From the late 1970s until the early1990s I was part of a show about the wit and wisdom of Woody Guthrie. Over the years, the performance had a few iterations, but the one most frequent and popular was a 4=person troupe who played small music clubs, big rallies and celebrations, and all manner of benefits for progressive causes. With me were Lenny Anderson, who played and sang Woody's dust bowl ballads as well as many of his other well known songs, Art Peterson, an accomplished folk musician, who specialized in singing Woody's children's songs, and Ed Robbin, the man that first put Woody on the radio back in the 1930s. Ed had attended an early performance that Lenny and I did and during the intermission came backstage and told us that he's known Woody and could tell us a few storied about their friendship. "Tell them too, " Lenny said, motioning the audience. Ed did just that and soon became a permanent part of the performance. Ed Robbin was a ...
It was more than a guilty pleasure. It was pure fansasy. It kept hope alive. I loved flipping through catalogues. The Sears Christmas catalogue was the granddaddy of them all. I’d sit off by myselfand peruse the toys, musical instruments, sporting goods and even, on rare occasions, the clothing. At age 11, one particular catalogue held my attention more than any other. Not nearly as big as the Sears tome, the Blue Chip Stamp gift redemption cagtalogue had something Iusted after. About everfy third day, I’d open to the sporting goods section. There, past the baseball gloves and football kicking tees, past the basketballs, golf clubs, and camping gear, were the fishing poles. Most were spinning reels and matching ten foot poles made by Shakespeare, Mitchell, and Eagle Claw. But nestled under these 9-10 feet giants was a beginner’s outfit made by Zebco. The pole was only about 6 feet long and had a built in...