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| The Old Man reading at Haystacks Coffee House last April not long after last haircut. |
Well I am barbered to a fare-thee-well and suddenly respectable. The greasy long locks are gone, goatee neatly trimmed,
and bales of wild hair clipped from
my ears and eyebrows. I no longer look
like Gabby Hays coming off of a three day toot. On the other hand my everyday summer straw hat no longer fits and tries to settle over my ears erasing an apparent 20 points from my I.Q. At least I can change lids.
So evidently I am ready for a short
round of personal appearances in
McHenry County this coming Labor Day Weekend.
This is both a fair warning and an invitation
depending on your stomach for Murfin musings and blather.
First up is the return of Haystacks Coffee
House Open Mic and Jam for a new season this Friday, September 2 from 7
to 10 pm at the Tree of Life
Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 5603
Bull Valley Road in McHenry.
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| Actual talent--Helen Lindquist, Carol Francis, John Burgess, Scott Brix, and Tom Morris jam at Haystacks Coffee House. |
The showcase for musicians of
all types, poets and spoken word artists, comics, and even the occasional magician opens this year
under new leadership. Forrest Ransburg, Tree of Life’s new Music Director takes up the reins from Thomas Steffens who retired
after long service this summer. Ransburg promises to keep up the tradition of quality
variety entertainment.
Who knows who will show up? Maybe jugglers
rejected from America’s Got Talent
or dancing chickens. Anything’s possible. I can guarantee you that barring divine intervention, I will be on hand as usual to inflict my poetry on the unwary who
do not bolt for the bathroom or coffee dispensers in time.
This time I will be armed with
recent verse never yet performed in public.
Light
refreshments including coffee, soft drinks, and water are available at no charge and there is no fee for admittance. A free will offering will be taken to defray expenses.
Then on Labor Day, Monday September 4 there will be a second annual celebration on Woodstock
Square from 11 am to 2 pm.
Last year’s celebration was put together by Robert Rosenberg, Missy Funk, and other McHenry County supporters
of the then long shot Presidential
campaign of Bernie Sanders.
It was a salute to Eugene V. Debs
who was held in the county jail overlooking
the Square after the Pullman Strike of
1894. While a prisoner there with the members of the Executive Board of the American
Railway Union, Debs diligently studied and led discussions with his fellow workers and emerged as a dedicated
Socialist. We celebrated Debs, the working class, the labor movement and the connections
to the current economic, political, and
moral crisis.
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| Leather lunging at last year's Labor Day Celebration on Woodstock Square. |
I was fortunate enough to be invited
to speak in my capacities as an amateur labor
historian, social justice activist, and former local Democratic Party official. I
uncorked my inner soapboxer and let fly a
barn burner oration. It seemed to arouse some attention. The rabble, I was told, were roused.
A lot has happened in the subsequent year, including the nearly successful Sanders campaign the rallied millions to his call for a political revolution. But we have also seen the rise of rampant fascism in the guise of
the Donald Trump campaign which did seize the Republican nomination and has nearly
shattered the former party of Lincoln. We
have seen our society sliced, diced, and set against each other by race,
ethnicity, religion, sex, and gender
identity.
I was surprisingly asked not only to speak again but to deliver the keynote speech of the afternoon. Surprising because although a strong Sanders
supporter, I was critical, even harshly critical of some Bernie-or-Busters and not only their adamant refusal to follow the Senator’s lead and
support Hillary Clinton this November, but their obsession with characterizing her as the
devil incarnate including parroting old discredited right wing smears.
Here in McHenry County, however
Sanders supporters willing to go along with Clinton and those swearing never to
vote for her, have united to continue the call for a political revolution. Several, like Robert Rosenberg, have put themselves on the line by running
as Democrats for local and regional offices this fall.
This Labor Day celebration, they
say, will not be a political rally. Candidates are asked not to campaign but
to represent their solidarity with
an ongoing working class struggle. I want to speak about Labor Day in that
connection, not just as a historic relic.
So stop by, if you can. I plan to orate the hell out of the afternoon
and talk a lot about the working
class virtue of solidarity.
After the celebration is over a 2 o’clock,
I’ll be heading back to the Murfin
estate in Crystal Lake where our
clan plans to congregate to char former ectoplasm in the front yard and also celebrate Darlin’ Daughter #3 Maureen Rotter’s birthday. Her party
was delayed by moving in with husband
Kevin and personable pooch Piper to
the Old Folk’s home last week on her
actual natal anniversary.
It you are cruising down Route 176 that afternoon, beep and wave as you pass by. Or pull
into the Quarhammer Funeral Home parking
lot next door and join us. There
will probably be brats and burgers to share.
