It might be an old-fashioned word to use, but abundant is the only one I can think of
to adequately describe the harvest in England this Fall. Last year was so
disappointing that it makes it even more satisfying to see bulging berries of sloe,
blackberry, elderberry, hawthorn and rosehip vibrantly punctuating the
hedgerows. And so we’ll have sloe gin, blackberry gin, damson gin and
elderberry wine for Christmas; and raspberries, and apple and elderberry
crumble, when the weather turns colder and we need comfort food to remind us
that Spring is not so far away.
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| The Texas Country Music Hall of Fame |
Fall in
East Texas is similarly impressive. The grass is green again, and the
temperature is pleasantly warm. This year’s pecans, soft and creamy, are on
sale at the fruit stands, and gloriously orange pumpkins are everywhere. The
smell of fresh-mown grass, wood-smoke, and horses, drifts through the air as I
drive down almost empty highways lined with cedar and live oak. Snapping
turtles try to grab the last of the sun, crowded on every rock on every pond.
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| Jim Reeves Memorial |
I was
in East Texas yesterday to get away from the hotel in Dallas. The Razorbacks
(University of Arkansas) played the Aggies (Texas A&M) at the new Cowboys
Stadium in Arlington. The Razorbacks thrashed the Aggies. The difference between
the two cultures is easily observed. The parking lot has more than the usual
number of beaten-up trucks, mostly with Arkansas plates. The drivers of those
trucks (and their passengers) have no idea how to comport themselves in social
situations. I can forgive exuberance, but not blatant disregard for the sleep
requirements of (albeit temporary) neighbors. They check in to the hotel
carrying oversize cooler chests. But when I challenged an Aggie t-shirt wearer
at breakfast this morning, commenting on how brave I thought he was, and that (in
his situation) I’d probably be keeping my head down, he made reference to a
recent magazine article, that stated that “Texas
A&M University now ranks No. 1 in Smart Money magazine’s national ratings
for “payback ratio” — the earnings levels of an institution’s graduates
compared to what they paid in tuition, fees and related costs for their
undergraduate educations”. That’s just sour grapes, of course, but he has a
point (although, having just seen Michael Moore’s new movie – Capitalism, A Love Story – I’m not at
all prepared to agree with it).
Carthage is about a 3-hour drive from the hotel, and is far
enough east to be close to Louisiana. It doesn’t have much to recommend it, but
it does have a memorial to one of the
all-time great country singers, Jim Reeves, and is home to the Texas Country
Music Hall of Fame. I should stress that I’m not a fan of Jim Reeves’ music,
but I have a great respect for the man, and what he achieved. (Parenthetically
(because that’s what parentheses are for) I should add that I also don’t like
punk or hip-hop. Nevertheless, they were necessary to throw a wrench into the
otherwise complacently boring middle-of-the-road musical desert of their
respective eras).
I was the only visitor
at the Hall of Fame (apart from an intensely annoying guy from Baltimore that
you’ll have to ask me about when I’ve calmed down[1]), and I
have to say that I was surprised by the number of artists that I had never
heard of, despite listening to quite a variety of country music. Almost
everyone, on both sides of the Atlantic, will have heard of Roger Miller and
Willie Nelson; if you’re older, you may have heard of Waylon Jennings, Dale
Evans (partner to Roy Rogers) and Bob Wills. Most of the others have not made
it outside the USA, and, I suspect, in some cases, outside Texas. Texas may be
unique among all the states in its view of itself. It is alternately (depending
on where you are) sophisticatedly Eastern (like Dallas), or “cowboy country”
(like much of West Texas), or South-Western (like the border towns), or
infuriatingly different (like Austin, which is often referred to as “California
in Texas”). Above all, it regards itself almost as a separate, independent
country, and so it is perhaps not surprising that some of its most acclaimed
celebrities are not so well known outside the state.
On an entirely different topic, I recently heard that Roman
Polanski is apparently the original
five-foot Pole with which nobody would touch anything …
[1] Him:
“Oh, you’re from England! Let’s see, what could we talk about … how about the
way that country music was received in England versus here, when you were
growing up?”
Me (sotto voce):
“Bugger off!”
