Christmas in the Trenches--The Christmas Truce of 1914

This is the 100th anniversary of the Christmas Truce of 1914. This truce happened in the midst of the most brutal Great War, on the Western Front. This truce was a small miracle, one that offers a pathway and hope in our warlike age. John McCutcheon, the great American folksinger, composed a beautiful song about this truce, "Christmas in the Trenches," and can be seen in the video below:

More on Lakeside, Ohio's Chautauqua

I posted about 14 photos of Lakeside in yesterday's blog entry. Today I want to talk about the place a bit. Lakeside began as a Methodist camp on Lake Erie in 1873--141 years ago. It is located on the Marblehead Peninsula, between Sandusky and Port Clinton. From the lake shore you look across to Kelleys Island. If you look to the west you can see Catawba Point, Mouse Island, and South Bass Island, and a bit of Middle Bass Island. On South Bass you can see the gigantic Perry Monument in the village of Put-in-Bay. The place feels unique, very different from the lake shore of Cleveland, Mentor, Geneva, Ashtabula, or Buffalo. Maybe it feels a bit like the special environment of Presque Isle in Erie, Pennsylvania. Anyway, the Methodists found a very special place for this summer camp.

The community occupies about a square mile of land. There are 2 hotels, including the historic Hotel Lakeside, built around 1874, many Bed and Breakfasts and other type of lodging houses, and private homes. It is estimated that there are about 900 structures in the community. During the summer season, thousands of people will be present, living peacefully in community, with very little crime. I like to describe Lakeside as a "college campus for older adults." It is a model for what the world could be like, what our communities could be like.

Lakeside calls itself a "Chautauqua," very similar to the Chautauqua Institute in New York State. It has a busy 10-week summer season, filled with lectures, concerts, church services, and lots of recreational and cultural activities.

We first encountered Chautauqua by accident, some 20 years ago. We were camping at East Harbor State Park, about 8 miles from Lakeside, when a ferocious storm hit and scared us, soaking wet, out of the campground. We had heard about Lakeside and headed there to see if we could stay in the hotel. They allowed us to stay in a room, the kids sleeping on the floor. The next day we explored the place and fell in love with it. The children especially loved the free shuffleboard and the miniature golf, as well as the swimming and fishing pier. We all loved the concerts and remember fondly John McCutcheon and many other wonderful performers.

So many funny things have happened over the years--a lot of them involving Hotel Lakeside. Hotel Lakeside is very old, and nothing works exactly right. For years there was no air conditioning there. And in many small rooms there was no bathroom. The rooms have bathrooms now and air conditioning units (most of them), but a few rooms still don't have showers and you have to use a common shower room across the hall. We have been there 2 or 3 times when the electricity went out because of storms. And in our recent visit, there was no hot water at all in the hotel--so only cold showers or no showers. We love this quirkiness, this specialness. I know they want to modernize the hotel, but it's the imperfections that make it dear to us--along with the lake views, the beautiful fountain out front, the breezy porch, the antiques everywhere. There is no place I know of like Hotel Lakeside.

I love the whole place. It is one of Ohio and America's treasures, just like the original Chautauqua Institute in New York. Lakeside presents a vision of community as it could be, as it ought to be!

John McCutcheon's Concert at Nighttown

John McCutcheon, America's great folksinger, had an intimate concert for between 80 and 100 people last night at the Nighttown Tavern in Cleveland Heights. John has played many huge venues (Wolf Trap, for example), so it was a treat to be about 20 feet away from him in this warm and cozy tavern.

I was lucky to talk to him briefly right before he went on stage. I told him how we saw him in concert near the beginning of his career, in Pippa Passes, Kentucky (a tiny town in a county that didn't have a single stoplight!). John smiled broadly and said, "Alice Lloyd College!" Then he bounded out to the stage. He began the concert with the first song he ever learned on the banjo--an "Old-Timey" banjo tune written by Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground." John met Bascom when Bascom was about 90 years old--and still playing his music. John's old-timey style was simple, old-timey plunky.

John weaves stories in and out of his music. The stories are wonderful and often hilarious. One great story was set in his Wisconsin home in 1963 when John was 11 years old. In the middle of the day his mother invited him to sit next to her on the couch as they watched the 1963 March on Washington, that featured great music (Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary) and the amazing "I Have a Dream" speech of Martin Luther King Jr. John's mother was deeply sympathetic to this--and you can clearly see the love John still holds for her and how profoundly he was affected by her. [John's song about this can be seen below.]

John played for 2 hours, his own songs (like "Christmas in the Trenches"), and songs by his masters like Pete Seeger's "Turn, Turn, Turn!" (accompanied by a hilarious story) and Woody Guthrie's "Joe Hill" and "This Land Is Your Land." A very short video clip from "Turn, Turn, Turn":

My favorite song all night was a beautiful one he did about his mother, "One in a Million."  Here are the lyrics:

I remember that August
1963
A half million gathered
On our small TV
The moment was magic
With dreams in the air
My Mom watched in wonder
And said, “I wish I was there”

But there were babies to diaper
And a whole house to clean
So she watched the world change
On that black-and-white screen

She was one in a million
Who did her small part
And she carried that banner
Held high in her heart

She taught me the Bible
Each chapter and verse
How the meek shall inherit
And the last shall be first
She said, “God leaves God’s work
“To me and to you
“When you’re meek and you’re ready
“What will you do?”

