A 1970's Bard Memory

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It has been a busy few days here in the Catskills. A wedding in Newburgh, three nights of fabulous music and dancing at Bard College here in the Catskill Mountains. We heard the magical Bar Scott (http://www.barscott.com/)who is a must see if you enjoy lyrical, poetic music, then Jeremy Lyons & the Deltabilly Boys who are so much fun and funk (http://www.deltabilly.com/) and the fabulous Renee Bailey who belted gospel, blues and jazz. Now I saw Renee back in the early 70's as a young teen at Rosa's Cantina in Woodstock. My girl friend and I were about 16 or 17, and back then if your parent walked you into the bar in Woodstock, you were allowed in. Often her dad left us to our own evil ways which included dancing, drinking, and walking, or should I say STUMBLING the mile or so back to her house on a dark mountain road. We did not have licenses or cars, which was probably a good thing.

Actually, come to think of it, it was one of those wild nights that got Susan and I into a whole shitload of trouble. We met a few boys out dancing and they told us that there was a party at Bard college and we were invited. Turned out there was no party, my friend disappeared with one guy and left me with the other, whom I had no intentions of spending the night with. He tried to convince me that it was in the stars that we should sleep together since we had the same exact birthday, but I was a virgin and had NO intention of giving it up on some college sofa in a dorm community room. He eventually angrily abandoned me and I tried to find the room my friend was hanging out in, with no luck, as all the rooms looked the same at 2 am. I slept on a couch, and then on the stairs till my friend resurfaced.

We did not have any cellphones those days and neither one of us ever called her mother to say we were not coming home. They had called the police, the hospitals, and were one phone call away from calling my father. Now if that had happened, I would not be here writing this as I would have been chained to a bed and grounded for life, or maybe killed. Her parents were the coolest people on earth, and I had never seen them so angry at us. I didn't go back there for a long time and I earned the yiddish word for a bad bad girl, which I can't seem to unearth from my vocabulary.

Bard has changed over the years and so have I. I still love to party and feel the music pound through the floor into my body. Only I don't drive when I drink like we did back then, and I go home with the same man every time. And Renee Bailey is still singing the blues and she still sounds as good as she did 35 years ago in a crowded, smoky, sultry bar with me swaying and hypnotized by her powerful and rich voice. Thanks Renee for those memories, and Bard for providing me with a venue of visual and auditory delights.

Oh and the painting above is titled "He Opened a Can of Worms" otherwise known as I have PMS and leave me the hell alone.

Peace, Patti

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