A Night at the Birchmere

Songs and Stories behind them from Suzanne Vega prompts reflection

The most famous of the works by the chanteuse, Suzanne Vega, Tom’s Diner, was inspired by my nursery school teacher’s son, Brian Rose, who, by the time he became friends with Suzanne in New York City, was already a professional fine arts photographer. One of his pictures came across my feed as I was pulling into the Birchmere, in fact.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/gxDS1eQjfrCrYTzD/ < This link goes to that image.

The fact that Brian (AKA Chipper) Rose was a fifer like me in the Colonial Williamsburg Fife and Drum Corps makes the connection even stronger although he had graduated before I joined the Corps (50 years ago this month!) We met for the first time under the pop-up tent by Devitt’s Field at the 2011 Deep River Ancient Muster in Connecticut where we would also perform together for the first time.

I’m second from the right hand flank on the first rank of fifers. Brian is on the right hand flank of the third rank and is marching barefoot.

The older I get, the more I can see how our lives on this planet are woven into each other like threads of yarn entwined to form a tapestry - ever changing - but woven tighter with each passing association.

In other news, the Harold B Gill Foundation has officially come into being. I have yet to review all the documents that were produced to establish the Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) that it is now, officially, but am very pleased to know that the company, skint though it may be, is actually a reality, from a legal point of view.

As always, there is a lot to be learned as I continue collecting, preserving, and protecting my father’s intellectual property. His 91 years spent in the surface of Clio, the muse of history, deserves to be preserved and not simply scattered to the winds. I just noticed that Clio is also famous for making others famous - and that is something which my father did also. He not only celebrated those who had gone before, but he had a significant role in shaping the trajectories of the careers of others also. He was unfailingly generous and looked for very little in return for his kindnesses and sharing his extensive knowledge of 18th century Virginia.

So, while at the Birchmere, I received several emails form Zen Business which informed me of the completion of my company’s paperwork establishing it as a Foundation to manage the mission at hand. I need to more formally articulate it’s business plan as we will be needing support - and part of it can come from this effort.

I am very grateful for the three paid subscribers who have seen fit to sign up so far.

As the button says - please do consider becoming a paid subscriber. This will encourage me to be even more prolific. The next post will be to the paid subscribers and include a number of links to my father’s works.