pt at large

Zinadine Zidane, A world class loser

He was wrong, plain and simple. He flagrantly violated the rules by head butting his adversary. But Zinadine Zidane had an excuse, a reason. Did this make him less wrong? Most of the world seems to think it does.

This incident in the 2006 World Cup soccer match is an example of "enabling"* on a global scale.

French president Chirac praised Zidane after the match, calling the French captain, "a virtuoso, a genius of world football." Then he said, “What is certain is that, for a man like Zidane — a man balanced in all respects — to have this type of reaction, there had to be something.”

Well, Mr. Chirac, there was something that caused North African immigrants to nearly tear France apart a few months ago. How did you react when they head butted and torched the neighborhoods outside Paris? Were they any less guilty of insurrection because "there had to be something”?

The civilized world is built on the premise that even though there may be something that mightily aggravates us, individuals don't take the law into their own hands and commit mayhem when things don't go their way. When they're brought to justice, we hope, if not expect, that they express regret about their actions.

Zidane had a chance to reclaim his iconic status as genius of world football by expressing regret over his head butting an opponent. He could have said that even though he had reason to behave like a berserker, and gave into it, that he wanted to apologize to the men, women, and children who held him up as a role model. He could have reclaimed a part of the mantle of glory that was his to enjoy as he retires from a fabled career.

He did apologize for his behavior to the children of France but said he did not regret his inexcusable behavior because he had a reason for it. How small, how egocentric. How sad for the game, the country, and those children who deserve valiant behavior to accompany valiant effort. The man doesn't know how to use his head on or off the soccer field.

* allowing and encouraging an individual to develop patterns of irresponsible behavior

Holy Ghost feast and procession celebrate tradition

Holy Ghost feast and procession celebrate tradition
By Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
Westport, MA

The annual Holy Ghost Feast on Saturday and Sunday, July 8 and 9, attracted hundreds of celebrants from all quarters of the region. Dancing and dining were the mainstays of Saturday’s celebration that was held in the Holy Ghost Club at 171 Sodom Road. A procession down a short stretch of Sodom Road after Sunday mass at Our Lady of Grace Church, followed by lunch and a live auction in the pavilion next to the club building, capped the two-day event.

Feast is the operative word here. Food has been a key ingredient of the celebration since its inception in Portugal centuries ago. Traditional Portuguese dishes, cacouila (pronounced cah-sair-la) were served on Saturday night, and sopas and favas on Sunday along with chourico, hot dogs, and hamburgers.

For many in the Portuguese community this is a highly anticipated annual weekend, a time to get caught up on family news and tell stories of the old days or ways. For a group of about twenty-five volunteers though, it’s a labor-intensive weekend of organizing a party for several hundred guests.

The old saying “too many cooks spoil the broth,” does not apply in this kitchen. Friday, men cut roast beef and chourico (pork) into chunks, set up the huge cast iron ovens, organized the big fridges to accommodate the trays laden with what would be served on Saturday and Sunday. Women peeled potatos, prepared the stock for sopas, cut cabbage, kale and onions, prepared beans for the traditional favas soup, and laughed as they shared family stories.

“We’re the best crew here,” Joyce Araujo said as she sat with Albertina Santos, Bernadette Correira, and Jane Medeiros, who cheered heartily in agreement.

“Favas is a Portuguese ethnic dish,” said Barbara Medeiros of Westport, the club’s former secretary for eight years, as she stirred a huge aluminum pot filled with fava beans, onions, ground chourico, crushed red pepper, garlic, oil, and tomato sauce. “If there’s a Portuguese feast, there’s favas.” If the number of gargantuan pots being stirred was any indicator, this was going to be a very big feast.

“What’s next, boss?” Frank Ray asked Holy Ghost president Frank Lopes of Fall River. Lopes is not only the Club’s president for the past 12 years, but in charge of spicing the “carne”, the meat served on Sunday. Sodom Road resident and twenty-five year member Ray, the club’s treasurer, measured spices into each pan of meat, as his wife Wendy, a fourteen-year member, and another volunteer followed adding wine, garlic and other essentials.

“I don’t do this alone, I get lots of help,” Mr. Lopes said as he orchestrated the production with authority and no recipe in sight. “98% of the people helping are members of the club but we would welcome anyone to join us, any nationality, any religion,” Lopes said.

