Happy bluegrass

On Monday evenings in the summer at 7, musical groups entertain in the gazebo on the Barron Center lawn, off Brighton Avenue. The shows are an hour long.

The June 25 concert was given by Lou Mathieu and his band, The Buzzards, consisting of a male vass viol player, a woman on the violin, another woman on the mandolin, and Lou himself playing a large acoustic guitar and narrating the program.

There was a large audience, residents at the Barron Center, many in wheelchairs, and guests from outside also. There was frequent hand-clapping and toe-tapping, keeping the rhythm (though the sound system could have been louder).

It was a pleasant program, with happy bluegrass music and Southern talk. Among the songs Lou introduced were a Civil War song about the 20th Maine “way down in Dixie land,” and another about the Seminole Indians in Florida. Especially catchy was his own song, “In Me-me’s Kitchen,” recalling Saturday winter musical get-togethers of his youth.

It was a cool, bright evening for this concert. I hope to attend others, too – free concerts in that beautiful setting.

I had been interested in the pronunciation of gazebo, defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as an “erection on a garden or pleasure ground. The pronunciation listed ga-zay-bo first, and ga-zee-bo next. I’ve always said ga-zay-bo, but either way, the little building on the green lawn at the Barron Center is an attractive one, with the beautiful blue water pool beyond it.

Barkless dog

I saw a picture in the June 21 Bridgton News that fascinated me – a handsome, small dog from Africa. The cutline said that this small-dog breed is a popular one. “One reason is that they don’t bark. This basenji was spotted at the Bridgton Farmers’ Market.”

Well, no bark, and handsome, but it wouldn’t be a good watchdog, I decided.

Sports-less school

The June 23 Boston Globe had an upsetting story, and right on Page 1.

Included in a round of budget cuts in Stoneham, Mass., was one that will wipe out the town’s entire high school sports program and leave student athletes in the lurch. All 54 coaching positions, the athletic director’s job, and elementary and middle school arts and music programs were eliminated by the Stoneham School Committee.

Parents are stunned, and talked of sending their children to private schools so they can play sports, and of course students are stunned, too.

I’ve read about some of our Maine schools considering charging students who are in sports, and also those who participate in clubs.

How times are changing, and I say for the worse.

From away

This recipe is in a book called “From the Highlands and the Sea.” It was compiled by the Ingonish Women’s Hospital Auxiliary, in Nova Scotia. I bought it in September 1989, in Margaree, en route to Cheticamp. It was a beautiful country to visit.

CINNAMON LOAF

1/4 cup shortening

2 eggs

1 cup white sugar

2 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup sour milk

Mix all the above ingredients. Pour half the batter into pan. Then mix 3 tablespoons brown sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Sprinkle half of this over the batter in the pan. Add the rest of the batter and sprinkle the remainder of the sugar and cinnamon on top. Bake about 1 hour at 350 degrees.

Ramblings