Chautauqua 1 - Just Dropped In

      A Kenny Rogers song came on the jukebox one morning recently when Mike and I were out for breakfast. I bounced along to the tune and almost said to Mike, “this is my favorite Kenny Rogers song!” But I stopped before uttering because I realized that I say that about almost every Kenny Rogers song I hear – This one was The Gambler – it tells a great story. But then, there's Lucille which is so much fun to sing along with; and the one about the little boy and the baseball, I Am the Greatest– so sweet! - And then there's Ruby – don't take your love to town. And thinking of Ruby takes me all the way back to when Kenny Rogers was in a singing group called The First Edition and the hit song Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Is In).

     I heard that song live! I actually saw Kenny Rogers and the First Edition! Ah, the memories that concert stirs up!

     The summer between my junior and senior years of high school, 1970, I worked for 8 weeks about an hour and a half from home at a place called Chautauqua. You may have heard of a Chautauqua? – well this is where the word came from. On Lake Chautauqua in southwestern New York, there is a gated area filled with hotels, summer cottages, parks, churches, the beach, a theater, an amphitheater, facilities for lectures, classrooms, lessons, and cabins for the practicing of musical instruments. It is a realm for summer living and also a realm for the arts, religion, education, politics, etc.

     So what the heck was I doing there? I was a lowly dishwasher in one of the smaller hotels, living in a dorm adjacent to the kitchen. The kitchen staff worked all three meals every day. We had free time between the meals, and one day off a week – different days for each of us – there was one person whose job was to fill in for others' day off.

     There is so much that I could say about Chautauqua and the time I spent there (I also worked there the summer of '71 – after high school graduation) but I could not do justice to the awesomeness of it all, nor could I be honest enough in talking of its splendor because I was not appreciative enough of it at the time. These days one dream of mine is to start a Southern Chautauqua – and come full circle from those high school days.

     There were stage shows once a week in the theater. I remember seeing Camelot and The King and I. There were ballets – and ballet classes – I did not partake in any of those. The opera was once a week – I saw Pagliacci – the best opera ever. Political lectures were advertised and orated in the parks – I never attended any of these.

     However, I did listen to the occasional guitar player on a park bench – but only if there were not a lot of other silly girls already standing around gushing over him.

     And several evenings a week there were stars at the amphitheater. One evening Kenny Rogers and the First Edition took the stage. They sang all their songs which were familiar to me from the radio, including their most popular Just Dropped In To See What Condition My Condition Is In. Live music is so thrilling – and seeing and hearing a famous band was very exciting! I can close my eyes and be right back at that amphitheater, on the lawn, hearing the songs. Since then Kenny moved onward and upward – jettisoned to super-stardom – the concert of 1970 is long ago and far away – and still, my favorite Kenny Rogers song is the one I heard him sing live back in those Chautauqua days!

47 20150216 Chautauqua Part 1 - Just Dropped In