The Breeze From San Juan

I met Pete Seeger back in the 60‘s. There wasn’t much of me to meet back then. Pete Seeger didn’t meet Bob Reid until the 80’s. Pete was the model of the kind of life I wanted to have. 

Back in 1985, I wrote a song my friend, Faith Petric, wanted me to sing at the People’s Music Network Gathering in Philadelphia that January. I went, and met Pete. I spent a half hour alone in the back of a van with him as we were being transported to the Gathering. He asked about what I was doing, my background, my parents. I told him what I knew about Jimmy Collier, whom had lived and worked with Pete. When I returned home, I received a letter written on a brown paper bag from Pete, to send him any recordings I had and to tell Jimmy to get a hold of him. I got back a letter saying that he liked my songs and to send more.

I used to go stay with them in the summer, winter and fall and was adopted by sweet and salty Toshi, his wife, without whom Pete could not have been Pete.  Last October, I was invited to sing  a song at Toshi’s memorial concert. I have difficulty finding words for how much Toshi meant to me and taught me, just by letting me watch. I worked hard and she appreciated that I would do whatever needed to be done. Pete and Toshi were sensitive to people who felt that some things were beneath them. 

Someone was saying that his death (and Toshi’s) leaves some big shoes to fill, but I think Pete’s message to us was to have the courage to fill up our own shoes. 

To Us!

My friend, Peter Seeger, is no longer to be found in the flesh walking around this moldy old rock hurtling though space that we call home. Pete made 94 trips around the sun and used his time better than most. He made music, he made courageous stands against injustice. He told us that we, too, could do it! He once told me that he felt that his “success” in music meant that he could spend 10% of his time playing music and 90% of his time doing what was important. 

Pete had idea, after idea. He was an idea machine! Many of those ideas were just crazy, but then it was hard to tell which ones they were. Sometimes those crazy ideas, catch the wind in their sails and take on a life of their own. He just thought ’em up. Some of us were lucky enough to pick a few up, from where he left ’em laying. There are plenty to go around. 

Pete always felt he didn’t do enough. I think he felt that the media’s success at keeping him off of the air during the blacklist was a defeat in a way. But he was ever the optimistic pessimist, or the pessimistic optimist, or the deterministic opportunist, or whatever, believing that amazing things were possible from us. They same way he showed us what beautiful music we were capable of when we got together to sing. How all of those lights of ours come together as a mighty spotlight rooting out the dark when we focus them together.

I was one of the many who got to watch him from up close. One of my cherished memories was the first morning I woke up out in the barn to the sounds of Pete coming up the stairs playing the 12-string to awaken me to come eat the pancakes he had made. I wondered, “Is this a dream?” And it was! 

He showed me not to listen to what I think my limitations are, to keep reaching . . . and creating and thinking! Have ideas! Especially ones that might be crazy! You never know when one of them might catch the wind in their sails and move on up the river on it’s own. 

Pass the ice cream!