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Big Elmer's View From the Porch
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Dec 31 1969 |
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Dec 31 1969 |
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Dec 31 1969 February 2008 |
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March 2006 It’s Carnival time in New Orleans. This is the time of year when New Orleans truly takes its leave from the rest of the country and revels in being the true banana republic it is in its soul. The weather is warming down there and work is falling off. For many in New Orleans, Christmas holidays only exist as the gateway to costume-time. For some, Mardi Gras is the one true holiday of the year and there is nothing odder on Mardi Gras day in New Orleans than to get a phone call from someone in any other state, looking to transact some sort of business, acting as if it were just any other day. You, all gussied up in purple spandex and gold lame exclaim, “It’s Mardi Gras! We are closed!” One warm and early pre-Mardi Gras morning a few years ago I heard some sort of commotion going on out in the street, but didn’t bother to get up to check it out. Later in the day I asked my around-the-corner neighbor if she had seen what it was and she said, “Oh, I got up and looked out the door, but all I saw was a marching band so I went back to bed!” So, um, what was it I was doing up north here in this big snowstorm? What was it I was thinking to do? Oh yes! I’m fleeing New Orleans! So what do you do in a blizzard in Ashfield the Saturday before Mardi Gras? You have a big Irish dance party at Elmer’s! Saturday, February 25th Manfred Gabriel and his friends Steve, Jonathan, Amanda, Elizabeth and Al gathered at Elmer’s for a music session—not a concert, they insisted, just a music session and indeed, they paid but shy attention to their audience, yet they tweedled out some lively jigs that made their audience dance and clap. For two hours, from four to six, while a wild hurricane of a wind whooped around the outside of Elmer’s, inside was warm, merry and Carnival-like in an Irish sort of way. The next afternoon we celebrated Mardi Gras there with a Carnival party and art auction sponsored by the Ashfield Human Relations committee. Many of us costumed, some of us didn’t—some of us danced, more of us didn’t, but the merriment was in the people, all the people hanging out, having fun. Global Warmth here still seems like a long, long far-off dream yet, but in New Orleans I was tired of the big hot jaded city. I dreamt there of living where a marching band on a regular morning would attract some attention. And where a practicing band of good musicians could sit together and whip up some reels, and people looking for a good time would come out in a snowstorm to hear them. It’s oft been said that if only two New Orleanians were left on earth that one of them would be marching and throwing beads and the other one would be waving and catching them. New Orleans can party in its sleep. In Ashfield it takes a little more planning, a little more cranking of some wheels and maybe a little more encouragement in the outlandish department, but once those wheels get rolling, it’s a heartwarming downhill ride of a dance! And that might just be something you get when you have to really want to brave a snowstorm to have a good time! Aaaiiiieeeee! |
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February 2006 Yes indeed, Elmer’s is one toilet shy of a full permit! That’s as of this writing and I am most hopeful that as of this reading (over on your end) Elmer’s Smalltime Café is open and thriving! Steve Barry and his sidekick Jim (whose last name I cannot spell and am too embarrassed to ask it again) are the greatest invention since the telephone. (I lived for six months in a tiny village in Africa in my early days and found pretty straightaway that being able to telephone someone instead of walking two days to their house just to find out they have just left is a pretty great thing. I have had a strong appreciation of phones ever since.) And I have a very strong appreciation of Steve and Jim. The very day after we closed in December those guys erected a wall-to-wall wall that we painted yellow and decorated with Mardi Gras frou frou, separating the pristine front of the store from the dusty under-construction back of the store. And then those boys just tore that place up! We’ve got the skeleton of a real live kitchen, we’ve got a new bathroom big enough to hold a contra-dance in, we’ve got an office/storage area with a multitude of phone jacks and electrical outlets and ceiling fans and I don’t know what all; they have ripped the whole front of the balcony off and are making the railings tall, safe and sturdy, and they have done all that in just a little over a month! When they were tearing out the wall in the office they came upon an invoice for the Acetylene Journal dated 1904 to the Crafts—the original owners of the store before it was Elmer’s; a catalogue of natty clothing from the turn of the last century, the comics page with the Katzenjammer Kids and an old buggy whip! We plan to frame these items and hang them on our renovated walls (on the outside of the walls, this time.) We then continued the tradition by putting an Ashfield News, a Shelburne Falls Independent and a Time Magazine back in the wall, just for the next archeologist who comes along. Jim brought in a stuffed goose in that he was willing to name Elmer if we wanted to keep him as decoration, which was real generous of him, but we didn’t think the Health Department inspector would find it as attractive an idea as some others might. Turned out she wasn’t too offended by him, but neither was he allowed to stay. Nor was the bear, turkey, bobcat, deer, owl nor moose that Jim offered after that. We do