes.) Serve definitely from the east, we have visions of our work is done. Jim starts the meal by topped with a drizzle of the remaining a vegetarian fish dinner. chopping kindling and building two fires. heavy cream, then the maple syrup and As we fish, we ply Jim with questions. On one he starts water boiling for the the liquor to taste. His experienced hands have no trouble potatoes; on the other he fills a skillet with taking over the mechanical tasks, leaving him fatback. While the fatback cooks down over free to tell us about his life growing up on a very hot fire, Jim slices tomatoes and Grindstone Island, one of the biggest of onions, cleans corn on the cob, and breaks even though it is cooked in the same fat as the Thousand Islands. During much of the up lettuce for a salad. Once the fatback has our fillets. year, he hires out as a pipe fitter wherever all melted, there are a few crisp little bits of Our dinner has taken about three hours there is work so that he can spend two bacon meat floating in the pan. These are from fish cleaning to box repacking. Jim months in the summer “having a good time ladled out and combined with lettuce and explains that in the old days, life was more and getting paid for it” three days a week. It tomato between slices of Italian bread to relaxed. Fishermen would take many hours was his former father-in-law who got him make wonderful appetizer sandwiches. to eat—talking, swimming, and maybe even started fishing, and the old guides, then in While we munch contentedly, Jim batters playing a little ball. Now, though, most their late seventies, who showed him the the fish fillets and drops them into the people are in a hurry to get back to the river best spots. He shows us proudly how much fatback oil; takes the potatoes out of their for more fishing. A bank of rapidly of his boat and cooking equipment have pot and replaces them with the corn; chops approaching clouds convinces us that we, been passed down to him from these peppers, onions, cucumbers and tomatoes; too, might retreat—not to further fishing mentors. Softly he says that he enjoys and tosses the salad. He tells us the oil is so but to the mainland and our car. On the thinking about the old guides while he uses hot that the fish sears immediately and stays way home we decide to skip dinner. their things. When we ask whether he is in crisp without absorbing grease. Eventually turn passing on secrets to younger men, he we are satiated, but somehow we manage replies that times have changed. There’s only to find a space for the French toast Jim has Adapted with permission from Good Food one young guide in the association now, been making while we pigged out on the Served Right: Traditional Recipes and Food Customs from New York’s North because everyone wants to work only part- main course. It is outstanding, and we are Country, by Lynn Case Ekfelt. Traditional time on weekends. amazed that it does not taste at all fishy Arts of Upstate New York, 2000.

Fall–Winter 2004, Volume 30: 3–4 35 “We“We NeverNever WillWill Forget”Forget” Disaster in American Folksong BY REVELL CARR from the Nineteenth Century to September 11, 2001

Folksongs commemorating disasters at sea, on the battlefield, and at the tinguish disaster songs from other genres. hands of nature have a long tradition. Songs in the genre share elements of A classic broadside ballad from 1840, pub- content, including a tabloid-like recounting of the details of the event and the lished in New York City and distributed all suffering of both victims and survivors, and serve a common function in help- over the eastern seaboard, will illustrate these ing the local community heal and reestablish its regular patterns of life. Satel- characteristics. lite television and the Internet have now created global communities for large- scale disasters like terrorist attacks. Today’s songwriters are inspired to com- On the Burning of the Steamer Lexing- ton, When one hundred and fifty souls pose new disaster songs that are well within the tradition yet reach out to the perished, and only five rescued from the wider national and even international community as it mourns its losses. devouring element, in Long Island Sound, on her passage to Stonington, Connecticut, on Monday evening, 13th or hundreds of years, broadside bal- The U.S. Tradition of January, 1840. lads were an important source of Malcolm Laws (1964: 23) described Amer- F On Monday last, at three o’clock, news and entertainment, presenting current ican disaster songs as “somewhat miscella- With streamers floating gay, events in vivid detail and often providing neous, consisting of all those tragic ballads A steamer called the LEXINGTON moral commentary. By studying broadsides, which could not be included under earlier From New York sailed away. we can get a sense of the values and beliefs headings.” This is notably different from One hundred souls, or more that time, of the people of a particular time and place. many folksong genres, such as the American She carried with her along; Whose cruel fate it was decreed, Many broadside ballads recount disasters— murder ballad genre, that follow the same Should never see another morn. famines, floods, fires, plagues, shipwrecks, basic narrative, stanzaic form (Burt 1958). By earthquakes, and now, terrorist attacks. contrast, disaster songs appear in many forms The gentlemen, who went on board Were full of life and glee; Even though the ballad writers were often and styles. Some are narrative ballads, others Expecting soon their relatives geographically remote from the sites of the are songs with choruses, some use call-and- And numerous friends to see. tragedies, they were motivated to write as response, and others are a cappella dirges. When opposite to Eaton’s Neck, first-hand witnesses. The reach of disaster Especially in today’s fragmented and com- A cry of fire was heard; songs widened in the twentieth century, as mercialized music environment, disaster On which they all rushed on the deck, So sore they were afraid! disasters were electronically mediated and songs are stylistically varied; performed in consumed as popular culture. September 11, idioms like country and western, urban blues, The fire soon got so far ahead 2001, brought the world a catastrophe on an folk rock, and even electronica, reflecting the It rose in volumes high; The flames soon spread along its sides, unprecedented scale, as live images reached diversity of the individuals and communi- While dreadful was the cry. communities around the world instanta- ties that are touched by disasters. In other And as the flames in volumes rolled, neously via satellite television and the Inter- words, disaster songs are not defined by their To hear them shriek and moan net. In the aftermath of that day, songwrit- musical style or structure, but rather consti- Would cause the stoutest heart to break ers around the world responded with new tute a genre distinguished by content and Of marble or of stone! disaster songs, proving the genre’s contin- social function. Nevertheless, there are com- The lifeboat soon was lowered down, ued social function and relevance. mon characteristics that can be used to dis- The steamer under weigh,

36 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Broadside ballads like this have been popular sources of news since the seventeenth century. The sinking of the Lexington was one of the major news stories of 1840. Courtesy of John Hay Library, Brown University.

When twenty souls were all upset, Their consciences will lash them sore, 3. Themes and motifs include unheeded And buried in the sea! And haunt them many a day; When they think on the hundred souls warnings, human culpability, and divine ret- Two other boats under her bow Gone into eternity! ribution. Here, blame for the disaster falls Were sunk along its side; on the ship’s careless owners. They all looked on, with horror struck, So here I close my mournful lay, And wrung their hands and cried. While children yet unborn 4. Stock formulae—most commonly the Shall to their sons tell the sad tale date of the tragedy, which usually appears Hilliard, a mariner on board, And fate of the Lexington. A captain bold and brave, at the beginning—are used both as mne- Quick got out his fragile boat, Based on an analysis of more than two monic devices and as keys signifying the per- And rode the stormy wave! hundred disaster songs from a variety of formance frame. In this case the ballad’s ti- To save themselves from the dreadful manuscripts and published collections, I have tle has the date, and the first verse specifies fire “Monday last at three o’clock.” They plunged into the wave; identified six characteristics of the genre, all And all the souls who were on board of which are evident in the ballad of the 5. Voyeuristic and sensationalistic details Soon found a watery grave! Lexington. give the song a tabloid quality: “The Lex- Of a hundred souls, or more, 1. The song describes actual historical ington” provides gruesome details, such as Who left the port that day, events: “The Lexington” uses specific dates, the capsizing of the lifeboat, in the same But five were saved to tell the tale way that today’s media use graphic film Of their sad destiny. proper names, and place-names to establish historicity. footage. The cruel men were all to blame, 2. The event features significant loss of 6. The song conveys empathy for the vic- The owners of the boat: To stow their cotton on the deck life: in this case, a hundred and fifty peo- tims and the survivors: the singer expresses With such a precious freight. ple. sentiments on behalf those who suffered.

