Day Eight – June 25, 2018 – Chautauqua
Day Eight – June 25, 2018 – Chautauqua
Yikes! I’m awake at
five! Of course I don’t roll out of bed
until six; but I’m still the only one up
and even get through my yoga practice before I see anyone else! Eventually everyone is moving around and Nick
begins his breakfast prep. Scrambled
eggs with onions, cheese, and tomatoes are the order of the day, with bacon and
coffee and/or orange juice or tea.
I get the dishes cleaned up and we’re all out the door so as
to get to the amphitheater in time for JOHN IRVING! He is being interviewed by the book editor of
the New York Times, Pamela Paul. The
time flies as he discusses the fact that he always begins his book at the
end! When he was writing “The World
According to Garp” he sent a postcard to his editor with what he thought was
the first sentence of the book. His
editor wrote back that he thought it was the LAST sentence. As the book progressed, the sentence moved to
the beginning of the second chapter, then the third, then the beginning of the
last chapter. Eventually it became the
last sentence of the book! He noted that
he is a “worst case scenario” type of person, always looking for the awful
thing that will happen to his character.
He says he dreads writing that part;
but if there isn’t an awful part, then there’s no story. Amongst all the doom and gloom, Mr. Irving is
very funny and entertaining.
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| There are classes and symposiums and gatherings everywhere! |
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| This Newsie was selling the Chautauqua Times outside the amphitheater. |
I wish I could have recorded the interview because I can
only remember snippets. For example, Mr.
Irving’s writing teacher was Kurt Vonnegut!!
He told Mr. Irving that in his lifetime people would look at a semicolon
and think it was a black fly speck above a comma!
Mr. Irving told us that he began writing when he was in his
teens and that during his early life he was an English professor and a wrestling
coach, and he enjoyed both those activities;
but they made him angry because he didn’t have enough time to
write. When he speaks to young writers
who say that they enjoy writing but not the rewriting and editing part, he suggests that they find another
profession. You have to enjoy the entire
process.
When asked about discipline, Mrs. Paul said that she did her
writing on the train every morning! She
has thirty-eight minutes in the morning and thirty-eight minutes in the
evening, which forces her to focus. The
rest of the time she has “a full-time job and three full-time children”!
(More recollections later on – when I recollect them!)
After the lecture, the group breaks up into several
units. Betsy and I go exploring. There are several houses that have signs for
“The King’s Daughters and Sons”. There
are beautiful flowers in the yard of one of them and we stop to admire them and
read the sign. A man comes out and says
he loves it when people take pictures of their yard and Betsy asks him for
information about the organization. It
turns out that it was started a century ago, by some rich ladies who met at
Chautauqua and wanted to do something to help the world. At that time women couldn’t really do much of
anything and they thought that this would allow them to build orphanages and
hospitals and provide other forms of assistance to those in need. They spread out from Chautauqua to their
homes all over the country and would return each year to network and share
their progress.
Now it’s on to the book store and some other shops. Along the way we find Roddy and the three of
us go to a little coffee shop they had found earlier. We get soft pretzel sticks and beverages. I’m feeling decadent and get one of
Starbuck’s cold bottled coffees.
We sit outside in a little courtyard that probably belongs
to La Familia, but no one is there.
Presently a very polite young waiter asks us to move to the other side
of the velvet rope; but there is a table
there and he moves it into the shade for us and even moves three chairs. He suggests that we come back for dinner and
brings us a menu!
After lunch Betsy, Roddy, and I go back to the amphitheater
for watch part of the rehearsal of the Chautauqua ballet, which will be
performing later in the week.
Shocker! No tutus, no tights, no
ballet slippers or toe shoes! We watch
some of the blocking and finally they begin actual rehearsal! We watch enough to be amazed by the
athleticism and unusual choreography. If
we stay too long there won’t be any surprises during the performance! Before we leave, though, a lady asks me if I
know what the song is, and tells me that
it is in Hebrew. I figured as much since
the opening music as Hava Nagila and the hats look Hasidic! We know it’s time to leave when the director
reminds the few people in the audience that there is no photography.
Roddy heads off on his own and Betsy and I decide to explore
the lake front. We head toward the Miller
Bell Tower, the local landmark, and discover Palestine Park! A wealthy benefactor had paid to have a
replica of Palestine in biblical times created by the shore of the lake. The lake itself represents the Mediterranean
Sea and the landscape has been molded to recreate the hills and valleys
surrounding the Dead Sea all the way to the Sea of Galiee and Mt. Hermon. There are even markers for each of the towns
along the way!
There is a small beach adjacent to the bell tower. It even has a lifeguard!
We walk all the way back to the townhouse and along the way
we stop to admire The Gleason. Turns out
it’s a hotel that has brand-new owners and they are eager to have us come
inside and check it out. It was built in
1900 and they are renovating, while keeping the original architecture. It is quite a project and they are doing a
marvelous job! Of course they’d like us
to take a flyer and consider staying there next time we come!
We also stop to check out a strange sculpture and the owner
comes out to chat. He’s a birder and
photographer and we learn more than we might ever have wanted to know about his
life and the birds in his area!
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| The Packard Manor |
Meanwhile “back at the ranch” we find Roddy, Myra, and
Nick. The rest have gone to hear a
chamber music concert and Nick will meet them for dinner at the Italian
restaurant that provided the first night’s pizza. Roddy and Myra are having the rest of the
chicken wings for dinner; but Myra only
has a few and decides to come to Wegman’s with Betsy and me. She’s never seen a
Wegmans’ and it’s certainly worth the trip. Since we’re going, Nick has some
requests for his next chicken dish for the group.
We gather all the requested groceries and pick up some egg
rolls and a package of … and when we get home we split everything three ways,
scarf down our dinner, and head back to the amphitheater for the 8:15 piano
concert. Along the way we find Roddy and
when we get to the “amp” Ginger, Paula, Jorge, and Nick have seats in the front
of the second section of orchestra section.
The wonderful thing about that is that not only do we have a wonderful
view, but we also have CUSHIONS on our seats!
These are about the same seats we had this morning for Mr. Irving and we
like them a lot!
While we’re waiting, Pete comes over to chat and tells us
that the reason there are cushions is that, when the orchestra rehearses they
get a very different sound with an empty house than a full one. A sound engineer suggested that cushions
would help to simulate bodies!
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| Lots of light for walking home! |
We all way home in various groupings, since Pete, Kris,
Isaac, Elliot, and Kris’s brother Sam have joined us after the
performance. When Nick gets home he
serves the strawberry-rhubarb pie and vanilla ice cream, which he bought on his
grocery run today. Such a sweet way to
wrap up the evening!
When I check my phone, I find that I’ve walked 14,169 steps!
That’s about 5.7 miles, according to Mr, iPhone!
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