Sunday’s lunch and auction took place in the pavilion, which houses an industrial sized kitchen and prep area, an informal dining area dominated by five long picnic tables, and the tiny chapel dedicated to Queen Elizabeth of Portugal. Sunday’s procession ended at the chapel as a Portuguese band from New Bedford played the Portuguese hymn, Portuguese national anthem and the United States national anthem.

The original Holy Ghost feast was celebrated during the reign of Queen Elizabeth (Isabel) of Portugal, who lived from 1271 to 1336. There are several variants explaining the original feast but wide agreement about the queen’s devotion to her people and to the Holy Spirit. The Azores suffered destructive earthquakes and volcano eruptions in the 1200s and the islanders prayed to the Holy Ghost for relief. A ship arrived in Fayal bearing necessities, which were distributed to the people in various islands. In a procession held later in Portugal, Queen Elizabeth left her crown on the altar as thanks for the intervention of the Holy Ghost that saved her people. She began a tradition of feeding the poor at Pentecost. Since then, Azoreans have commemorated her charity in an annual procession displaying her eight-sided crown.

At 11:30 Sunday morning, a parade of men, women, and children marched a quarter mile from Ridgeline Drive to the Holy Ghost Club. A replica of Queen Elizabeth’s eight-sided crown was placed in the chapel.

By noon the aromas of chourico, favas, and sopas lured about 150 people to fill the five long picnic tables inside the pavilion. Extra large sized bowls of sopas were brought to the tables and the hungry pilgrims dug in heartily. In the charitable spirit of Queen Elizabeth, the sopas was free. Diners could pay for chourico, cacouila sandwiches, hot dogs, hamburgers, or favas or for beverages served at a small concession beside the pavilion.

“I’ve been coming here for since my grandmother brought me when I was 14 years old,” George Lewis of Westport said as he sat with his wife Mary Lou. One can envision one of the youngsters present saying the same thing to one of their grandchildren in years to come.

The live auction, presided over by Mr. Lopes, began after the second seating of diners. Proceeds from the auction help maintain the club’s upkeep. Many bidders on dozens of donated items purchase an item, then in the name of beloved relative who has passed away, give it right back to the auctioneer to sell again. Assisted by his son Mark Lopes of Fall River and Richie Medeiros of Westport, the auction went well into the afternoon.

“This is lots of fun, but it’s lots of work too,” Mr. Medeiros said as he cheerfully delivered auction items to winning bidders.

Events like this are the glue of ethnic communities. Portuguese-Americans from places like Fairhaven, Fall River, Assonet, New Bedford and several Rhode Island towns mixed with Westport residents who take pride in the ethnic diversity of the town.

You don’t have to wait till next year to enjoy hospitality at the Holy Ghost Club. The club hosts a dance every Saturday night and welcomes guests and potential new members.

+++++++++++++++++++
Sidebars:
Sopas: kale, cabbage, and onions are cooked in a stock made with soup bones, salt and pepper. The soup is poured over thick slices of day-old Portuguese bread. Boiled peeled potatoes are added into a family sized bowl and a sprig of fresh spearmint is laid on top.

Carne: chunks of roast beef (carne), tender after being marinated for hours in wine, spices, salt/pepper, onion, garlic, are served with the sopas.

Favas: fava beans, onions, ground chourico, crushed red pepper, garlic, oil, tomato sauce

Holy Ghost Club:
177 Sodom Road, Westport, MA
To become a member or to rent the club or grounds, call 508-636-3661.
The club hosts a dance every Saturday night, guests welcome.

Enos bus company, a family affair

Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Ask Crystal Enos about the Enos Bus Company on Pine Hill Road in Westport and her face will light up as she tells you about her dream business. As with the roads on which her vans operate, this story has some twists and turns.

The first turn came in 1996 when her co-worker of two years, a captain at the Dartmouth Fire Department, told her that his father needed another van driver for his company. Ms. Enos promptly earned a 7D van license and went to work for Albert J. Enos, Jr. Little did the boss know that he was hiring his future daughter-in-law. She married Joseph Enos, the youngest son of Albert and Ruthann Enos, in 2000. Over the next six years, her path would lead to taking over the business and starting a family.

Mr. Enos began his company with two buses in 1973, contracting with the Westport Public Schools to take children to and from school. By 1994, he decided to transport children with special needs and began purchasing specially equipped vans. By her second year on the job in 1997, Ms. Enos began transporting pre-schoolers. “My van was called the ‘Happy Van’ because I played nursery rhymes and kid’s music on it,” she remembers.