Fall–Winter 2004, Volume 30: 3–4 37 same way as a news report. In January 1840, the sinking of the Lexington in Long Island Sound affected communities from Virginia to Illinois to Maine, giving the broadside a widespread audience (Miller 1906). As disas- ters became more global, the media did as well. The current era of globally mediated di- sasters began in 1912 with the sinking of the Titanic. In the United States more than one hundred songs about the Titanic were copy- righted within the first eight months follow- ing the disaster; most were never published. Although most of these songs were written in Anglo American and African American ver- nacular idioms, Titanic songs also emerged from a variety of other ethnic traditions, in- cluding Irish, French Canadian, Yiddish, Czech, Polish, Finnish, and Swedish (Cohen 1999). Because of the scope of that disaster, the songs had the potential for social impact and commercial value far beyond local or re- The Lexington disaster touched many communities on the East Coast. This Currier gional markets, just as disasters today are ex- & Ives print was reproduced in the Connecticut Magazine in 1906 and is one of the pieces of ephemera from that disaster in the collection of the Stonington perienced far beyond their immediate geo- (Connecticut) Historical Society. graphic vicinity. In the late twentieth century, many song- writers composed disaster songs about Disaster songs like “The Lexington” Disaster songs function as redressive ac- events they experienced entirely through the serve as catalysts for communitas and help tion, communicating shared sentiments and media. For example, Whitney Rehr, a song- heal psychic wounds in the disaster’s af- emotions, through which a social bond with writer in Denver, Colorado, wrote about the termath, and they capitalize upon the com- others can be solidified in the days and weeks crash of TWA flight 800 off Long Island in mon human urge to bear witness—all part following a disaster. The power of the ritual- July 1996. When I interviewed Rehr about of the same process of coping with the istic performance of the disaster song is linked her song “Above the Wreckage,” she said she chaos and confusion of traumatic social to the profound experience of communitas had felt called upon to write her song, as if dramas. According to Turner (1974), so- inherent in the social drama of disaster. Soci- she needed to speak for the victims. For cial dramas have four phases. The first is ologists have noted the tremendous upsurge those who actually live close to a disaster site, the breach of social contract, particularly in altruism and cooperation following a di- there may in fact be a literal call from the evident in terrorist attacks like Oklahoma saster, creating a veritable “postdisaster uto- community. Jeannie Bigbee, who wrote one City or September 11, representing a dras- pia” (Wolfenstein 1957: 189), as we saw in of the most widespread songs about the tic break with normal life. The second the response to the September 11 attacks. eruption of Mount Saint Helens, noted that phase of social drama is the mounting cri- Many psychologists believe that communitas is the empathic quality of her songwriting led sis, during which the extent of damage is essential to the grieving process. We need to people in her town of Mossyrock, Washing- realized. The third is redressive action, when know that others share our grief; without ton, to ask her to write a song shortly after “mechanisms” are activated to heal the such connectedness, we are less able to truly the eruption that devastated their commu- breach. These can be institutionalized, like “feel” our own emotions (Shabad 2000). nity. She recalled, “They said, ‘You know how federal disaster relief, or improvised, like Disaster songs, through their ritualized re- we all feel, put it down, write it’” (Carr 1998). the spontaneous “mourning walls” that construction of the liminality of the disaster, Bigbee’s comment reinforces the importance are a common sight following disasters. catalyze communitas. of empathy, the sixth characteristic of disas- Turner calls the final phase reintegration— ter songs. No matter their proximity to the an overcoming of the crisis and a return A Wider Community disaster, these songwriters simultaneously try of people and systems to their “normal” The disaster song acts as a virtual or vicari- to mitigate their own feelings of grief while place in the community. ous experience of the disaster, in much the reacting in sensitive, empathic ways to the

38 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore issues and emotions of the people around them. Not only were the songwriters moved by personal feelings, they also saw opportu- nities to help heal their community through artful expression and to raise money to help in more material ways. The reasons given by Rehr and Bigbee were also given by people inspired to write songs about the September 11 attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., even if they were distant from the geographic sites of the disaster. Kitty Donohoe of Michigan performed her September 11 song, “There Are No Words,” for a benefit at the Ten Pound Fiddle Coffeehouse in East Lansing, only three days after the disaster. According to Donohoe (2004), she was the only per- former that night who sang specifically about the attacks, and the audience response was overwhelming. People came to her afterward saying, “You put into words what I wanted to say.” Her local community responded to the crisis through music, reaching out from a distance to the community that suffered the attack and beginning the healing process in themselves at the same time. On the folk- song web site Mudcat Café, Donohoe (2001) was quoted as saying: “Something truly mag- ical happened that night; there was an energy that wouldn’t have been there if we had tak- en a week to plan the session out. Every- body involved donated their voices, time, and expertise, and it was a community expe- rience in the best sense of that word.” The same sort of community support happened again when Donohoe (2001) recorded her song with an extended network of musi- Message written in the dust on a fire engine returning from ground zero, September cians who “just showed up” for the session. 13, 2001. Photo: Martha Cooper The song has since been awarded a local Emmy and has been covered by Paul Stook- In one single hour, in one single day, We were forged in freedom. We were ey of Peter, Paul and Mary (Donohoe 2004). we were changed forever, something tak- born in liberty. en away. Donohoe’s “There Are No Words” is an ex- We came here to stop the twisted ar- And there is no fire that can melt this rows cast by tyranny. cellent example of what emerged in folk heavy stone, And we won’t bow down, we are strong music scenes around the country following that can bring back the voices or the spirits of heart. September 11: of our own. We are a chain together that won’t be All the brothers, all the lovers, all the pulled apart. friends that are gone, There are no words. There is no song. all the chairs that will be empty in the There is no balm that can heal these lives that will go on. The virtual environment of the World wounds that will last a lifetime long. Can we ever forgive, though we never Wide Web was one of the most popular and And when the stars have burned to dust, will forget? accessible places for people to gather to mourn hand in hand we still will stand because Can we believe in the milk of human we must. goodness yet? the loss felt during that day. Within twenty-

