Chautauqua - August 5

"Tradition is the living voice of the dead."

This was a quote I heard this morning and the second one, more controversial, was: Traditionalism is the voice of the living dead!

However, sticking with quote one. . . . nobody does tradition quite like Chautauqua.

To that end, I'm going to describe the First Night program last night. Tomorrow I'll tell about The Oldest Book Club in the World and all that entails. It's too much for one blog!

First night is celebrated on the 2nd Tuesday in August, because the first year Chautauqua started it was a 2-week Sunday School teachers conference. . . .in tents! So in essence, this was a birthday party. I had never seen this program and it was something!

To begin with, part of Chautauqua is the Boys & Girls club. . . .which is open to kids from elementary school through middle school ( I think). Now in this day and age, the first thing I would say to myself is that middle school kids of today would not be caught dead in a Boys and Girls club that also includes elementary students. But the clubs have hundreds of kids in them, and they had opportunities to perform last night. Apparently for the club, there is an annual Air Band contest. . . which means that each group (the groups are organized by grade and gender. . . so Group 3 girls are third grade girls I think. Or else just the third oldest group. Air Band is a compilation of popular recorded songs around a theme - Last night the group 3 girls did one called Fruit Salad which had lip synching in costume to songs like Strawberry Fields, Blueberry Pie, etc. They were adorable, and the winning groups got to perform last night.

Memorable parts of the program:

The Children's school (age 2 years to about 5) marching up on stage with their homemade hats to sing Happy Birthday to Chautauqua and their special Children's school song. They had had an open house, bake sale and troll event to raise $600 for the Chautauqua Fund. There was the prerequisite waving to parents and "Hi Mommy!" from this massive stage. One little boy never moved a muscle and stood with his hands to his side, his hat having slipped down and covered his face. As they children left the stage you could see the counselors frantically counting them to make sure they had everyone! Priceless!

The count to see who had been at Chautauqua the longest. You were allowed to count a year if your mother had been here when she was pregnant with you. Believe it or not, by the end, THREE women were standing, each having attended Chautauqua for 95 years!!!!!! And they were standing!!!

The count to see how many generations were represented in individual families. These are generations, living or dead, who had ever attended Chautauqua! Two families won with eight generations! I am such a newby here!

The most people from a state contest is always between Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. Not surprising, New York won.

Several performances by the winners of the Air Band contest. But even more impressive, after the children came forward, the Boys and Girls club kids came down the aisle exhuberantly singing their theme song to the tune of On Wisconsin. Middle School aged girls in their sleeveless sun dresses which they were constantly pulling up from the top, were tottering down the steep concrete aisles in their heels and makeup, but singing at the top of their lungs! I did, however, see many of them after their turn running around the amphitheater with cell phones on!

Four members of the piano faculty playing on two pianos . . . .The Star and Stripes Forever, which was played two different times in the program and always sets off loud, slightly off-beat clapping by the audience.

My favorite section. . . Chautauqua post cards. They showed up on a screen vintage postcards from Chautauqua. . . some from the very early 1900's, and then read the messages on the back. They were hilarious, and will make me look for Chautauqua postcards at antique shops from now on (shout out to Joan. . . .look for me!!!!). they were wonderful and very timely. Some of the messages very pertinent to today.

The event is used as a fund raiser for the Chautauqua Fund, because like all arts organizations (like the Kennedy Center, Choral Arts Society of Washington, Wintergreen Performing Arts Center. . .just to name those in my life) the entrance passes only cover a fraction of the cost of the place. Last night over 32,000 dollars was raised. A worthy cause in my book.

It was a great evening of celebration and tradition. I'm happy to be a part, albeit a new part, of this family.

But the most interesting aspect of First Night Week is the Chautauqua Scientific and Literary Society events. I know this sounds dry, but dry it is not. I'll describe this tomorrow.

In the meantime, I am attending classic movie night at the Cinema tonight. . . .To Have and To Hold with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Tomorrow night I'm seeing a play, and Friday night an Opera! Can't believe the time is rushing past.

Until tomorrow. . . . . ... PS - the speaker whose name I couldn't remember yesterday. . and who you might have thought was James Lipton, was in fact, Richard Brown from NYU.