June 2023 - Page 3 of 6 - Ramblin' with Roger

Roissy en France

Notre histoire en couleurs

May 20: I may have said we were returning to Paris, but we were actually going to Roissy en France.

We eat breakfast at the B&B. There was a giant jukebox in the dining area with dozens of 45s. We talked to a couple from the wedding. The dancing didn’t start until 1 a.m.!

We saw Father Thomas, who was also staying at the locale. My wife drove from Tredion back to Auray, which took about an hour. We returned the rental car and stopped at the cafe we visited three days ago.

Our travel documents suggested we might take a TERTRAIN from Auray to Redon, leave at 13:05, and arrive at 14:30. Because they were doing track work, we took a bus. It was rather uncomfortable, as I couldn’t put my feet under the seat in front of me.

The TGVTRAIN from Redon to PARIS MONTPARNASSE was nice, but it took a while, from 14:50 to 18:07.

I should have used the loo on the train. The bathroom at the train station cost 50 Euro cents, but it didn’t work! Finally, we went to another level and spent another Euro in a locale with an attendant.

We still needed to get to our hotel in Roissy en France, near the airport. My wife decided we’d take a taxi. With the stop-and-go traffic, it took at least an hour, which made it a pricey choice.

After we dropped off our stuff, we went to eat. We opted against the dining choices at the hotel. Wandering into town, we found a Chinese/Thai restaurant with one of the broadest menus I’ve ever seen.

Our last day in France

After breakfast, we wandered into the charming town. We came across a series of about 40 placards describing France’s history. They were from the book Notre histoire en couleurs, OUR STORY IN COLORS, by Xavier Mauduit.

“This book is a walk through time, a stroll through yesterday’s world where everything is suddenly in color. A unique experience for all generations!

“Let’s find our poets and our novelists, Baudelaire, Hugo, Proust or even Colette, without forgetting all the anonymous people, students, workers, peasants. Let’s walk the streets of our cities and the roads of our countryside.” This was an unexpected joy.

My wife got a hotel employee to get us to the airport. We were delivered to the right terminal, 2, but the wrong section. Fortunately, Charles De Gaulle Airport has a train system like the AirTrain to JFK.

Unlike the chaos at Delta at JFK, getting the boarding pass at Air France was simple and uncrowded. After checking through various checkpoints, we got to our gate quickly. We got some excellent airport food, which is not an oxymoron.

Our eight-hour flight – leaving at 19:30 Paris time and arriving at 21:45 NYC time, was mainly uneventful. However, I was surprised how far back the guy in front of me could push back his seat, further than anyone around him.

We deboarded the plane. I was trying my new Mobile Passport Control app, which I couldn’t send until I determined what terminal we were at. I don’t know if it helped or not. We got through two Customs checkpoints far faster than the debacle we experienced in 1999 after returning from Barbados.

One of the folks from my church choir had agreed to pick us up. Now the terminal at JFK WAS a zoo, but we found each other. Carol and I rode home in about 3.5 hours. Our daughter had waited up until 2 a.m. for us, which was very sweet.

My forebearers

In search of Margaret Collins

Here is a graphic of my current forebearers up to my great-grandparents. Click on it to biggify; many thanks to Arthur. You’ll note that I have identified 12 of the 16. I don’t have the parents of Samuel Walker, my father’s mother’s father. I’ve gotten hints from Ancestry, but they do not direct me to the correct person.

Also, I haven’t located Margaret Collins’ parents, though I went to a genealogist specializing in Irish lineage for that particular purpose. Margaret is my mother’s father’s mother. A town historian found her death certificate, but it only mentions her father’s surname and doesn’t identify her mother.

However, much to my surprise, I DID find the parents of Charles Williams, and I wasn’t even looking for them. Charles remarried in 1921 to Margaret Greenleaf; he married ANOTHER Margaret, presumably so he wouldn’t have to worry about saying his previous wife’s name in error. Charles’ parents were mentioned on the marriage license. Daniel Williams and Sarah Benson have a compelling story I will tell later this year.

I’ve also been aided in pursuing Margaret Collins Williams by my buddy Melanie, who cracked the case of my biological grandfather Raymond Cone.

