Thanks, Pete!

My buddy, Bobby, has an 86-year old banjo-playing paladin - his name is Pete Seeger. And, after working tonight's membership drive at WMHT-17, enjoying the "The Power of Song" Documentary, I too am a respected and devoted Seeger admirer.

Last week, Bobby launched into stories about Seeger during our drive to ski Jiminy Peak. The stork delivered me a little too late for "If I Had a Hammer," "Turn, Turn Turn," and "We Shall Overcome" but that didn't stop Bobby from expanding my world. Bobby explained how brilliant a social activist and folk singer Seeger was, how he lives only 60 miles shy of Albany, how he chose not to invoke the 5th Amendment when subpoenaed during the McCarthy's era, how he fought pollution on a 106-foot replica of a 18th-century Dutch sloop sailing the Hudson, how this symbolically paved the way for The Clean Water Act of 1972 and on and on and on. His list of grassroots activism and defining moments is endless.

I was also surprised to see all three, the sloop, Mr. Seeger and his wife of 50 years, Toshi, still very much alive and participating in labor, peace, civil rights and environmental movements. The sing-along memoir ended far too soon but with Bobby's original "How to Play the 5-String Banjo" handbook still in need of an autograph, maybe, just maybe, we'll be making a trip to Beacon this summer...