Fall–Winter 2004, Volume 30: 3–4 39 four hours after the twin towers fell, song- 196) all depict horrible destruction and loss bringing a part of the listener back to that writers were posting lyrics on folksong web of life caused by evil men. For example, in a day. As New York City songwriter Lorcan sites like Mudcat Café. Within a week after variant of “The Fire of Frendraught” col- Otway (2004) said about his September 11 the attack, as many as thirty new songs had lected in 1832, the mother of one of the song, “the silence evoked by the song when been posted on Mudcat. Most who posted victims declares “O were I like yon turtle- it’s played is like the silence of that day.” messages there expressed sentiments like dove,/ Had I wings for to fly,/ I’d fly about The disaster song elevates the lived expe- “Songs should begin now, while hearts are false Frendraught/ Crying vengeance till I rience of the disaster to the status of heroic most full” (Mrrzy. September 12, 2001, 2:00 die.” The desire for vengeance is expressed narrative; the actors in the social drama take P.M.). However, the songs also inspired cau- in several September 11 songs, but this sen- on mythic dimensions. This is true especial- tionary comments, such as “Leave it at least timent is usually tempered by the humanis- ly of occupational songs, like mining disas- three months before you write anything else, tic urge to try to understand the complexi- ter songs, in which the protagonists’ hero- it’s just too soon” (Guest, September 12, ties of world politics. That these songs con- ism is tied to their routinely dangerous jobs. 2001, 1:22 P.M.). The vivid imagery of the tain elements of war songs does not mean This is a central characteristic of September disaster song lyric was too much for many that they cannot also be considered part of 11 songs, many of which focus on the hero- people, for whom the televised images were the disaster song tradition. What appears ism of the police officers and firefighters who still seared across the mind’s eye. outwardly to be an idiosyncratic and nontra- perished. Disaster song writers frequently use Although the songwriting process clearly ditional personal expression is really an amal- the names of people and places to establish served a therapeutic, cathartic function for gam of traditional materials, combining char- the context of the disaster and to memorial- songwriters around the country, the graphic, acteristics of disaster songs with the conven- ize the lost. Even given the power of elec- tabloid images evoked by disaster songs tions of other genres, given an original treat- tronic media, for songwriters who are unfa- seemed especially blunt so soon after the ment that corresponds to the unique circum- miliar with the disaster’s locale, this is often event. Kitty Donohoe’s song was intention- stances of the event (Long 1973). difficult. Perhaps this is why songs written ally apolitical and was intended as “an emo- War songs and disaster songs have in com- by those who experienced the disaster first- tional statement,” but many other songwrit- mon their function as aural monuments. hand still have a power and immediacy that ers focused on the political aspects of the They are enduring structures of sound that is hard to match. Lorcan Otway, who lives attacks; some wrote songs to familiar patri- enshrine the memories of the deceased and only a few blocks from the World Trade Center otic melodies like “The Battle Hymn of the the intense emotions of the survivors. Mon- site, uses his personal knowledge of the lo- Republic.” A guest to the Mudcat Café, writ- ument building is essential to the healing of cal firefighters to commemorate their hero- ing under the pseudonym “Sonja W. Oates,” psychic wounds following major social dra- ism. “Engine 33,” to the tune “Bold Robert posted two songs within a week after the mas. In his work on the sociology of mourn- Emmet,” was posted on Mudcat: disaster, one of which used the melody of ing, Peter Homans (2000: 22) writes, George M. Cohan’s World War I song “Over Flashing lights and no sirens, all emer- gencies over, There” (Oates 2001). The monument re-presents a past event and serves as a carrier of memory back The motorcade passes, with the heroes through time to that event. After the who fell. Aural Monuments for 9/11 event has been recollected and reflected And all on the streets stop, and in si- upon, memory is released, and one lence bear witness Probably because the September 11 disas- comes back, so to speak, to the present. Such sorrow and thanks, no mere words ter exists at an intersection of warfare, reli- Through this process, memory of an can tell. gion, and nationalism, many songwriters earlier experience of loss is assuaged and rendered, or rerendered, less stressful. chose to focus on sociopolitical aspects of Who ever can forget the gray ash cov- ered engines the event rather than the specific details of Disaster songs render disaster less stress- coming back from the alarm like no oth- the disaster. This explains why many of these ful while also reminding listeners of the grav- er before? Such pain for survivors, to embrace all songs are more akin to wartime songs than ity of the traumatic event. The integrity of the families they are to most other disaster songs. Many human communities depends upon ac- Of comrades so loved, now on that dis- of the September 11 songs are strongly rem- knowledging and remembering our individ- tant shore. iniscent of English and Scottish popular ual tribulations and triumphs. Although it Chief Downey, Father Mike, First Dep- ballads (as collected in the nineteenth centu- will be years before physical monuments are uty Feehan, ry by F. J. Child) concerned with warfare, par- built at the three disaster sites of September Peter Ganci and many too many to tell, ticularly those that describe attacks on civil- 11, the songs written about that day began Your memories we’ll honor, we n’er will forget you. ian populations. “Edom O Gordon” (Child serving that function within hours of the You brought hope to the horror when 178), “The Burning of Auchendown” (Child events. As aural monuments, disaster songs the two towers fell. 183), and “The Fire of Frendraught” (Child become repeatable rituals of remembrance,