Ms. Enos may have had some sense of her eventual career destination. “In middle school, I helped with special needs kids for a year,” she says. “Later I worked in day care for a year and enjoyed working with little kids. I also learned sign language, which would have been useful to me when I was a fire fighter or now if I ever drive a van with a deaf child,” she said.

She had on the job training, as well. “I began to help my mother in law set the van schedules in September. The three business courses I took from Mr. Styan at Dartmouth High School really helped with that."

The Enos Bus Company’s riders are all children living in Westport who have instructional education plans (I.E.P.s) declaring their eligibility for transportation to schools in the region. For safety reasons, some student’s plans require that they be attended in the van by a monitor.

The company, contracted by the Westport School Department, drives students to schools in Middleboro, Taunton, Providence, Seekonk, Swansea, New Bedford, and Randolph. The vans are constantly in use since many of the children are involved in all year programs.

“We have to update every few years and will buy two new vans this year. We have to customize the vans. The roofs are cut off, roll bars are added and the seats are taken out so it can carry six passengers and two wheel chairs.” Ms Enos explained. The 7 D law limits a van to carry no more than eight passengers plus driver.

The children, ages ranging from 3 to 22 years old, might be autistic or have severe hearing or sight disabilities. At their 22nd birthday, they are no longer eligible for transportation through the school department.

2003 represented a crossroads for the whole Enos family. Albert Enos had retired, his wife Ruthann was ready step down to care for her husband, who had become ill, and Ms. Enos first son, Jordan. was born. “After talking it over with my husband, I asked to take the business over. My mother in law gave me the vans to start with, taught me how to do the payroll, and we went from there,” Ms. Enos said.

July marks the third anniversary of her decision and she hasn’t looked back. Her second son, Connor, was born last year. Her husband continues working as a trucker at the MBS Trucking hauling for Westport Sand and Gravel. The whole family is on wheels.

When Ms. Enos says she considers her eight drivers and five monitors like a family, it’s not just a figure of speech. Her husband Joe’s godparents, his godmother’s sister, his godfather’s sister, and Crystal Enos’s cousin are on the team. The niece of one of her drivers just became a driver. Several other drivers or bus monitors have known each other for years.

One thing they all have in common is the aptitude to work with these special kids. Some adults have driven or monitored the same children for years and talk about them as “my kids.”

The only sad note at the annual BBQ and clamboil that Ms. Enos throws for her employees was that two veteran drivers, Westport residents George Lewis (in June) and his wife Mary Lou (in November), are retiring. Mr. Lewis, a former employee of the Westport Highway Department, started driving in 1996, the same year Ms. Enos joined the company.

With Ms. Enos’s network of friends and relatives, she is sure to find drivers to replace the familiar faces that the area’s special needs children and their parents have come to be comfortable with over the years. “I want parents to know that if their child is eligible for transportation, we can transport them,” she says with a smile.

And, most likely, to make them members of her extended family.

Westport Friends Fabulous Book Sale

Friends fabulous book sale

Westport (MA) Friends Meeting House Book Sale
July 8, 2006
Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

It was a few minutes before 11 a.m. but to book lovers it was the ”high noon” of the bargain book season. As the seconds ticked toward the top of the hour, hundreds of bookslingers stood in the sun, eyeing thousands of hardcover and paperback books stacked on tables under two huge yellow and white tents set up in front of the Friends Meeting House on Main Road. At precisely 11 a.m., a whistle sounded and the crowd surged forward with measured determination, intent on carving several more notches on their book lists. The annual Book Sale at the Friends Meeting House was underway.

Armed with canvas bags and cardboard boxes, it seemed, as one participant said. “like a swarm of locusts had descended on the place.” It was not a good day to be claustrophobic. Shoulder to shoulder, fanny to fanny, they milled through the narrow spaces between book-laden tables with surprising patience. If the shopper beside you picked a book you had your eye on, another good choice would likely appear within arm’s reach.

Shopping styles varied. The confident zeroed in, grabbed a book and kept on trucking. The tentative lifted one out of the rows of neatly stacked books and held it indecisively, making a mental roll of the dice to decide whether to drop or drag.

Some consumers filled cartons, slipped outside the tent to deposit them under a tree, grabbed another carton, and dove back into one of the tents.

“Did you read this one?” Advice and recommendations, unsolicited or requested, flew about between readers in their twenties and those old enough to qualify as their grandparents. As the first hour’s frenzy calmed, scores of purchasers sat in the grass, sorting their treasures and eating taboulie and hot dogs or rewarding themselves with the home made brownies and peanut butter cookies on sale in the refreshment area.

