This turned out to be an interesting gig for a retirement village gig. It started with the realization that these folk are not that much older than me. Phew.
It was held in a large outdoor courtyard inside of 5 floors of apartments. It was a beautiful evening and I was booked for a 7:30 to 9 pm gig. I usually have to mix some oldies in with my folk material, but, s I realized that these folks lived in Bethlehem for years and many knew of me, I decided to go with my good adult material. As I played my set, I was able to mix in recollections of my time in Bethlehem, at Lehigh, early Musikfest, my teaching artist vocation, as well as doing some of my weird stuff (The Irish Ballad, Giants, et al) for entertainment values. It mixed well with my customary humor and I felt that there was a good rhythm and dynamic to the flow of the evening. I came away feeling pretty good about the set.
Gertie Fox
One woman came up and said it was the best event in the series, and others came up a shared some of their recollections of Bethlehem events. One woman said she was a classmate of Mary Travers (Peter Paul and Mary) and we talked about the first Burnside Plantation festival, before it became The Blueberry Festival. We recalled Gertie Fox, the original eco-warrior, who patrolled the Monacasy Creek outing polluters.
I felt like a neighbor.