Extend the parameters

Both Melanie and the Irish genealogist recommended that I pay attention to the people, not just in my direct line.

Here’s a picture of who I believe are baseball players. One of them is very likely to be Charles Williams (b. 1884 or 1885), the older son of Charles and Margaret Williams, my great-grandparents, and the brother of my grandfather Clarence Williams. In the 1910 US Census, the younger Charles’ occupation was listed as “ball player.”

Some lines go back much further than others. If I go back, two and three generations from Sarah Eatman were Thomas Eatman Sr and Jr, enslavers from North Carolina. Two generations earlier, I can find my British roots. Likewise, Mahala Price leads back to Brits, Price, and Hackney.

I’ve long known the identity of Harriet Bell’s parents, Phillis Wagner and Edward Bell. Edward, I suspect, was enslaved in New York north of NYC but manumitted before 1810.

Sunday Stealing: Je ne comprends pas

“common sense”

The new Sunday Stealing.

1) What is your favorite way to spend a lazy day?

Je ne comprends pas. Qu’est-ce qu’une journée paresseuse ? I’m not feeling “a lazy day” of late. If I did have one, I would watch the Tonys and the National Spelling Bee Finals, in that order, which I have recorded.

2) What do you look forward to every week?

I like seeing folks at church and attending the Tuesday noon book reviews.

3) Name three pet peeves you currently have

Certain people think their way is the only way.

Some people are “all hat, no cattle”; a recent example is Antonio Brown, the braggadocious owner of the Albany Empire Arena Football team, who got his team booted from the league for non-payment. He reminds me of a particular politician whom he said he admired.

Bad drivers, bike riders, and pedestrians.

4) Where would you choose to go if you were to win an all-expense paid vacation for two weeks to anywhere in the world? What are some of the things you would like to experience while you were there?

I need to go to either Asia, Africa, or South America. I suppose I’d go to Nigeria to be on the grounds of my ancestors. I’m 20% Nigerian, almost entirely on my father’s side. Maybe there are some resources there that would help with my genealogical search. And if not, it’d be worth it anyway.

One Man Army

5) What was one of your favorite toys as a kid? Did you save any special things from your childhood that you still have today?

The only toy I can remember is a Johnny Seven OMA (One Man Army), a multi-function toy weapon produced by Deluxe Reading under their Topper Toys toyline and released in 1964.” It was the best-selling boys’ toy that year. I’m fairly sure I used it in antiwar film my friends made five years later. Featured on Law and Order: Criminal Intent. “Detective Robert Goren finds one in a toy store and demonstrates all seven firing modes” (Episode: Collective) June 2006. Because I’ve dealt with collectibles, I remember seeing that scene and howling with laughter.

The things I have from my childhood tend to be books. One in my line of vision is Play the Game: the Book of Sport, edited by Mitchell V. Charnley (1931). This was an anthology of sports stories from American Boy magazine from 1923 to 1931, which I read repeatedly.

6) What is your favorite holiday? What is your least favorite holiday?

My favorite is Thanksgiving, though I’ve had some terrible ones. My least favorite is Memorial Day because too many people don’t know what it’s supposed to mean.

7) Have you ever met anyone famous? What concerts have you attended?

I’ve answered the famous question recently. Here are some concerts I’ve attended. It does NOT include several classical concerts, mostly the Albany Symphony Orchestra. The one that stands out featured Evelyn Glennie, the percussionist.

Not so common

8) Are there any expressions that people use that really annoy you? If so, what are they?

There are several, but I’ve blocked most of them out. “Common-sense” reforms or gun laws or whatever bugs me because it presupposes some agreed-upon definition of “common sense.”

9) Do you like your name? Are you named after anyone? Is there a story how you got your name? Would you change it if you could? If so, what name would you give yourself?

I’ve told this story before, but I can’t find it. My father named me. At some point after I was born, he was over at his cousin’s house furiously writing…something. He was coming up with a name for which the initials spelled out something but nothing offensive or complicated for me to live with. So Roger Owen Green spelled out ROG. It was brilliant. I love the name, and I wouldn’t change it.

I was not named for anyone. Curiously, my sister Leslie was named after my father. I can’t begin to understand that logic.