40 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Remember Tim Stackpole, how he al feelings of loss that can be shared with Peter Homans. Charlottesville: Universi- prayed in the wreckage ty Press of Virginia. In that terrible fire that took two of his his community. friends. Although the disaster song is character- Laws, G. Malcolm. 1964. Native American Bal- So horribly injured he fought to recov- ized by its social significance rather than its ladry. Philadelphia: American Folklore So- er, To return to his ladder and to die with form, contemporary songwriters utilize so- ciety. his men. cially meaningful images and metaphors that Long, Eleanor R. 1973. “Ballad Singers, Bal- So now to acknowledge just one of the many, have been in folksong traditions for gener- lad Makers, and Ballad Etiology.” Western Engine 33, ladder company 9. ations. Whether disaster songs are written Folklore 32(4): 225–36. There’s ten empty places around their as local responses to local disasters, or as Miller, Francis Trevelyan, ed. 1906. “The Lex- table, Ten fallen brothers who fell on the line. personal responses to disasters seen in the ington” in The Connecticut Magazine, 10:3 national media, we cannot ignore the im- (438). Remember Kevin Pfiefer, Mike Boyle portant social functions of this genre. In Mudcat Café. 2001. New Songs for 9-11-01. and Keith Maynard, Jeff Walz, Brian Bilcher, Robert King, the days, weeks, and years following major http://dev.mudcat.org/thread. Dave Arce, disasters, communities need the social cfm?threadid=38859. Gerarde Baptiste, Robert Evans, John bonding provided by disaster songs in or- Tierney, Oates, Sonja W. 2001. RE: 9/11: Responding Ten lost out of forty from one compa- der to survive. It is this function of com- Through Music. Over Here. http:// ny. munity reinforcement, through the process www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm? of memorializing, that makes the disaster threadid=38981&messages=15. Septem- And though we mourn them, they’re ber 18, 9:02 P.M. still on the job now. song genre a continually vital form of ex- Though they have fallen, they’re still pression. Otway, Lorcan. 2002. RE: September 11th Com- standing tall. memoration Songs. Posted by InOBU. http:/ Their spirit will bolster their sisters and brothers. Literature Cited /www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm? thread- Their unseen presence will answer each Anonymous. 1840. “On the Burning of the id=51239#780090. September 9, 3:59 A.M. call. Steamer Lexington.” Broadside printed at ———. 2004. Personal communication. 71 Greenwich Lane, New York City. John April 29. So tell all your children to tell all their children, Hay Library, Brown University. Rehr, Whitney. 1998. “Above the Wreckage never pass a firehouse without a brief Burt, Olive Woolley. 1958. American Murder (for TWA Flight 800).” truthcage. Denver: pause, Ballads and Their Stories. Oxford: Oxford And thank all the heroes who work on Alternative Folk Rock Collection. those engines. University Press. Shabad, Peter. 2000. “The Most Intimate of Each day they risk all in humanity’s cause. Carr, James Revell. 1998. “Disaster Songs: A Creations: Symptoms as Memorials to Continuing Tradition in American Folk- One’s Lonely Suffering.” In Symbolic Loss: Otway wrote this song in the days fol- song.” Master’s thesis, University of Ore- The Ambiguity of Mourning and Memory at lowing the disaster, after visiting his local gon. Century’s End, edited by Peter Homans. firehouse to play Irish music for the sur- Child, Francis James. 1882. The English and Charlottesville: University Press of Virgin- viving firefighters. The image of ash-cov- Scottish Popular Ballads. Boston: Hough- ia. ered clothing still hanging on the coathooks ton, Mifflin and Co. Turner, Victor. 1974. Dramas, Fields, and Met- stuck with him, and he was moved to write Cohen, Norm. 1999. “The Sinking of the aphors. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. about the people who put their lives on the Titanic and the Floundering of American Wolfenstein, Martha. 1957. Disaster: A Psy- line to save others. As Otway (2004) told Folksong Scholarship.” Southern Folklore chological Essay. Glencoe: The Free Press. me, “Every name has a story behind it.” He 56(1): 3–26. skillfully used his knowledge of folksong Donohoe, Kitty. 2001. RE: New Songs for 9- conventions to create a ballad that has a time- 11-01. Posted by Charley Noble. http:// less quality. He described his work as “a his- www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid= torical ballad, telling the news.” But more 38859& messages=30. October 7, 10:04 than that, he said, in the writing of this A.M. ballad he was “a conduit for what the com- ———. 2004. Personal communication. munity would say.” Just like the broadside April 30. ballad writers of the past centuries, Otway Homans, Peter. 2000. “Introduction.” In composed a ballad that bears witness to the Symbolic Loss: The Ambiguity of Mourning Revell Carr ([email protected]) is a Ph.D candidate in Ethnomusicology at tragedy, commemorates the heroism of and Memory at Century’s End, edited by the University of California, Santa those who perished, and expresses person- Barbara.

Fall–Winter 2004, Volume 30: 3–4 41 InterpretingInterpreting AfricanAfrican AmericanAmerican FraternityFraternity BrandsBrands andand TheirTheir BearersBearers

BY SANDRA MIZUMOTO POSEY

Some members of black Greek letter organizations voluntarily scar themselves exceptional. The raised or keloid scars have by branding. Understanding this ritual requires going beyond the brand’s phys- formed evenly. The intersecting omegas are ical form and examining the personal and organizational narrative histories clearly distinct from each other, creating the that often accompany it. As participants in a ongoing dialogue about what effect that one is lying atop the other, and branding means today, fraternity members informally negotiate with brothers the Epsilon Chapter symbol is small and flat, who do not support branding, family members who struggle with what it means complementing but subordinate to the larg- to their own group identity, and most importantly, popular culture, which holds er raised omega. negative associations. The men who undergo branding, however, invert the Branding is an unpredictable process. narratives that explain branding as a mark of ownership and slavery and insist Some wearers prefer raised scars, such as those on defining its meaning for themselves. on Dews; others do not. Members some- times try to guide the brand into the desired am Ryan, Warren Dews, and Richard As Chef on the popular cartoon South Park result by either purposely interrupting the S Pierre belong to the Epsilon Chapter (1998) has said, “There’s a time and a place healing process to create a keloid (by picking of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, a black Greek for everything, and it’s called college.” And off scabs), or by cleansing the wound care- letter organization founded at Howard Uni- yet the phenomenon of branding cannot be fully on a regular basis in hopes of creating a versity in 1911. The Epsilon Chapter fol- explained or defined solely in this way. War- flat scar. Unfortunately, how one scars is al- lowed not long after in 1919 to serve African ren Dews, for example, joined Omega Psi most entirely genetically determined, and American men studying at New York City– Phi Fraternity after graduating from college, these methods can affect the resulting scar area universities (Ryan 2004). Ryan, Dews, as do an increasing number of other indi- only minimally at best. and Pierre are in their thirties, college-educat- viduals. Black Greeks in general are reputed The other factor that determines the form ed, and community-minded. Each of them to stay involved, and deeply so, long after of the resulting brand is the skill of the bears between four and ten Omegas brand- graduation. Even among those who join later brander. An uncertain or inexperienced ed onto various parts of their bodies. in life, brands are common. If not the unre- brander may not have the control necessary Neither the method nor the numbers are strained imprudence of youth, what do these to apply each part of the form equally on the unusual within the sphere of black fraterni- brands signify? skin. Rounded surfaces, such as the arm, can ties, though branding is often condemned be especially difficult in this regard. Expert or unacknowledged by official policy. Greek The Aesthetics of Branding branders combine a steady hand with careful letters seared onto flesh are common among Dews bears brands on each of his arms, touchup hits if necessary, but when poorly fraternity members and are occasionally found two designs created with a total of four “hits” done, these touchups can add to the uneven- among members of sororities. They are also of the iron. On his left arm, two omegas ness of the brand instead of fixing it. The sometimes found among members of his- intersect in what some call the Blood Link or person being branded must also be able to torically white fraternities. Tattoos depicting Friend-over-Friend pattern. Both the names keep perfectly still during what can be a pain- emblems symbolic of fraternity ties are com- and the form reinforce the idea of a deep ful process. mon among all “Greeks.” Often, such mark- connection between fraternity brothers. On The final result, which can be judged only ings on the body are considered part of the his right arm, Dews has the letter epsilon, much later, after the wound has completely college experience as students explore ways representing his chapter, surrounded by a healed, is thus determined by the intersec- to express their new and changing identities. larger omega. The artistry of these brands is tion between biology and artistry. Fellow

42 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore From left: Fraternity members Sam Ryan, Richard Pierre, Alex Hoag, and Warren Dews, Jr., proudly display their brands. Photo: Sandra Mizumoto Posey

