Good Morning Gloucester

 

During the Captain’s Courageous Festival this weekend, Khan Studio and the GMG Gallery hosted reader, Anita Sanchez and her book The Invasion of Sandy Bay.  Anita and I swapped books, so she got Tales of Bong Tree Island and I got Invasion.  I have started reading the book, but haven’t finished it yet.

In Anita’s book, a young boy plays a key role when the War of 1812 comes to his Massachusetts coastal fishing village. The little town of Sandy Bay, Massachusetts, was the site of one of the wildest invasions in U.S. history, when the might of the British Empire came up against hardheaded New England townsfolk. The Invasion of Sandy Bay, based on eyewitness accounts of actual events, tells the tale – through the eyes of a twelve-year-old boy – of what happened on the night when the British put too much gunpowder in one of their cannons. The hilarious – and true – events of the topsy-turvy invasion are set against the backdrop of the dangerous lives of the fishermen.

Based on the actual invasion of Sandy Bay (now Rockport), Massachusetts, this work adds a unique perspective to the War of 1812. The invasion is told through the eyes of 12-year-old Lemuel Brooks. On his first night of trying to learn the trade of fisherman, Lemuel and Bill Tarr, a veteran fisherman, are captured by the British frigate Nymph. Bill is forced to pilot the frigate closer to the village so the British Royal Marines can go ashore and capture the fort. Lemuel and Bill escape and warn the town. What ensues is not a typical invasion! One group of Marines captures the fort and takes nine of the town’s militiamen as prisoners. A raft with British Marines sinks near the shore, and the fishermen rescue them and take them prisoner. Colonel Appleton of the Gloucester militiamen bans a proposed prisoner exchange, so the townsfolk take matters into their own hands. Aside from publicizing this little-known incident, the novel also fleshes out what daily life was like with an afterword that helps separate fact from fiction. Students will enjoy Lemuel’s adventures during the invasion and will empathize with his views on life. —Library Media Connection 

The book can be purchased on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/The-Invasion-Sandy-Anita-Sanchez/dp/1590785606

E.J. Lefavour

The Mrs submits-

Joe,

Drop started today – Wednesday and Shopping begins Friday!

This week and this week only GMG will be accepting Health/Wellness submissions as part of GMG Health/Wellness week.   Get your submissions in this week and I will run ONE POST for your organization- note this is only for this week and then we will close the health wellness publicity machine down til next January so get them in for submission.  (try to make them creative along the lines of what the fabulous Treetop Yoga did by incorporating some Gloucester settings, locations or fun into your submission.  YouTube videos are a great way to get your point across.  Make ONE video and send me the URL and I’ll run that for you.  You have til Thursday to get me something.   email your submission to goodmorninggloucester@yahoo.com

No excuse if you miss the deadline, no excuses if you didn’t see this post in time (you should be dissecting every square inch of the blog every day anyway so shame on you if you missed it)

One Week and One Week Only!

Use the Treetop Yoga Post as a guide to what I mean by making it creative and not simply an ad for your joint

The Boss

 

If I Were Walt Whitman

 

If I were Walt Whitman, I would sing, but not of myself

I would sound my barbaric yawp to sing of Brooklyn; it contains multitudes

I would sing of the orthodox Jews in Borough Park

Of the fishermen on the boats in Sheepshead Bay

Of the Danes and the Swedes and the Finns who meet at their athletic clubs in Dyker Heights

Of the Russians and Ukrainians and Turks and Georgians who have their businesses on Kings Highway

Of the old-time families in Canarsie who say “berl” for “boil”

Of the Chinese and Vietnamese with their noodle shops and the Mexicans with their taquerias in Sunset Park

Of the Poles in Greenpoint, neighbors to Williamsburg with more Jews, but also Puerto Ricans and hipsters (Do they talk to one another? I wonder)

 

If I were Walt Whitman, I would carry a camera, not a pen

My boot-soles would tramp every corner of the borough

From beneath Brooklyn’s bridge where the ferries land (I would not cross on the ferry; I would eat ice cream)

To the promenade in Brooklyn Heights

And from there down to the fair ways of Red Hook, where the longshoremen lived

And then to Gowanus with its reeking canal

And on through Park Slope, up the hill to Prospect Park and the botanic garden

Turning south I would pass the Victorians of Ditmas Park and wander through Midwood and Gravesend

And so come to Coney Island to walk on Mermaid Avenue where Woody Guthrie once lived

At one end of Coney Island is Sea Gate—private and closed to outsiders

At the other end is Manhattan Beach—free and open to all

 

But I would not stop; my restless feet would urge me on

To the narrow streets of Gerritsen Beach, where the houses are cheek-by-jowl and have water in their backyards

And past the outrageous mansions of Mill Basin

And farther still to Paerdegat, whose waters flow into Jamaica Bay and mingle with the marshes and islands

I would go even farther, to landlocked East New York and Brownsville and Bushwick

 

Turning south again I would traverse the borough on Rockaway Avenue and Rockaway Parkway, not to the Rockaways (which are in Queens), but to Canarsie Pier

Here, at the end of the road, I would make my way past the apartment-dwellers who come for a taste of salt air

Past the families who bring their barbecue grills

Past the fisherman hoping to catch a striped bass or a fluke or a porgy or a blue

Past the crabbers with their wire traps and their pieces of chicken to use as bait

I would pass them all and find an empty spot on a bench overlooking the water

And as the sun sets, the shadows of Brooklyn would be cast onto the surface of Jamaica Bay

The shadows of the mansions and the apartment buildings and the brownstones

The shadows of the butchers and the fishmongers and the produce vendors

The shadows of the brewers and the distillers and the vintners

The shadows of the restaurateurs and the entrepreneurs

The foodies, the hipsters, the locavores, the community gardeners, the activists, the artists, the musicians, the poets

The newcomers and the old-timers

All the multitudes of Brooklyn

 

© Brian Luster 2012

I went to the End of Summer Tasting at the Madfish on Friday.  Due to a Cape Ann NightSUP scheduling conflict, I didn’t get to experience the whole tasting, but did get to experience 4 of the 10 courses.  If you have the chance before they close for the season, you owe it to your taste buds to take them on the adventure of a Friday, Saturday or Sunday night dinner starting at 5:00pm at Madfish Grille under the new management and extraordinary culinary magic of Chefs Jordan Rubin and Johnny Sheehan.  I’ll tell you, don’t miss the oyster steam bun (OMG your mouth will go crazy with the amazing tastes and textures!), corn soup and prawn cracker.  Based on what I did sample, I have to believe that everything on the menu is equally incredibly fresh, delicious and unique.  These guys will rock your mouth’s world. 

E.J. Lefavour