10) It is said that it’s the little things that make life worth living. Name five of those little things in your life

Music. And not listening to it but math: 4/4, 6/8, 3/2 et al. The inverted pedal point. Modulations.

Math. 0 squared + 0 +1= 1 squared. 1 squared+1+2=2 squared. 2 squared+2+3=3 squared. Figuring out if a number is divisible by 3 or by 9. License plate algebra.

History. Being a keeper of the history of FantaCo, the comic book store where I worked from May 1980 to November 1988. Doing genealogy and having some luck; see tomorrow’s post.

White noise. It helps me sleep.

Electricity.

Cyndi Lauper and Colin Hay turn 70

Who Can It Be Now

Cyndi Lauper (b June 22nd) received the Grammy for Best New Artist in 1984. Her debut album She’s So Unusual (1983) got to #4 on the Billboard charts and spawned five Top 30 hits, four in the Top Five. I own this album.

Her follow-up album True Colors (1986) generated three Top 12 songs, two of which were Top 3. I never got this one.

In fact, I essentially lost track of her career until my wife bought me her 2003 CD, At Last, a decent covers album.

Cyndi composed music and lyrics for the Broadway musical Kinky Boots, based on the 2006 film; Harvey Fierstein wrote the book. It opened on Broadway in April 2013. The musical received 13 nominations, winning six, including Best Musical and Best Actor. She won the award for Best Original Score, the first woman to win solo in this category. The show had a six-year run with 2,507 regular performances before ending its Broadway run in April 2019.

Activist

She was nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2023. She was #2 after George Michael in the fan vote but did not get in. When Billboard had a readers’ poll of who was snubbed among those on the ballot, more than half picked her. (I checked Warren Zevon.)

Here’s her website. In October 2022, she noted that she had started her “‘Girls Just Want To Have Fundamental Rights’ Fund, which was formed to financially support women’s issues in an inclusive way.”

She appeared in an episode of Finding Your Roots this season. Here’s a segment about her ancestors playing a part in a Swiss peasant rebellion

The photograph was from 2014 when “LGBT youth advocate Cyndi Lauper traveled to Washington, D.C., on Oct. 22 to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act.”

I often see her in TV commercials plugging a product to treat her psoriasis.

Here is a 2023 THR interview. “Cyndi Lauper on New Documentary, LGBTQ Fans and Not Loving Her First Recording of ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’: ‘It Was Like Yawn and Boring'”

Her hits

Girls Just Want To Have Fun, #2 pop for two weeks in 1984

Time After Time, #1 for two weeks pop, #1 for three weeks adult contemporary in 1984

She Bop, #3 pop for three weeks in 1984

All Through The Night, #5 pop, #4 AC in 1984

Money Changes Everything, #27 pop in 1985

The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough, #10 pop in 1985

True Colors, #1 for two weeks pop, #5 AC in 1986

Change of Heart, #3 in 1987

At Last

Everybody Say Yeah from the Broadway Cast Album of Kinky Boots

Men At Work

I have two albums by the Australian group Men at Work, the quintet featuring Colin Hay (b. June 29th) on vocals and guitar. Business as Usual (1982) was #1 on the Billboard album charts for fifteen weeks. Cargo (1983) reached #3 for five weeks. The group won the Best New Artist Grammy in 1983.

They broke up between 1986 and 1996, then split again in 2002, though Hay and Greg Ham played as MaW with guest musicians.

As I noted back in 2012 and Arthur mentioned more recently, “In June 2009, the band was sued for copyright infringement, the allegation being that the flute part was lifted from a 1932 Australian song called ‘Kookaburra.'”

(This is sad: “Ham took the verdict particularly hard, feeling responsible for having performed the flute riff at the centre of the lawsuit and worried that he would only be remembered for copying someone else’s music, resulting in depression and anxiety. Ham’s body was found in his home on 19 April 2012 after he suffered a fatal heart attack at age 58.” Here’s a brief video showing the comparisons. )

But Men at Work founder Hay has continued as a solo musician, putting on albums and tracks on movie soundtracks and television programs. I know him best from his three appearances on the sitcom Scrubs. Hay has been a member of Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band.