Epsilon Chapter member Sam Ryan, who his appreciation for branding, and his un- cal space in order to acquire admired traits. has acted as the brander for several people, derstanding of what it means to him, began Similarly, branding allows the body to fill says, “You either have it or you don’t. Got early: that same physical space. Branding swells to know what you are doing. You don’t want thick with meaning, literally and physically I learned about the fraternity by seeing to scar someone for life.” Ryan himself has brands. My mentor at the Boys Club … embodying membership in the organiza- experienced the process on the receiving end the way his shirt [was] rolled up, you tion, the organization’s commitment to several times. He bears one brand on each of could see his brands. He was initiated in community service, and admiration for a 1954. As a kid growing up from the age his arms, one on his left calf, and a “double of six on, that’s all I would see and I particular individual. After being branded, hit” on his chest. would ask about it and he’d say, “Well, the body is transformed physically to enter a if you go to college, I’ll tell you more Ryan’s terminology suggests much about about it.” So upon entering college, I new psychic space. Narratives enter to bridge the artistry of branding. If we define “scar” already knew about the organization the gap and explain to others what the trans- as the more or less permanent result of the because I had spoken to him and he formation represents. They embody personal helped write my reference letters, so in skin’s natural healing process, then the brand- more ways than one, I wanted to do the histories and organizational histories and are er actually does want to “scar someone for same things that he did, follow the same constructed and reconstructed to define what footsteps, and one of the things I de- life.” But the word scar as used by Ryan is cided to do was that when I did cross branding means. Ryan’s personal branding the antithesis of the result desired by brand- [and become a full-fledged fraternity history complements and reinforces the or- ers and points to the aesthetic rules that gov- member], I would have myself brand- ganizational branding history that he con- ed in particular places. ern branding. A brand is not a scar; it is art. siders the most viable. Branding, however, is a complex art form Following in his mentor’s footsteps in- that is half material and half incorporeal. To cluded joining the same fraternity, being One story dates back to when we used to go overseas to fight wars. Help iden- analyze it, we must go beyond its physical branded, and later becoming a director for tify bodies. You know, especially with form and understand the personal and or- the Boys Club in New York. If we look at African American soldiers who a lot of ganizational narrative histories that often ac- the phrase “follow the same footsteps,” its times the government did not want to claim, you know, with the brand being company it. For Ryan, the development of literal interpretation suggests filling a physi- on their body, there’s a way of Omega

Fall–Winter 2004, Volume 30: 3–4 43 calling back her sons and identifying her it. The idea of agency, of access and choice, is ed with neotribalists, an often-marginalized sons. So that’s one story I heard. That goes back to World War II, and I know reinforced by this narrative. The ability to group interested in preserving and promot- somebody that personally served that, choose for oneself, and to disallow outsid- ing the tribal values of earlier eras. Common in the war, and told me that particular ers to dictate your behavior or what it means, practices within this subculture include tattoo- story. is central to the ability to self-represent one’s ing, piercing, cutting, and branding, which are Slavery versus Agency identity and to achieve the oft-unrecognized rarely viewed positively by outsiders—much To George Santayana’s saying—“Those potential of the black male. as tattoos were once associated with motorcy- who cannot remember the past are con- There is no known record of the history of cle gangs and dissolute sailors. demned to repeat it”—we may add, “We cre- the practice among Omega members, nor is Media narratives about branding are even ate our history in order to establish our fu- there one narrative that dominates or enjoys more striking. For example, in the science fic- ture.” There is a difference between history as consensus. In fact, the governing body of tion series Stargate: SG1 (2003), human males an interest, a story unfolding, and history as Omega Psi Phi makes an effort to distance are used by a parasitic alien race as incubators an act of creation, of personal meaning. They itself by formally denying that branding has for their young. The brand here is a mark of become legends, appearing and proliferating any place in the organization. Instead, there ownership, and as such it indicates the bear- out of contested territory. As Linda Degh are legend motifs that are arranged and rear- er’s primary worth in this society as a vehicle states in Legend and Belief, “In regard to its ranged by individuals according to what makes rather than as a sentient being in his own right. conversational, dialectic-polyphonic nature, the sense to them in light of their personal world- Interestingly, the symbol used by one of the legend, more than any other folklore genre, view. Any motif or unsubstantiated narrative alien contingents is the Japanese-Chinese char- can make sense only within the crossfire of history that does not seem likely must be dis- acter for “within” or “inside,” underscoring controversies” (Degh 2001: 2). For example, carded or reconstructed by the individual pro- their men’s status as mere carriers. by pushing aside the narrative histories that ponent because it fails to reflect a foundation In the short-lived series John Doe (2002), tie branding to marks of ownership and sla- for the truth of what branding means to him the lead character is found nude with no rec- very, Pierre asserts that the association and its today, even if it goes against what the organi- ollection of his true identity. A keloid scar attendant meaning simply doesn’t fit: zation dictates. As Degh (2002: 2) notes, on his chest is the only clue—one that evokes a mysterious and perhaps sinister truth. Once Everyone has their own opinion. And Evidently, the legend touches upon the again, the brandlike scar evokes suspicion, the argument that slaves got branded, most sensitive areas of our existence, well, slaves didn’t get branded. They were and its manifest forms cannot be iso- fear, and possible ownership. branded. They did not have a choice. This lated as simple and coherent stories. In the series Charmed (2001), a human’s Rather, legends appear as products of is a choice we have, that we make. I mean, progress toward becoming a demon is re- we could make the argument, slaves conflicting opinions, expressed in con- didn’t go to college. But they weren’t versation. They manifest in discussions, corded by a series of chevrons branded upon allowed to go to college. To be part of contradictions, additions, implementa- his arm. The bodily change symbolizes the this organization, you must meet the tions, corrections, approvals, and dis- requirements. You have to have been approvals during some or all phases of process of dehumanization. attending or going to college or have at- their transmission, from their inception In his DVD commentary on School Daze through various courses of elaboration, tended college and have a certain GPA. (1988), Spike Lee (1991) states that the Gam- And I’m not trying to be funny, but, variation, decline, and revitalization. okay, the slaves didn’t go to college. mas were his conflation of the worst charac- Another potent demonstration of this pro- teristics of all the African American fraterni- For Pierre, branding is wrapped up in the cess can be seen in the dog as a symbol that is ties. He makes no secret of his disdain for idea of association, achievement, and agen- widely used by individuals and chapters, even these organizations: “It always amazed me, cy. Members are quick to name the many ex- though Omega Psi Phi does not acknowledge the amount of abuse and punishment peo- traordinary individuals who were Omegas. it as part of fraternity culture. Dews explains ple put up with just to belong to a group, to Pierre likes to cite Charles Drew, the doctor that “the fraternity’s against that, but personal- any organization. Broken limbs, I mean they who developed long-term storage techniques ly I like the dog symbol … the dog means will fuck you up, just hit you with paddles, for blood plasma, making possible the blood something different to me…. He’s bold, he’s all types of stuff, just so they can belong to banks we know today. He points out the tenacious. And that’s what I am.” an organization.” Lee’s film places branding irony that he died after a car accident because in the African American fraternity context, he was denied access to the blood he needed Imposed Narratives but his particular perspective is evident. The to survive by hospitals who served only The most familiar narratives constructed by significant keloid brand is sexualized and vis- white people. Although this story is unsub- outsiders involve the branding of slaves to ible only on the most unethical character in stantiated, like branding motifs in organiza- denote ownership and relegate the slave to a the entire film. It evokes the stereotype of tional legends, the issue actually is less im- status more animal than human. Of late, the black man as overly sexual and danger- portant than why individual narrators include branding has also become a practice associat- ous.

