October 23, 2024
Our good friends, Dale and Joe, invited us to stay with them for a few days in Connecticut. They live in the quaint seaside hamlet of Stony Creek. It would have been easy to waste the days away sitting in the beautiful home that Joe designed and looking out over the marsh to the old barn across the way.
But they had other plans for us and soon we were off to the nearby Berkshires, a range of hills in northwestern Connecticut and western Massachusetts (which by the way may be the two most difficult states to spell of the fifty that make up the United States). Our destination was Great Barrington, which reminded us somewhat of the small mountain towns we have visited in Colorado. It was a spectacular day and the leaves were turning, so it could not have been more stunning.
Just outside Great Barrington is The Guthrie Center. Situated in an old church, the Center was founded in 1991 by Arlo Guthrie to honor his parents, Woody and Marjorie. It contains a room of family memorabilia, a kitchen to provide free community meals, and a performing space.
Woody Guthrie is one of America’s greatest folk singers and was a major influence on more recent musicians such as Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. He was also a prominent socialist and anti-fascist, famously playing with a sticker on his guitar that stated “This machine kills fascists”.
Although he is most famous for his songs, he also wrote a couple of great memoirs and semi-biographical novels. Most well known is Bound for Glory, written in 1943 and recounting his early life. One of Mal’s all-time favorite books is Seeds of Man: An Experience Lived and Dreamed which is based on a trip that Woody made as a teenager through Texas in 1931.
In true Guthrie fashion there were some friendly old timers hanging out and jamming on their guitars.
One of Mal’s favorite childhood memories is listening to his older sister’s Arlo Guthrie album, Alice’s Restaurant. It is funny talking blues record which tells how Arlo is arrested for dumping rubbish illegally which ultimately endangers his suitability for the military draft during the Vietnam War. The restaurant, located in the nearby town of Stockbridge, is no longer owned by Alice, although she is still alive (Coincidentally, Joe’s sister-in-law also once owned the restaurant, after Alice sold it). Although the church that contains the Center was later bought by Arlo, at one stage Alice owned it and lived there with her husband Ray and various bohemian friends.
Mal and Lauren 