new programs
JAN 22, 2012: A CELEBRATION OF WOODSTOCK STORIES
Yankee Characters:
benign, irascible and just plain odd
3:00 at The Church of the Good Shepherd, West Woodstock
These stories come from a gleaning of tales our neighbors and ancestors must have enjoyed, as they have survived the test of telling and retelling. One thing is certain, however, Woodstock Yankees continue to look at life a tad differently than our urban friends. This traditional sense of humor prevails, thus, there are new stories continuously emerging.
Paul Lynn has a masters degree in American folk culture and history museum training from Cooperstown Graduate Programs. He has heard and sung some of the old Anglo/American ballads and songs for nigh on seventy years. He has practiced, since the mid 1950’s, the old craft of letterpress printing. He worked for Old Sturbridge Village in various craft/ballad-singing capacities for a dozen years starting in 1957. Mr. Lynn spent a year (1963-1964) living and working with four traditions of potters in Japan. He immersed himself at Pine Mountain Settlement School from 1964-1966 in the Southern Appalachian culture and tradition of songs and ballads including the accompanying instrument, the plucked dulcimer. His Masters thesis at Cooperstown was Hervey Brooks, Farmer Potter (from Goshen, Connecticut). In 1968 Mr. Lynn established the Woodstock Pottery reproducing New England redware. He has taught pottery and printmaking and traditional songs and ballads as well as contra-dancing at Woodstock Academy, and pottery at Eastern Connecticut State College. Since 1970 (trained at the North Bennet Street Industrial School in Boston) he has tuned and repaired pianos. Mr. Lynn has served as president of the Woodstock Historical Society and the infamous Theft Detecting Society. Since 1951, he has absorbed stories from Woodstock, mostly by word of mouth. His booklet, A Woodstock Sampler, and his book, Just A Thought, contain a fraction of the stories yet to be published. He will read from Margaret McClellan’s Winds of Change, Violet Albrect’s Woodstock Legends and Folklore as well as his published and unpublished stories.
(Saturday, November 12, 2011, 10:00 AM ) PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS PROGRAM HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED TO MAY, 2012. THE DATE AND TIME WILL BE POSTED.
OCT 2011: “Finding Out Little Known Facts about Connecticut’s History” ― Wilson Faude
Wilson Faude has been the curator of the Mark Twain House, the Executive Director of the Old State House, the Chair of the Connecticut Historical Commission, the Archivist for the City of Hartford, and the author of numerous articles and books on Hartford and Connecticut including: Hidden History of Connecticut
SEPT 2011: REDISCOVER THE OLD CONNECTICUT PATH
FOR PROGRAMS OF PREVIOUS YEARS (click here)