I Found Wilson Pickett

I was going to do a post on Wilson Pickett's breakthrough 1965 hit, In The Midnight Hour, co-written with Steve Cropper, guitarist with the Stax house band (aka Booker T and the MGs), at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, the location where Martin Luther King Jr would be assassinated three years later.  When I discovered that Cropper was inspired to come up with the title from the lyric of the 1962 single I Found A Love by The Falcons, with their lead singer Wilson Pickett(!), I decided to go with the lesser-known song.  Here it is:

Nice Getaway

Looking for a quiet, unique, and little known spot for a getaway?  Kate and Greg Barrington are happy to welcome you to Forrest, Australia where they have six lovely cottages ready and waiting for you.  Just go here for info on contacting the caretakers.

A couple of things you should know before making your reservation.  Forrest is in the State of Western Australia near its border with South Australia.  It's in the middle of the Nullarbor Plain, the almost treeless, flat, 77,000  square mile area, containing the world's largest formation of exposed limestone bedrock.  However, it is conveniently located along the line of the Trans-Australian Railroad; in fact it's on the stretch of the railroad which is the longest straight track anywhere in the world - 297 miles!  Unfortunately, the trains no longer regularly stop there.  But don't let that discourage you; if you have a sturdy 4-wheel drive vehicle you can reach it by a 68 mile drive along a dirt road.  And, best of all, there's an airstrip there; used for aircraft having emergencies, but I'm sure they'd let your private plane land there if you're a pilot.

For more on Forrest and the Barrington, watch The Big Wait on Vimeo.

The Lion's Mound

Unlike the WW1 battlefields we visited in September, where the battles lasted for months over areas covering 100 to 500 square miles, Waterloo, which we saw on the last day of our trip, happened on one day, June 18, 1815.  Though it was only one day, it was bloody, with 45-50,000 men killed or wounded, twice the toll of Antietam, the worst single day of America's Civil War.

Today, it is peaceful.  But for the occasional monument and the two fortified farms on the flanks that still exist, Le Haye Sainte (privately owned) and Hougomont (open to the public), it is mostly open farm land (see this panorama from Wikipedia).

The very well done museum is underground and behind the main English/Dutch battle line.  And then there is the Lion's Mound, the artificial hill, located at the center of the British position, constructed at the order of King William I of the Netherlands between 1820 and 1826.  It rises 141 feet above the surrounding surface, with 226 steps to climb to the top.  Unfortunately, its construction caused the topography to be dramatically changed, a change the Duke of Wellington found most distressing when he returned in 1828.

We did make the trek up and down the Lion's Mound.

 

 

 

Ruggles Of Red Gap

On the 162nd anniversary of Lincoln's speech at the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, here's Charles Laughton's recitation of the Address from the 1935 film, Ruggles of Red Gap, a clip I've posted before.  Laughton plays an English butler, Marmaduke Ruggles, won by an American in a poker game, who comes to the States and discovers a new way of life, ultimately deciding to make his way on his own.

Trenches

From our WWI battlefield tour in September.  Three sets of photos of the trenches in which so many soldiers spent months.

The first is at Ypres and are a small section of actual trenches preserved since the war.

The second is a reconstructed section of trench (which includes some materials used during the war) at the WW1 in Ypres.

The third from our visit to the Butte de Vauquois.

Preserved trenches at Ypres

 

Reconstructed trenches at Ypres

 

(The ceiling ribs are from actual trenches.  You can see damage from shell fragments.)

Preserved trenches at Butte de Vauquois  

 

The Wursthaus

Old School Boston has the best photos of Boston from the "old days".  I lived in the Boston area from 1973 through 1992, so I guess that's now the old days.

The Wursthaus - Harvard Square, 1917- 1996. @Historicimage pic.twitter.com/rJIWnHZBCH

— Old School Boston (@OldSchoolBoston) November 16, 2024

 

The Wursthaus was just outside of Harvard Square.  The food was heavy German and not that good but in the 70s it was the only place you could find that offered a large selection of foreign beers and that was enough for us.  It closed in 1996, after almost eighty years at that location.

Less than 100 feet down the street and down some stairs was Jonathan Swift's, a club that featured the best in local New England music acts, including NRBQ, the Pousette-Dart Band, and the Estes Boys' in which one of my roommates played pedal steel (later, for several years, he played pedal steel with Mickey Gilley's Urban Cowboy Band).  It's also where I sat having beers with Red Sox pitcher Bill Lee as he hilariously described the debacle of the 1978 season.  Swift's closed in 1986.

For my memories of one of the great Boston area eateries of the 70s read Rita's Place.