“We’ll do 80%of our business this weekend,” Dartmouth Meeting member Kevin Lee said, as he cheerfully waded through the crowd distributing what he hawked as “designer bags”, which looked an awful lot like plastic and paper shopping bags, to people with armloads of books. By the time the dust settled after the two-week sale, he estimated five to six thousand people would haul away about 20,000 books.

The book sale has become the Westport Friends’ major fund-raiser. “It helps fund our various ministries for the homeless, peace missions, soup kitchens violence prevention programs and other initiatives of the American Friends Service Committees,” Mr. Lee, who has eighteen years of experience with the event, said.

“We’ve built shelves in one of the buildings behind the meeting house. Books are dropped off all year round and volunteers sort them twice a week all through the winter,” Mr. Lee explained.

Occasionally a book is like a box of crackerjacks and includes a surprise tucked inside the pages. “We’ve found five dollar bills, pressed flowers, recipes from grandma as we’ve sorted. We just leave them in the books,” Mr. Lee said.

Over the next two weeks, the mountain of books will diminish in size and remain under one of the tents. Browsers will amble in. If they purchase, they’ll find the price written inside the book and drop their money inside a coffee can. “Some books get recirculated so often year after year that we started marking the prices in pencil,” Mr. Lee said.

And some books get reread several times. “That’s the advantage of old age, you end up reading books you read long ago, forgot what they were about, and enjoy reading them all over again,” one veteran shopper was overheard saying to a fellow book lover.

With sentiments like this, it’s clear that the Friends Meeting House annual book sale will never run out of customers or titles.

Book categories of hardcover and paperback books
History, Science Fiction, Mystery, Novels. Literature, Religion, Philosophy, Sociology, Art, Photography, Gardening, Hobbies, Crafts Music, Boating, Cooking, Travel, Foreign Languages, Sports, Biography, Coffee Table Books, Children’s Books

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

July 10, 2006 in Books, Commentaries | Permalink

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Westport (MA) Friends Meeting House Book Sale
July 8, 2006
Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

It was a few minutes before 11 a.m. but to book lovers it was the ”high noon” of the bargain book season. As the seconds ticked toward the top of the hour, hundreds of bookslingers stood in the sun, eyeing thousands of hardcover and paperback books stacked on tables under two huge yellow and white tents set up in front of the Friends Meeting House on Main Road. At precisely 11 a.m., a whistle sounded and the crowd surged forward with measured determination, intent on carving several more notches on their book lists. The annual Book Sale at the Friends Meeting House was underway.

Armed with canvas bags and cardboard boxes, it seemed, as one participant said. “like a swarm of locusts had descended on the place.” It was not a good day to be claustrophobic. Shoulder to shoulder, fanny to fanny, they milled through the narrow spaces between book-laden tables with surprising patience. If the shopper beside you picked a book you had your eye on, another good choice would likely appear within arm’s reach.

Shopping styles varied. The confident zeroed in, grabbed a book and kept on trucking. The tentative lifted one out of the rows of neatly stacked books and held it indecisively, making a mental roll of the dice to decide whether to drop or drag.

Some consumers filled cartons, slipped outside the tent to deposit them under a tree, grabbed another carton, and dove back into one of the tents.

“Did you read this one?” Advice and recommendations, unsolicited or requested, flew about between readers in their twenties and those old enough to qualify as their grandparents. As the first hour’s frenzy calmed, scores of purchasers sat in the grass, sorting their treasures and eating taboulie and hot dogs or rewarding themselves with the home made brownies and peanut butter cookies on sale in the refreshment area.

“We’ll do 80%of our business this weekend,” Dartmouth Meeting member Kevin Lee said, as he cheerfully waded through the crowd distributing what he hawked as “designer bags”, which looked an awful lot like plastic and paper shopping bags, to people with armloads of books. By the time the dust settled after the two-week sale, he estimated five to six thousand people would haul away about 20,000 books.

The book sale has become the Westport Friends’ major fund-raiser. “It helps fund our various ministries for the homeless, peace missions, soup kitchens violence prevention programs and other initiatives of the American Friends Service Committees,” Mr. Lee, who has eighteen years of experience with the event, said.

“We’ve built shelves in one of the buildings behind the meeting house. Books are dropped off all year round and volunteers sort them twice a week all through the winter,” Mr. Lee explained.

