The Town of Bellows Falls

The economic hardships of the recession have echoed across the state of Vermont. While some towns seem to become downtrodden and/or roll over waiting to die, other towns grab ahold of their community and chose to keep going. Bellows Falls was the first town I lived in, in Vermont. (I was born in Kankakee, Illinois). I lived in Bellows Falls from when I was 2 years old until the middle of 3rd grade. After we moved to Springfield I still thought fondly of the town of Bellows Falls. Over the past 10 years it seems that Bellows Falls began to renovate and revitalize their downtown area. Relatively recently though a fire took the building that housed the restaurant known as Oona's. I don't know if the Happy Cat cafe went out of business or not, but it was in the same building as Oona's. It was sad to see it go, but Bellows Falls had a way of bouncing back. For a while there was a musical venue in the old Windham Hotel. It was an intimate setting where people came to listen, not to socialize (an environment that musicians love to play in). While it is all well in good to have people socializing, it is great when people are focused and attentive.

Tonight I am going to Bellows Falls to one of it's new establishments called the Downstreet Cafe.

.......

The "........" signifies that I was away from the computer and actually went there. My sister and I ate dinner at the wurst place in Bellows falls. No I spelled wurst right. It's a little joint called Fat Franks. They specialize in delicious dogs, but as I am on a local-meat-only diet, I opted for their reputably delicious home made veggie burger. I was thoroughly satisfied, especially with their hand cut fries. Afterwards she had to head to a meeting so I grabbed my guitar and started walking towards the cafe.
I'd never been there before but I knew where it was. It was a little place, and when I first came in I asked myself "where do the performers perform?" The lady behind the counter said "our host isn't here tonight so it'll be an acoustic night." To which I replied " sounds good to me my guitar doesn't even have a pickup anyways!"
I saw a familiar face right away. Guitar virtuoso Julie Waters. She was playing a 6-string banjo that was tuned like a guitar, i'd never seen one like that before.
Someone named John was supposed to play first, but he wasn't there so Julie played a couple songs. John showed up and took over playing some original songs that were really really good I thought. Simple, but they had heart. There was a man with his son due to go after John and the son was extremely enthusiastic and eager to sing the Beatles. They had some fun, and we all smiled at how into it the boy (named Mikey) was. I was due to go after them but I decided to wait a few minutes and see if anyone else would show up. I chugged a glass of water and then started playing. Then I asked John "you know, there aren't any listeners really besides the staff, why don't we just go song for song?" So thats what we did. A photographer came in and started shooting us. Must be interesting to go somewhere where there is live music, and no audience. We'll see if we end up in a paper or something. I always say "a bird does not sing so that others will applaud". I don't know where I heard it first but that holds true to this day. It was a good time sharing our songs and listening. Towards the end of the night I saw a familar face come in. Kenneth Wright, a poet. He used to come to the open mic that I attended regularly at the (now closed) Morning Star Cafe. It was good to hear him read again. He's a hard-workin' new englander who shared some new works about everything from "hobos" and "sugarin' "
Overall it was good fun.
I have some academic work to attend to