SewaneeLetters.com

Mary Priestly’s weekly hikes are one of the highlights of the summer term. Pictured here is the group she led to find the local oddity known as “the H tree.”

Two June items that may be of interest to SOL folks:

Porch/Party Jam @ Pete’s 1431 Roark’s Cove Road, Sewanee, TN - Saturday June 19, 2010 is the next porch party / jam, the fourth of the oh-ten season. This time it will be some kind of kielbasa or other link sausage product & some potatoes. Start time is 5ish & if you need something other than sausage or potatoes, bring it. As always, if you are musical, bring it on. A bonfire is planned.

I also have a botanist friend who is planning a hike into the Walls of Jericho area on Sunday 6/27/10 - probably start about 9:30ish

–Peter Trenchi

Ready or not, here come the end-of-term recaps. Last night at Shenanigans, Christine and Mary Ann started a round of “best of” questions, including “What’s one thing you learned this summer?” to “Tensest moments in the classroom.” I took notes. Here are the gathered participants’ response to “Favorite thing you read this semester:”

Everett: Black Thunder by Arna Bontemps
Jason: The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
Mary Ann: The Hunters by Claire Messud
Christine: Edisto by Padgett Powell
    (runner up was Tall Tales from The Mekong Delta by Kate Braverman)
Hannah: Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace
Josh and Doug: Twirling at Ole Miss by Terry Southern
Pete: Archibald MacLeish’s Fortune Magazine features from 1938
Rachel: wishes for sons by Lucille Clifton
Fran: poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins
Jimmy: The Table of Contents for Michael Griffith’s forthcoming novel

Any other favorite readings you’d like to share?

(We do our best thinking at Shenanigans. Here’s the Creative Nonfiction class, hard at work.)

Jimmy’s Facebook photo album contains some gems from last weekend’s 4th of July parade and festivities. Here’s a few highlights of the action:

Here’s a few snapshots from our dinner party last Thursday night…

For the next 2 weeks, there are some great artists and guest lecturers appearing just down the road at the Shakerag Workshops. Harrell Fletcher is leading a workshop on Art + Social Practice. I’m hoping to catch Andrew Wagner, editor-in-chief of ReadyMade magazine and founding manager of Dwell, at 7:30pm on June 24. Anyone want to carpool?

Jimmy’s legacy: The SoL 4th of July Parade Float. You can email him for details, or leave a comment here.

The Fourth of July in Sewanee is practically unrivaled, as many of you veterans can attest. The day starts early with an old-school flag-raising and town breakfast, hits its stride mid-day with pet contests and a parade through town, and culminates with a fireworks celebration after sunset.

Last year, a gaggle of SOL students organized an ad hoc entry in the parade (anyone with a smile can participate), and we had a blast decorating a couple trucks, and tossing candy and necklaces to the kids
lining the street.

THIS year, I’d like to do more planning on the front end to make our “float” even better, and that’s where your help is appreciated. First, if any of you (I’m looking specifically at our New Orleans native Brendan Minihan) have bags of trinkets, like, say, Mardi Gras beads, PLEASE consider bringing them for us to throw. Same goes for any candy (un-meltable preferred!) you have lying around. Secondly, please toss out some creative theme/decoration ideas, both for a float and ourselves. I plan to procure a large trailer from a buddy in Chattanooga for the day, so we’ll have plenty of room. Finally, please consider budgeting a $5-$10 donation for us to afford all the necessary accoutrements.

From Sewanee local and SOL vet Pete Trenchi:

The next porch party / jam is set for Saturday, June 20, 2009 starting at 5ish ish - which means you can come earlier, esp. if you need kitchen facilities to prepare that which you are bringing to supplement the - 5
(five, count ‘em) beer can chickens and mess of cheap hamburgers that I will provide. Also - a free beer to anyone who can identify the make model and year of every car I have. Hint, you must find them all first.
If the above food plus spring based tap water doesn’t meet your needs (entirely) you should bring it with you. If you are musical bring it on.

Directions: take University Ave (as if you were going to the Sewanee Inn) to turn left onto Texas Avenue.  Take Texas Ave past the Fowler center & to the football field (equal to maybe 3 blocks or perhaps 1/4 mile) & turn right onto Roarks Cove Road (directly across from the football field - which is surrounded by stone pillars, one of which Abbot hit back when he used to live in the house where Meg lives. That put and end to Abbot driving his 1957 (Confederate Gray) Chevy pickup truck around town terrorizing pedestrians. Yeah, I know, back to the directions, but if Prunty can have Abbot flashbacks, so can I). Once you have turned right, go 1.4 miles (to 1431 Roarks Cove - okay, 1.43 miles if you are into precision address matching) & look for the slightly obscured sign & driveway immediately before the pond & willow trees (one of which just died, @#$%^ global warming). If you overshoot the drive, or just want the convenience of overflow parking, you can pull in below the pond, park there & walk up. You will have passed Old Mine Road on your left and Junk Lane on your right just before you get to my place.