Their hits

Who Can It Be Now, #1 pop in 1982

Down Under, #1 pop for four weeks, #13 AC in 1982

Overkill, #3 pop, #6 AC in 1983

It’s A Mistake, #6 pop, #10 AC in 1983

Overkill – Colin Hay on Scrubs (2002)

Juluka

One other notable musician was born in June 1953. Johnny Clegg (b. June 7th) was a “South African musician, singer-songwriter, dancer, anthropologist, and anti-apartheid activist. ” His Wikipedia page notes that he kept forming interracial bands in apartheid South Africa, including Juluka and Savuka.

He had two albums with Savuka to reach the lower rungs of the Billboard charts, Shadow Man (#155 in 1988) and Cruel, Crazy Beautiful World (#123 in 1990).

Johnny Clegg was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2015, ultimately leading to his death on 16 July 2019.

Scatterlings of Africa – Juluka, #106 in 1983, which also appeared on the Rain Man soundtrack (1988)

Dela – used in the film George of the Jungle

Life Is A Magic Thing – used in the film FernGully: The Last Rainforest

Great Heart

Asimbonanga (live), dedicated to Nelson Mandela

Deborah and Cyrille get married!

a chateau

May 19: Deborah and Cyrille are getting married today! After my wife and I eat breakfast, we check out of our second hotel on this trip. We drive from Auray to Erdeven and park in the lot of Cyrille’s company.

Walking to the town hall and church, the fact that we had been there before was helpful to other guests. We were told to be there at 10 a.m. for the 10:30 civil ceremony. Unsurprisingly, given how late she must have gone to bed and the congestion around her apartment, she was about ten minutes late.

The ceremony, officiated by a woman wearing a tricolor sash, was all in French, but I got the gist.

Then we walked a short distance to the church. And by short, I’ve walked farther from a parking space to a supermarket.

The service was in French and English and laid out in a 40-page booklet—the marriage celebration, followed by readings, including Psalm 67 and John 15:9-12. I discovered a typo in the version I had seen on May 8, which I noted to Deborah, but I doubt anyone else noticed. Then more blessings of the marriage, the prayers, and the peace.

Rendered redundant

Then a German couple, my wife and I got up and went to the rear of the church to bring up the Holy Communion elements. They weren’t there. In retrospect, I think the priests brought them forward beforehand because the church service started late. As the German woman put it, “We are unemployed.”

One of Deborah’s surprises for Cyrille was getting a gospel group from Rennes to sing. They performed Amazing Grace at the beginning, Let Us Break Bread before communion, Down To The River To Pray before the distribution of the elements, and Oh, Happy Day at the end, with one of the priests dancing in the aisles.

Parade

After the service, two Breton sonneurs – traditional music players – led us in a procession through the village. There was a reception where I engaged in wonderful conversations, including with Deborah’s two adult children and their significant others.

We were all directed to a castle, le Château de Trédion, about 45 minutes away. My wife and I realized we had time to check into the nearby B&B where we stayed that night.

We returned at 16:30 and listened to Jérémy Simon and his accordion/keyboards/horn jazz trio. They were surprisingly good.

There were cocktails at 18:00 while photos were taken. Dinner was supposed to be at 20:00, though it was late; I wasn’t terribly hungry with all the hors d’oeuvres. We had a magician that came from table to table doing card tricks or something involving fire; we got the tamer offering, involving the fake card shuffle, which Mark Evanier subsequently linked to here.

Talk

Dancing “til dawn” was supposed to start at 22:00; not even close. Speechifying was still going on at 22:45, including by the groom’s 87-year-old father, in French and translated by a woman from Ireland I had met.

. Later, we learned the dancing didn’t begin until one in the morning. We had to go. Specifically, my wife, who was driving, had to depart before she got too tired to move. We said our goodbyes to Deborah’s kids; the folks at our table, including Ruth and Vernita, whom I had met in the 1970s; and finally, the bride and groom.

However, we did stay for the address by Deborah’s friend Igor in English and translated by Deborah’s son. It was very accurate. I will say cryptically that we would not have come if Deborah hadn’t asked.

We would miss the wedding cake and the next day’s crepes event because we needed to return to Paris to take a plane home. Our time was too short. Still, it was worth the effort.

We went to the B&B and crashed.