44 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Public Perceptions Jerry Springer may or may not be helping lege Men, 1911 to 1939. City not specified: Some years ago, news stories appeared society achieve greater insight into human na- Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. Gill, Robert L. 1963. The Omega Psi Phi Fraterni- about a custom in the U.S. Marine Corps ture, but in the media, some headway is being ty and the Men Who Made Its History: A Con- known as “blood wings,” in which the wings made. When well-respected public figures such cise History. City not specified: Omega Psi pin of the group is pinned not only through as Michael Jordan appear with brands, the ritu- Phi Fraternity, Inc. the member’s shirt but deep into his skin. A al becomes associated more with the perceived hooks, bell. 1995. “Representing the Black Male Body.” Art on My Mind: Visual Politics. New videotape showing footage of this rite caused character of the bearer. bell hooks, however, York: New Press. a public uproar about hazing in the military. argues that Jordan does more harm than good John Doe. 2002. Pilot, season 1, episode 1. Bran- Yet participation in the rite is said to be vol- to the public image of black men. She argues don Camp, Mimi Leder, and Mike Thomp- untary, and in the wider sphere of American that instead of changing public perception, he son, executive producers. Fox Television Stu- culture, many people voluntarily undergo is “the quintessential symbol of the fetishized dios. John H. Williams Historical Committee. 1994. processes that are both unnecessary and pain- eroticized black male body” (hooks 1995: 207), Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.: A Pictorial His- ful—body piercing, tattooing, even plastic dehumanizing himself by appearing in car- tory. City not specified: Omega Psi Phi Fra- surgery. Such activities are often disapproved toons, his photographic image juxtaposed with ternity, Inc. of but rarely inspire the outcries of torture animated characters. She also points to instanc- Jones, Michael Owen. 1995. “Why Material that were heard about blood wings among es where photographs of his sexualized male Behavior?” Presentation at American Folklore Society conference, Lafayette, IN. the Marines—and are heard about branding body are paired with quotes which refer to his ———. 1996. “Studying Organizational Sym- in African American fraternities. aggressive tactics on the basketball court. If bolism.” Qualitative Research Methods 39. Public acceptance of brands as a positive hooks is correct in these assertions, we can ex- Lee, Spike. 2001. Director’s Commentary. School statement or work of art seems almost im- trapolate that these stereotypic and demean- Daze. DVD. Culver City: Columbia Tri-Star Home Entertainment. possible. Stories about the perils of hazing ing portrayals will by extension also apply to Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. 1995. Com- and the pain and cruelty often associated with Omega men, especially given that Jordan’s memorative souvenir journal. Omega World these rituals appeal to people for the same Omega brand is clearly visible. Center Dedication Festival, December 5–9, reason that reality shows and Jerry Springer do: If we disagree with hooks’s interpretations Decatur, GA. by viewing these spectacles, viewers define of Jordan specifically, we can still agree with ———. n.d. Policy on Branding. Procedures manual. themselves by what they are not. The distance her statement that “as the diversity and mul- ———. n.d. Statement of Position against between the observer and the observed makes tiplicity of perspectives emerges, the vision Canine Reference. Procedures manual. it easy to divest the other of humanity and of radical black male subjects claiming their Ryan, Sam. n.d. Epsilon Chapter History. thus forget to turn the analytic eye to our own bodies will stand forever in resistance, calling Available at www.angelfire.com/ny2/ mightyepsilon/Ehist.html. Accessed May behavior. Whether laughing or cringing, the us to contestation and interrogation, calling 30, 2004. viewer has no need to understand because the us all to release the black male body and let it School Daze. 1988. Spike Lee, writer and direc- other has become living kitsch. Put another live again” (hooks 1995: 212). As members tor. 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks; Co- way, to be civilized and avoid challenging ex- of Omega Psi Phi, Warren Dews, Sam Ryan, lumbia Pictures Corporation. isting worldviews, people need barbarians to and Richard Pierre represent thousands more South Park. 1998. “Ike’s Wee Wee,” season 2, episode 16. Trey Parker, writer and director. compare themselves with. who take it upon themselves to challenge Comedy Central. Not surprisingly, Springer himself frames media narratives with personal ones, allow- Stargate. 2003. “Fallen,” season 7, episode 1. his show differently. Where some might see ing only themselves to define what branding Robert C. Cooper, writer, and Martin chair-throwing, hair-pulling, prostitutes, or is and who they are. It is they who “release the Wood, director. Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer. proponents of incest and marital infidelity black male body and let it live again.” William Morris Agency. n.d. Jerry Springer Biography. Available at www.wma.com/ (to name but a few examples) as participants jerry_springer/bio/ in a modern-day Roman Coliseum death Bibliography JERRY_SPRINGER.pdf. Accessed May match, Springer says, “Being a talk show host Interviews with Ryan, Dews, and Pierre were 23, 2004. gives me a chance to meet all kinds of people conducted at the Omega Psi Phi Grand Con- clave in Los Angeles during summer 1996. Sandra Mizumoto Posey (sposey@ from all walks of life, hear about the prob- Charmed. 2001. “Wrestling with Demons,” sea- csupomona.edu, www.americanfolk.com) lems that affect each of us and learn to devel- is an assistant professor in the son 3, episode 56. Sheryl J. Anderson, writ- Interdisciplinary General Education op an insight and sensitivity into issues that er, and Joel J. Feigenbaum, director. Spelling Department at California State Polytechnic we may not have had before. I want my view- Television. University, Pomona. She received her Degh, Linda. 2001. Legend and Belief: Dialectics Ph.D. in folklore and mythology at UCLA. ers to feel that they’ve been touched by and of a Folklore Genre. Bloomington and India- Previous publications include Rubber Soul: learned something about life that they may Rubber Stamps and Correspondence Art napolis: Indiana University Press. (1996), part of the University Press of not have known before watching our show” Dreer, Herman. 1940. The History of the Omega Mississippi’s folk art and artists series. (William Morris 2004: 1). Psi Phi Fraternity: A Brotherhood of Negro Col-