appreciate the gesture, though! It is truly the thought that counts! As soon as we get that toilet cemented into place we should be good to open on our Small-time basis with coffee, tea, and baked goods again like we had in December. We’ll be creeping in with some bulk food items like flours, snacks, herbs and spices and other groceries in the front of the store while Steve and Jim bang around in the back putting in the muscle and innards of the kitchen. After the kitchen is in, Elmer’s Small-time Café will grow up into Elmer’s Big-time Breakfast Joint serving bacon and eggs and pancakes and waffles and breakfast sandwiches and, and granola and, well, just about anything you might want on a regular day for breakfast. If we get sophisticated enough, we may start doing fancier things like quiches and omelets and things on weekends. (Kara’s all the way over in Plainfield right now and I can still hear her raising her eyebrows at me.) Okay, so we don’t have a cook just yet, but that’s at this writing and by the time this gets to you on the reading end, I’ll bet we will! Everything else seems to be going well, why not believe the perfect short-order breakfast cook will walk through the front door tomorrow looking for a job? So there we are right now; small but growing ever larger. Elmer’s Store will be a work-in-progress before your very eyes as we get more and more items (grocery and otherwise) in place. Come on in and watch, give your opinion and be part of the progress. Because when it comes down to it, we’re all in this together. We want to sell what you want to buy so that you will shop and eat there and we can stay open. It seems as though it could just work; by the time you read this, I hope we have our first inklings. Yee haa! |
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January 2006 I’d like to thank the Academy . . . You know, that’s just how it felt having people come in and actually do their holiday shopping and eating at Elmer’s! It felt as if we had come through years of work and preparation and now we were receiving a huge and thrilling award! You like Elmer’s! You really like what we’ve done with it! We have built it and it seems you will actually come! Thank you, thank you, thank you: to all the people who came; whether for gifts, coffee or warmth, there were lots of hugs and excitement all around and you cannot believe how rewarding that was! All those New Englanders even approved of the very from-parts-Southerly wall colors! Whew! And to my parents who, though invited up for the opening had the good sense to say, “We know how you get when you have a big event coming up. We’ll see you in the spring, thank you.” To all my mentors and coaches around town, especially Laura and Nancy at the Hardware Store who never gave up hope or encouragement that this could work. Thank you to Ruth and Clayton Craft who came back in and posed for the Channel 3 newswoman so that it looked like we had a larger crowd than we really did that first Friday. We had actually had a fine group of shoppers all day until the moment Channel 3 came in. Ruth and Clayton had to come back in and look surprised all over again—which they did with convincing sincerity! To dear Mike McCusker, who came in with large hugs and good advice. All my fears about meeting him were dispelled within moments by him and his warm-hearted generosity. Thanks very much to Bill Ryan and Phil Nolan who provided live music for shoppers; Bill on harp (the angelic kind) and Phil who hurried over with his guitar after work two Sunday evenings to get the joint hopping with his down home Garbage Blues. And oh so very much to David and Dawn Fessenden, who made my very thoughts reality almost before I spake them aloud. They built the counters, they created the quaint little Night-Before-Christmas-Cajun-Cabin looking side room where the pottery and baskets were sold and David even came in with bookshelves and blow-ups of old-time photos of Elmer’s before I had even asked for any of them! Without Dawn and Dave, the dream would have been a lot more makeshift and far less professional looking! To Mike Skalski and his crew who always showed up as the snow-plowing, refrigerator-moving, trash-hauling cavalry. Just when we really needed something done, they were there with all manner of large trucks and mechanisms to get it done right. To all of the artisans who believed enough that people would come that they themselves came; more and more of them each weekend! In the beginning Kara and I ciphered that we had enough room in the building for about twelve artisans. By the last day we had 25 of them and just like the loaves and fishes, the building kept accommodating them! It was a regular modern-day Christmas miracle, the way we kept finding space for all of the artists who wanted to participate! Thanks to the ones who joined up late and even more to those who signed on early who then smalled-up so that their fellow craftsmen could fit in too. And of course to Kara Schnell, Peggy Malone, Lydia Sprague and Chuck Schnell who stayed standing upright all those days in their Elmer’s shirts and red aprons, cheerfully serving coffee and pastries, ringing up sales and then mopping all the snow-gradieu away at the end of every evening. There are so many more to thank. I tried to hug or shake the hand and welcome just about everyone who came in the door and I meant it. Thanks to those who came in nigh-on to every day for late breakfast or afternoon tea. Even as we speak this very moment, Steve Barry and Jim Georgintas are over there putting in a kitchen and big-old accessible bathroom and fixing what needs fixing to make it all real and permanent. We’ll keep you abreast of what’s happening and hope to see you all and every one back soon for breakfast and other good things in the coming days and weeks. |
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