Occasionally a book is like a box of crackerjacks and includes a surprise tucked inside the pages. “We’ve found five dollar bills, pressed flowers, recipes from grandma as we’ve sorted. We just leave them in the books,” Mr. Lee said.

Over the next two weeks, the mountain of books will diminish in size and remain under one of the tents. Browsers will amble in. If they purchase, they’ll find the price written inside the book and drop their money inside a coffee can. “Some books get recirculated so often year after year that we started marking the prices in pencil,” Mr. Lee said.

And some books get reread several times. “That’s the advantage of old age, you end up reading books you read long ago, forgot what they were about, and enjoy reading them all over again,” one veteran shopper was overheard saying to a fellow book lover.

With sentiments like this, it’s clear that the Friends Meeting House annual book sale will never run out of customers or titles.

Book categories of hardcover and paperback books
History, Science Fiction, Mystery, Novels. Literature, Religion, Philosophy, Sociology, Art, Photography, Gardening, Hobbies, Crafts Music, Boating, Cooking, Travel, Foreign Languages, Sports, Biography, Coffee Table Books, Children’s Books

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Friends fabulous book sale

Westport (MA) Friends Meeting House Book Sale
July 8, 2006
Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

It was a few minutes before 11 a.m. but to book lovers it was the ”high noon” of the bargain book season. As the seconds ticked toward the top of the hour, hundreds of bookslingers stood in the sun, eyeing thousands of hardcover and paperback books stacked on tables under two huge yellow and white tents set up in front of the Friends Meeting House on Main Road. At precisely 11 a.m., a whistle sounded and the crowd surged forward with measured determination, intent on carving several more notches on their book lists. The annual Book Sale at the Friends Meeting House was underway.

Armed with canvas bags and cardboard boxes, it seemed, as one participant said. “like a swarm of locusts had descended on the place.” It was not a good day to be claustrophobic. Shoulder to shoulder, fanny to fanny, they milled through the narrow spaces between book-laden tables with surprising patience. If the shopper beside you picked a book you had your eye on, another good choice would likely appear within arm’s reach.

Shopping styles varied. The confident zeroed in, grabbed a book and kept on trucking. The tentative lifted one out of the rows of neatly stacked books and held it indecisively, making a mental roll of the dice to decide whether to drop or drag.

Some consumers filled cartons, slipped outside the tent to deposit them under a tree, grabbed another carton, and dove back into one of the tents.

“Did you read this one?” Advice and recommendations, unsolicited or requested, flew about between readers in their twenties and those old enough to qualify as their grandparents. As the first hour’s frenzy calmed, scores of purchasers sat in the grass, sorting their treasures and eating taboulie and hot dogs or rewarding themselves with the home made brownies and peanut butter cookies on sale in the refreshment area.

“We’ll do 80%of our business this weekend,” Dartmouth Meeting member Kevin Lee said, as he cheerfully waded through the crowd distributing what he hawked as “designer bags”, which looked an awful lot like plastic and paper shopping bags, to people with armloads of books. By the time the dust settled after the two-week sale, he estimated five to six thousand people would haul away about 20,000 books.

The book sale has become the Westport Friends’ major fund-raiser. “It helps fund our various ministries for the homeless, peace missions, soup kitchens violence prevention programs and other initiatives of the American Friends Service Committees,” Mr. Lee, who has eighteen years of experience with the event, said.

“We’ve built shelves in one of the buildings behind the meeting house. Books are dropped off all year round and volunteers sort them twice a week all through the winter,” Mr. Lee explained.

Occasionally a book is like a box of crackerjacks and includes a surprise tucked inside the pages. “We’ve found five dollar bills, pressed flowers, recipes from grandma as we’ve sorted. We just leave them in the books,” Mr. Lee said.

Over the next two weeks, the mountain of books will diminish in size and remain under one of the tents. Browsers will amble in. If they purchase, they’ll find the price written inside the book and drop their money inside a coffee can. “Some books get recirculated so often year after year that we started marking the prices in pencil,” Mr. Lee said.

And some books get reread several times. “That’s the advantage of old age, you end up reading books you read long ago, forgot what they were about, and enjoy reading them all over again,” one veteran shopper was overheard saying to a fellow book lover.

With sentiments like this, it’s clear that the Friends Meeting House annual book sale will never run out of customers or titles.