Fall–Winter 2004, Volume 30: 3–4 45 Better Audio through Video BY JEFF BRADBURY

In the past few years consumer and much outside noise as possible so that you toring it, you need to manage the recording “prosumer” camcorders have flooded the can truly tell what is being recorded. levels. The main goal here is to record an au- market. Although not up to the standards Tip 2. Most cameras also have an eighth- dio signal that is not too low, yet not so high of full professional equipment, these devices inch minijack for an external microphone. that it distorts or clips. Clipping and distor- can capture video and audio of very high The microphone that is built into the camera tion sound very harsh and annoying, and you quality, making them great tools for cultural will record audio just fine if you want overall can’t fix it later. Most cameras allow you to documentation. The problem I’ve noticed sound from a room or an event. But if you adjust the recording level, but you might have MEDIA BITES is that many people don’t understand the want to interview someone or capture sound to go into the menu and select manual opera- techniques and concepts they need to get the from a specific area, you’ll need an external tion instead of automatic. The automatic set- results they seek. This is especially true for microphone. To simplify matters, we’ll talk ting often works quite well. Where you might capturing audio when shooting video. about two kinds of microphones that work get into trouble is in recording something very Recently, a doctoral student came to me with well as external mics: the shotgun mic and loud. Be aware that some sounds are so loud a video she had shot for her dissertation. She the lavalier mic. that they actually overload the microphone it- had interviewed individual children in a class- self, and no matter how much you turn the room while all the other children were talking …0 (zero) on the meter is ac- recording level down, it will still be distorted. in the background. When she shot the video, In such cases you need to back the micro- she had not used headphones to monitor the tually the highest level, and phone away from the subject, or maybe even sound. When she finally reviewed her foot- somewhere around –40 is the find a less-sensitive mic. age, she realized that the student she was in- lowest. The goal here is to get When you adjust the level of the micro- terviewing could not be understood because phone, you are adjusting “gain”— basically the other children in the room were making the peaks as close to 0 as pos- how much you raise or lower mic sensitivity. too much noise. She wanted me to manipu- sible without going over it. A meter display on the fold-out LCD screen late the audio so that the student could be or the viewfinder that tells what your current understood, but the solution was to reshoot input level is. This can be a bit confusing the interviews in a quieter location—and that The more useful, overall, is probably the because 0 (zero) on the meter is actually the was no longer an option. shotgun—a long microphone that you point highest level, and somewhere around –40 is Far too often, amateurs buy into the idea to reach out to a sound source while the lowest. The goal here is to get the peaks that anything can be fixed later in deemphasizing unwanted sound to the as close to 0 as possible without going over postproduction, especially audio. You might sides, above, and below. Often a shotgun it. Anything over 0 will clip. Shoot for about have heard people say, “We’ll fix it in the mic is mounted on a boom that can be held –6 so that you have some room for unex- mix.” Certain problems can be corrected after up over the subject to get close to the action pectedly loud spikes. the fact, but there is no magic wand that will without being in the video frame. The big- Often, good audio is what separates an remove the jackhammer from your interview gest challenge here is that you usually need O.K. video from a great one. Take these three footage, or isolate one child’s voice in a class an additional person to operate the boom. tips into consideration and you’ll save your- of thirty. So you need to capture good audio If you are shooting an interview, the best self major headaches … and you just might in the first place and avoid making a mistake microphone for the job is a lavalier. This tiny sound like a pro. that you can’t fix later. mic, attached to a collar or a tie so that it is

Tip 1. Always use headphones to monitor close to the person’s mouth, will capture Jeff Bradbury your sound. If your camcorder does not have sound that is clear and full. (www.jeffbradbury.com) is an adjunct a headphone monitor jack, then you’ve al- There are many other types and varieties professor and ready lost—you simply can’t tell whether your of microphones, but those are the two basic multimedia consult- ant at Syracuse audio is O.K. unless you can hear what is types. Check out bhphotovideo.com and University. He also being recorded. Most cameras with head- you’ll see just about every kind of micro- does freelance postproduction, phone monitor jacks have an eighth-inch jack, phone you could want, from consumer to music recording, and video produc- a minijack, which is identical to the head- professional. tion. E-mail your phone jack on a portable music player. Use Tip 3. Now that you have a microphone for questions about media to [email protected]. headphones that cover your ears and reject as capturing sound and headphones for moni-

46 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore BOOK REVIEWS Homegrown Stories and International Ballads

The Legacy of the Farm, the storytelling opportunities, and as a young- play) and for its detailed description of the Family, and Old Chautauqua, by ster, Houck was all ears. In some cases, these role of industry in changing the landscape Douglas W. Houck. New York: Universe, frames lead to marvelous oral histories, such from hardwood forest to farmland. Inc., 2003. 195 pages, $14.95 paperback. as the time an uncle unknowingly bought a —Lee-Ellen Marvin, Ithaca It would not be difficult to characterize railroad carload of semiwild longhorn cattle. the center of Chautauqua County as a rural, Houck’s rendition, based on his father’s sleepy corner of New York State, where me- memories, lets us in on Uncle Herbie’s 1932 The Flowering Thorn: Interna- andering roads take visitors through hills, business deal, the negotiation over the price tional Ballad Studies, edited by Tho- farms, and villages, with small clusters of of the cattle, and the adventure of herding mas A. McKean. A project of the trees to break the views. This vision of bu- these wily animals into the stockyard. Here, Kommission für Volksdichtung and the colic simplicity has been richly complicated passages that sound like faithful recordings Elphinstone Institute. Logan: Utah State in Douglas W. Houck’s history of his fam- of how men talked to each other are com- University Press, 2003. 388 pages, general ily and the region. In The Legacy of the Farm, bined with highly dramatic and descriptive index, index of song titles. the Family, and Old Chautauqua, Houck pro- writing, clearly Houck’s original work. The Flowering Thorn is a mine of precise, vides a detailed history of his family, among A loss of connection from the ways of unfamiliar, well-written information about the earliest European American settlers of storytelling is felt in the histories of the ear- ballad study. It originated from a 1999 In- Chautauqua County, framed by his memo- liest Houck generations, however. Houck’s ternational Ballad Conference of the ries of a boyhood rich in storytelling. second cousin, Maud Jones, told him about Kommission für Volksdichtung, which Houck shows clear connections between Dutch ancestors who came to Manhattan brought together scholars from Scotland, the first stages of settlement by European Island in 1626. Houck embellishes this bit Romania, Slovenia, Portugal, Belgium, Fin- Americans in the region and an international of family lore with detailed histories of the land, Germany, Ukraine, Canada, and the industrial system, two world wars, and new settlement, economy, government, and United States. The emphasis, therefore, is forms of transportation. At the beginning natural environment of the island at the on Europe; a New York folklorist will find of the nineteenth century, western New time. He follows the next two generations no references to traditional New York sing- York held the state’s last major stand of of the family line to Kinderhook on the ers like Sara Cleveland or Yankee John hardwood trees. These trees were cut, Hudson River, where the men joined the Galusha, only to their forerunners in the burned, and leached to produce potash by Revolutionary militia. The level of detail in old country. thousands of tons, which was shipped to this history is appreciated, but a folklorist The editor divides the book’s twenty-six factories elsewhere in the United States and will want to know more about how Maud essays into five sections: “Now she’s fairly in England and France. The Chautauqua Jones told the story. What parts of the fam- altered her meaning: Interpreting narrative region’s potash industry was critical to the ily history were important to her? Did she song,” “Malign forces that can punish and development of the Erie Canal and, later, know about that battle or did Houck dis- pardon: Structure and motif,” “Recaptur- the railroads. The earliest mining of petro- cover it while researching his family history? ing the journey: Cruxes of context, version, leum and its conversion to kerosene and In The Legacy, Houck dispels any notion and transmission,” “Regions, reprints, and gasoline took place here, and it was in the that nineteenth- and twentieth-century ru- repertoires,” and “‘Purement scientifique et Chautauqua region that natural gas was first ral people were isolated or lacked awareness archéologique’: The mediating collector.” In piped into houses for heating and lighting. of larger global economies. At the same his introduction, he justly claims both The folklore and folklife of the mid- time, he shows us many of the moments breadth and depth for his collection, which twentieth century provide Houck with a of day-to-day life as experienced by a boy deals with issues both scholarly and critical: framework for conveying detailed histories growing up in the mid-twentieth century “gender issues, collecting and editing as cul- of family and regional industry. Each chap- and tells some great stories along the way. tural translation, the vigorous life of liter- ter begins and ends with memories of hear- This book will be enjoyed by anyone who ary ballads in the oral tradition, the reemer- ing stories from older relatives, especially wants a deeper understanding of the region gence of class as a significant aspect of both his grandfather. Building a hayrack, walking and its history. For scholars, The Legacy may text and performance, and the long-running to the barbershop, coon hunting, learning be especially valued for how it portrays in- dynamic relationship between oral and writ- to mow with a scythe, and playing cards were teractions between men (at both work and ten sources.” The book ends with a very