Though she seldom traveled
Far from her front door
She watched the world change
In the children she bore

You are one in a million
You each have a part
Always carry that banner
Held high in your heart

Bridge

Those children now scattered
Like ships on the sea
Mounting adventures
That she’d never see
I never once doubted
What she said was true
I saw miracles mounting
And small victories counting
And it’s all worth recounting
This work that we do

Each Mother’s Day sadly
I look to the chair
Now fifteen years empty
And wish she were there
So this year I traveled
As her eldest son
To a Washington March
Just as she would have done

I marched for the future
In a million mom sea
I was marching for her
I was marching for me

I was one in a million
Just doing my part
And I carried her banner
Held high in my heart

©2000 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP).

During the concert John played 8 instruments: 5-string banjo; 6-string guitar; 12-string guitar; hammer dulcimer; autoharp; piano; fiddle; and jaw's harp. The jaw's harps, which he had gotten from Pete Seeger's brother Mike, were incredible. John also has a beautiful voice. But most of all, he has this wonderful humanity and passion. He lets his music and storytelling serve both beauty and justice. He stands up for what is right, just like his friend Pete Seeger and his mentor Woodie Guthrie.

John McCutcheon is a national treasure, and I'm so glad Linda and I could see him play in the wonderful, intimate venue of Nighttown.

Linda, at Nighttown.

Lyrics to John McCutcheon's Song, "Calling All the Children Home"

I am so excited about the chance to hear John McCutcheon in concert tonight (Nighttown in Cleveland Heights). One of my favorite McCutcheon songs is "Calling All the Children Home." The song clearly seems autobiographical about growing up in a big Catholic family in Wisconsin. It is so evocative of childhood, including my own. And it shows the power of good parenting because good parenting can offer children a sense of security. And this security empowers them go out beyond their own family and address the needs of others. In John's song, it is the needs of other children throughout the world, many less fortunate than him. The lyrics below show John's wishes for all the children of the world. These are wishes I have for my own kids:

"Calling All the Children Home"

Song credits: 

Words and Music by John McCutcheon

"John, Mary Claire, Lulu, Jeanie
Kevin, Jeff, Patty, Nancy, Rob"

Shadows growing longer, light is growing dim
Supper's on the table everybody come in
Been playing at the river and I'm tired to the bone
She's calling all the children home

CHORUS:

Home to the table and the big, black pot
Everybody's got enough, 'though we ain't got a lot
No one is forgotten, no one is alone
When she's calling all the children home

Everybody's sittin' in everybody's place
With their fresh-scrubbed fingers and their fresh-scrubbed face
It's quiet just a minute while sister says a grace
Like she's calling all the children home

CHORUS

BRIDGE:

I could hear her voice in the middle of a crowd
It was never too late and it was never too loud
Smelled just like home by the time we hit the door
There was always just enough but there was always room for more

So, out in the desert, down by the sea
Hear the voice calling "Allee, allee in free!"
From the city to the forest where the wild beasts roam
We are calling all the children home

LAST CHORUS:

Home to the table, home to the feast
Where the last are first and the greatest are the least
Where the rich will envy what the poor have got
Everybody's got enough, 'though we ain't got a lot
No one is forgotten, no one is alone
When we're calling all the children home
Gathered 'round the table and the big, black pot
Everybody's got enough, 'though we ain't got a lot
No one is forgotten, no one is alone
From the sacks in Soweto to the ice of Nome
From Baghdad City to the streets of Rome
When we're calling all the children home

"Moishe, Isabelle, Sipho, Kim
Mohammed, Mikael, Red Hawk, Tim"

©1990 by John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP).

Album Reference: 

Live at Wolf Trap

The Great Folk Singer John McCutcheon Coming to Nighttown Tavern on Thursday, March 27th

John McCutcheon

I can hardly think of a more wonderful night out--John McCutcheon, the national treasure folksinger, playing his instruments and singing his songs at Brendan Ring's great pub in Cleveland Heights, Nighttown. It's happening tomorrow at 8 pm.

I first met John back in 1978, at Alice Lloyd College in Pippa Passes, Kentucky. John did a little concert then came to a party afterwards. I have seen him in concert a few other times. Once in a church in Kent, Ohio; once at Lakeside (Ohio's Chautauqua) near Marblehead, Ohio. And I think at Cain Park in Cleveland Heights. John comes originally from Wisconsin, but has made his life and career around Virginia. Of course, much of the time he is touring the country and the world. All of his songs are fun, and some of them are very focused on social justice issues. He accompanies himself on guitar, banjo, fiddle, hammer dulcimer--and probably a dozen other instruments.

John has an interesting website: John McCutcheon On his site you can read his bio, sample and purchase his music, and look at his concert schedule.

One of my favorite John McCutcheon songs is "Calling All the Children Home." I didn't find a great version of that on Youtube, but I did find a nice performance, with John playing hammer dulcimer, of "Step by Step":