Book categories of hardcover and paperback books
History, Science Fiction, Mystery, Novels. Literature, Religion, Philosophy, Sociology, Art, Photography, Gardening, Hobbies, Crafts Music, Boating, Cooking, Travel, Foreign Languages, Sports, Biography, Coffee Table Books, Children’s Books

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Friends fabulous book sale

Westport (MA) Friends Meeting House Book Sale
July 8, 2006
Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

It was a few minutes before 11 a.m. but to book lovers it was the ”high noon” of the bargain book season. As the seconds ticked toward the top of the hour, hundreds of bookslingers stood in the sun, eyeing thousands of hardcover and paperback books stacked on tables under two huge yellow and white tents set up in front of the Friends Meeting House on Main Road. At precisely 11 a.m., a whistle sounded and the crowd surged forward with measured determination, intent on carving several more notches on their book lists. The annual Book Sale at the Friends Meeting House was underway.

Armed with canvas bags and cardboard boxes, it seemed, as one participant said. “like a swarm of locusts had descended on the place.” It was not a good day to be claustrophobic. Shoulder to shoulder, fanny to fanny, they milled through the narrow spaces between book-laden tables with surprising patience. If the shopper beside you picked a book you had your eye on, another good choice would likely appear within arm’s reach.

Shopping styles varied. The confident zeroed in, grabbed a book and kept on trucking. The tentative lifted one out of the rows of neatly stacked books and held it indecisively, making a mental roll of the dice to decide whether to drop or drag.

Some consumers filled cartons, slipped outside the tent to deposit them under a tree, grabbed another carton, and dove back into one of the tents.

“Did you read this one?” Advice and recommendations, unsolicited or requested, flew about between readers in their twenties and those old enough to qualify as their grandparents. As the first hour’s frenzy calmed, scores of purchasers sat in the grass, sorting their treasures and eating taboulie and hot dogs or rewarding themselves with the home made brownies and peanut butter cookies on sale in the refreshment area.

“We’ll do 80%of our business this weekend,” Dartmouth Meeting member Kevin Lee said, as he cheerfully waded through the crowd distributing what he hawked as “designer bags”, which looked an awful lot like plastic and paper shopping bags, to people with armloads of books. By the time the dust settled after the two-week sale, he estimated five to six thousand people would haul away about 20,000 books.

The book sale has become the Westport Friends’ major fund-raiser. “It helps fund our various ministries for the homeless, peace missions, soup kitchens violence prevention programs and other initiatives of the American Friends Service Committees,” Mr. Lee, who has eighteen years of experience with the event, said.

“We’ve built shelves in one of the buildings behind the meeting house. Books are dropped off all year round and volunteers sort them twice a week all through the winter,” Mr. Lee explained.

Occasionally a book is like a box of crackerjacks and includes a surprise tucked inside the pages. “We’ve found five dollar bills, pressed flowers, recipes from grandma as we’ve sorted. We just leave them in the books,” Mr. Lee said.

Over the next two weeks, the mountain of books will diminish in size and remain under one of the tents. Browsers will amble in. If they purchase, they’ll find the price written inside the book and drop their money inside a coffee can. “Some books get recirculated so often year after year that we started marking the prices in pencil,” Mr. Lee said.

And some books get reread several times. “That’s the advantage of old age, you end up reading books you read long ago, forgot what they were about, and enjoy reading them all over again,” one veteran shopper was overheard saying to a fellow book lover.

With sentiments like this, it’s clear that the Friends Meeting House annual book sale will never run out of customers or titles.

Book categories of hardcover and paperback books
History, Science Fiction, Mystery, Novels. Literature, Religion, Philosophy, Sociology, Art, Photography, Gardening, Hobbies, Crafts Music, Boating, Cooking, Travel, Foreign Languages, Sports, Biography, Coffee Table Books, Children’s Books

Café on the Common, relax in retro atmosphere

Café on the Common
677 Main Street, corner of Moody Street and Main
Waltham, MA
781-647-2456
Monday - Friday 7 a.m. - 6 p.m. Saturday - Sunday 8 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Some guys will do anything for a really good cup of coffee. Like open their own café that would serve a brew that embodies their own definition of “good”.

When Stephen Kimberk’s first forays into downtown Waltham for his morning jolt of caffeine ended with disappointment, he attempted to lure well-known franchises to occupy a prime space at the corner of Main and Moody in Waltham. After they demurred, and another developer started to build a café there then abandoned the job mid-perk, Kimberk’s own ambition came to a rolling boil. An architect and building restorer by profession, his office just happens to be on the second floor of the building. He decided that his coffee commute would be a one minute walk down one flight of stairs.