Fall–Winter 2004, Volume 30: 3–4 47 informative reevaluation of the scholarly contributions of the American D. K. Submission Guidelines for Wilgus. Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore The twenty-nine contributors are keenly aware of the interdependence of singing Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore is a Style membership magazine of the New York The journal follows The Chicago Manual of Style. Con- and scholarship. Stefaan Top describes an Folklore Society (www.nyfolklore.org). sult Webster’s Third International Dictionary for questions inspiring publication project, Old Flemish The New York Folklore Society is a nonprofit, of spelling, meaning, and usage, and avoid gender- statewide organization dedicated to furthering cul- specific terminology. Songbook Reprints, now in five volumes, tural equity and cross-cultural understanding Footnotes. Endnotes and footnotes should be which makes several hundred songs avail- through programs that nurture folk cultural expres- avoided; incorporate such information into the text. sions within communities where they originate, share Ancillary information may be submitted as a sidebar. able not merely to scholars but also to “folk- these traditions across cultural boundaries, and en- Bibliographic citations. For citations of text music ensembles in Flanders [which] are hance the understanding and appreciation of folk from outside sources, use the author-date style de- culture. Through Voices the society communicates scribed in The Chicago Manual of Style. constantly on the lookout for reliable source with professional folklorists and members of re- Language. All material must be submitted in material” (p. 257). In the complementary lated fields, traditional artists, and a general public English. Foreign-language terms (transliterated, interested in folklore. where appropriate, into the Roman alphabet) should essay, “Chants populaires flamands (1879),” Voices is dedicated to publishing the content of be italicized and followed by a concise parenthetical Isabelle Peere unearths a remarkable collec- folklore in the words and images of its creators and English gloss; the author bears responsibility for the correct spelling and orthographics of non-English tion that presented the song repertoire of a practitioners. The journal publishes research-based articles, written in an accessible style, on topics re- words. British spellings should be Americanized. middle-class lady born in 1795 in Bruges, lated to traditional art and life. It also features stories, Belgium. As a pair, these articles open to interviews, reminiscences, essays, folk poetry and Publication Process music, photographs, and artwork drawn from people Unless indicated, The New York Folklore Society us, ignorant readers of English, a set of in all parts of New York State. Columns on sub- holds copyright to all material published in Voices: traditions we have not known. All the con- jects such as photography, sound and video The Journal of New York Folklore. With the submission recording, legal and ethical issues, and the nature of material to the editor, the author acknowledges tributors recognize the interdependence of of traditional art and life appear in each issue. that he or she gives Voices sole rights to its publica- the oral and the written and confirm this tion, and that permission to publish it elsewhere Editorial Policy must be secured in writing from the editor. new meaning for “context.” They also take Feature articles. Articles published in Voices rep- For the initial submission, send three paper cop- into account the techniques and dispositions resent original contributions to folklore studies. ies and a PC-formatted disk (preferably prepared in Although Voices emphasizes the folklore of New of past ballad collectors, whose efforts at Microsoft Word and saved as Rich Text Format). York State, the editor welcomes articles based on Copy must be typed double spaced, on one side recontextualizing make them really the au- the folklore of any area of the world. Articles on of a sheet only, with all pages numbered consecu- thors of folklore. the theory, methodology, and geography of folk- tively. To facilitate anonymous review of feature lore are also welcome, as are purely descriptive articles, the author’s name and biography should For me, the most charming of the ar- articles in the ethnography of folklore. In addition, appear only on a separate title page. ticles, right from its title to the last word, is Voices provides a home for “orphan” tales, narra- Tables, charts, maps, illustrations, photographs, cap- tives, and songs, whose contributors are urged to tions, and credits should follow the main text and be Roger Renwick’s “The Servant Problem in provide contextual information. numbered consecutively. All illustrations should be Child Ballads.” This keen content analysis Authors are encouraged to include short personal clean, sharp, and camera-ready. Photographs should reminiscences, anecdotes, isolated tales, narratives, be prints or duplicate slides (not originals) or scanned shows what wonders close reading can still songs, and other material that relates to and en- at high resolution (300+ dpi) and emailed to the do in unlocking the correlation of ballad hances their main article. editor as jpg or tiff files. Captions and credits must Total length, including citations, should not ex- be included. Written permission to publish each art and society. Other readers will pick their ceed 4,000 words. image must be obtained by authors from the copy- own favorites from this formidable book, Reviews and review essays. Books, recordings, right holders prior to submission of manuscripts, films, videos, exhibitions, concerts, and the like are and the written permissions must accompany the which is a welcome addition to the litera- selected for review in Voices for their relevance to manuscript (authors should keep copies). ture of balladry. folklore studies or the folklore of New York State Materials are acknowledged upon receipt. The and their potential interest to a wide audience. Per- editor and two anonymous readers review manu- —Lee Haring, Brooklyn sons wishing to review recently published material scripts submitted as articles. The review process should contact the editor. Unsolicited reviews and takes several weeks. proposals for reviews will be evaluated by the edi- Deadlines permitting, authors read and correct tor and by outside referees where appropriate. edited proofs for typographical errors. Authors Follow the bibliographic style in a current issue of receive two complimentary copies of the issue in Voices. which their contribution appears and may pur- Reviews should not exceed 750 words. chase additional copies at a discount. Authors of Correspondence and commentary. Short but feature articles may purchase offprints; price in- substantive reactions to or elaborations upon ma- formation is available upon publication. terial appearing in Voices within the previous year are welcomed. The editor may invite the author of Submission Deadlines the materials being addressed to respond; both Spring–Summer issue December 1 pieces may be published together. Any subject may Fall–Winter issue June 1 be addressed or rebutted once by any correspon- dent. The principal criteria for publication are Send submissions as Word files to Felicia Faye whether, in the opinion of the editor or the edito- McMahon, Voices Editor, at the following address: rial board, the comment constitutes a substantive [email protected] (preferred) or 374 contribution to folklore studies, and whether it will Strong Road, Tully, NY 13159. interest our general readers. Letters should not exceed 500 words.

48 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Thank you, New York Folklore Society Supporters! The New York Folkore Society thanks the people, organizations, and funders that Joe and Carol Bruchac, John Kirk and Trish Miller, supported our programs and publications in 2004. Your help is essential to our work. Nancy Metz, Stanley and Chris Ransom, Steve If your local library is not listed among the institutional subscribers below, please urge Zeitlin and Amanda Dargan, Pete and Toshi Seeger. it to join. Members: Ladan Alomar, Catherine Angell, Linda Armour, Institution Members 2004: Library, Rochester Public Library, Saint Lawrence Susan Arbetter, James Atkinson, Claire Aubrey, ABC-CLIO Library, Academi Polonaise Des University Library, Siena College Library, Sleeping William Ayres, Rich Bala, Eric L. 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