The result is his spacious slightly retro Café on the Common. With its polished granite floors, high ceilings, art deco lighting fixtures, and wooden wainscoting, all in muted shades of dove gray, the establishment has a decidedly 1920s look to it. Informal, certainly, but thrown together nonchalantly, no, The brown and gray granite round tabletops on the claw foot pedestals match the mocha and gray wicker chairs. Once settled, the hungry or thirsty pilgrim can witness the bustle and traffic outside through plate glass windows on the front and side walls.

A large table strewn with the daily papers just inside the front door is practically a “C’mon in and take a load off” shout to the first-time visitor. During pt at large’s lunch visit, one fellow finished reading three sections of the Boston Globe plus the sports section of the Boston Herald. There’s no sense of urgency inside this little island of tranquility. That in and of itself is a reason to visit this little time-warp of a place.

One patron I chatted up praised the homemade soups - “Fabulous!” - and salads - “ “They’re up to the second fresh, made on the spot with all the stuff I love. If I’ve got to let it sit when I get to my office two blocks away, it still tastes fresh an hour later!”

Ahh, yes, I did go there with a friend who knows Waltham and recognized a good oasis when she sees one, The sandwiches are served on “Iggy’s Bread of the World.” The selection of Iggy’s croissants, sticky buns, and bagels looked appealing. The soup of the day ($4.25) was Swiss chard with potato and lentil, the quiche of the day ($3.50) Broccoli, both made on the premises.

The sandwich menu includes sandwiches ($6.25) of turkey, ham, or chicken with choice of toppings, spreads, and cheeses. Rollups feature wraps of white, whole wheat, pesto, tomato, and spinach. A Caesar wrap goes for $5.25, a chicken wrap $6.25, a veggie wrap $6.25. pt’s choice today was a chicken panini, with provolone tomato, mesclin, and pesto spread. The panini’s outside, bearing the browned geometric marks of the griddle press, was crunchy while the inside coalesced into one warm. moist, taste sensation. I just love a good panini. That one qualifies. My lunch companion had chicken salad on a chewy French roll, which she declared was “tasty, fresh.”

Being a fussy guy, Mr. Kimberk wasn’t going to settle for his coffee. After trying several suppliers, the man with the yen for a good cuppa java settled on Dean’s Beans, a socially conscious, organic fair-trade coffee roasting company. Good choice.

All it takes to make pt at large happy is coffee with full body, emitting that utterly swoony just-brewed aroma, with a little light cream and one sugar. The Moka Sumatra medium body blend was just that. The Birdwatchers Blend and the Ring of Fire Blend are the two ends of the power spectrum, you can probably figure out which one you’d want when you need a Herculean jolt. The café’s coffee choices include fresh ground java in mild, medium, and dark roast blends and standard espresso, latte, and cappuccino.

So there you have it. The place is worth the trip for coffee, tea (many choices), and light fare to slake thirsts and appetites.

Recently, Mr. Kimberk got a hankering for a really good ice cream - and didn’t feel like walking too far to find it. Yep, you guessed it. Coming next week, right next door to Café on the Common, Sebastian’s Home Made Ice Cream and Real Fruit Sorbet.

Massachusetts Magnolias major in dance hall music

Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

To some, the word "magnolia" conjures up an image of the fragrant ornamental trees that flourish along the Gulf Coast. For dance enthusiasts of the southeast coast of Massachusetts, the word summons up the sound of the Magnolia Cajun Band, a seven piece group whose music has been thrilling Cajun music fans from Nova Scotia to Louisiana for almost sixteen years. They’re one of the feature bands playing at the Westport Art Council’s “Come Out and Play in Central Village” event at the Town Hall Annex on July 8.

The band’s roots trace back to a small lane off Drift Road in Westport,MA, where Chris Ash and her husband Dan George moved in 1985. Chris discovered that Maggie Moniz, another new arrival to the lane, was a guitar player and fellow music lover. Before you could say Woody Guthrie, Chris broke out her own guitar and the two began playing favorite folk songs, bluegrass, and gospel music.

Ash and Moniz were serious enough to form a “girl band” and played locally. Before long, Maggie’s husband Richie Moniz, a fine singer and a natural presence on stage, began to appear with them. It is quite a sight to behold the burly Moniz by playing his teensy triangle and the washboard. By that time, Ash had begun playing the fiddle, a birthday present from her husband. It was a case of love at first sound. “I heard this fiddle music on the radio and thought , I’ve got to play this music. It speaks right to my heart,” she recalls.

The inspiration to play Cajun music was one of those random events that unalterably change one’s life. “You’ve gotta hear this music,” a friend exclaimed to the three of them and packed them in his van headed for the annual Labor Day Cajun and Bluegrass Festival in western Rhode Island. The music pinned their ears back, seized their hearts, and by 1990 they began to play it.

“Soon after, people who danced like crazy at the festival then had to wait whole year to dance again to live music recruited us to play for them. They didn’t mind that we were just learning the music.” Chris Ash said.

Between 1990 and 1996, the Magnolia Cajun Band began a growth spurt. First, Rhode Islanders Alan Bradbury, accordion, and Michele Kaminsky, fiddle, joined the group. Next, Martin Grosswendt, bass, and Jack Ezkovich, drums, who both had a loyal Dartmouth following in a country/western band called the OK Corral, joined.

“We’re like a family by now,” Ash says, “We travel together, cook and eat great food together, and have a lot of fun.”

Learning the traditions of Cajun music is part of the fun. If a Cajun band from Louisiana plays within driving distance, you’ ll find members of Magnolia backstage after a concert picking the brains of the old time musicians. They’ve even visited their role models at their Louisiana homes, literally sitting at the feet of the masters to learn the nuances of the music and traditions.

And then there’s summer camp at the Augusta Heritage Center in Virginia. The Magnolias learn the finer points of playing their instruments, the history of their music, and have the joy of playing with new and experienced musicians.

“In the week we were there, I took classes in Cajun culture and language,” Maggie Moniz said. “My ancestors are from Nova Scotia and Quebec and I wanted to learn about the Cajun French language. “

The mentors, the camps, and the practice pay off. “Our early music sounded like nice folk music. When we listened to our latest CD. we thought, wow, we’ve come a long way,” Ms. Moniz said.

Acadian music and culture had original roots in the maritime provinces of Canada as French settlers migrated there in the 1600s. In a time of political upheaval between Britain and France in the 1700s, the French were harshly driven out of Canada. Over time, many of these French-Canadians, called Acadians, found a place to start over within the French speaking regions of rural southwest Louisiana. Music became the vehicle for the Acadians to express the sentiments of loss and separation brought about by the experience of being wrenched from their homes. “’Cajun”, short for Acadian, music was born. Over time, the music became a Louisiana “gumbo” and reflected the German, Native American, and African-American cultures that lived in the region.

“We play dance hall music, mostly two step and waltzes,” explains Ash.

“Our music’s got drive, it lifts you off your chair gets you on your feet,” Richie Moniz adds.

When the Magnolia Cajun Band fires up its two fiddles, accordion, guitar, triangle/washboard, bass and drums for the “Come out and Play” concert, it will be the Northern equivalent of a good ‘ol Cajun “fais do do,” a concert for all ages.

“Today if you go a restaurant with a live band in the Cajun area of southwest Louisiana you’ll see all ages of dancing with one another, 8 year old kids dancing two-step with their mother or grandfather or with each other. Everyone knows how to two-step and waltz. It’s part of the culture, ” Ash said.

You don’t have to schedule a lesson with Arthur Murray to learn the basic two-step. If you think you can take two steps to the right, pause, take two steps to the left, pause, and do it to the beat of the music, you’ve got the makings of a two-step beginner.

When they play between 8 and 9 PM next Saturday, The Magnolia Cajun Band hopes to see an inter-generational crowd stepping out to their music.

“When you play for your own town it’s a bonus,” Richie Moniz says. “You perform for people you know on first name basis and you can show them the musician and the singer side of you as well as, in my case, the guy who’s run Thad’s Auto Salvage in all my life.”

There’s another bonus. “The last song we play at the end of each concert is ‘There’s no place like home.’ That will have special meaning to Maggie, Chris and me at the Westport concert next week. We will truly be home,” Mr. Moniz said.

Southeast Massachusetts has been fertile ground for the Magnolia Cajun Band to flourish. Their concerts on the first Saturday of the month in Seekonk attract dancers from New York to Maine. Some of the dancers have been coming since they began in 1990.

“Playing for dancers has a wonderful energy to it. The better we play, the more fun the dancers have, the more fun the dancers have the more adventuresome we get in our playing,” says Ash.

It wouldn’t be surprising to find some new converts arriving from Westport when The Magnolia Cajun Band resumes their concerts in Seekonk in September.