Tunes for the Tillerman

        We were at a birthday gathering for a friend last night, and one of the gifts he received was a vinyl copy of Tapestry by Carol King. Tapestry reminds me of Tea for the Tillerman and the summer of ’71 in Chautauqua. Carol King and Cat Stevens were the two albums the girls in my dorm played the most, and I loved the songs – they made the sunny summer in a beautiful location with a crappy job all the richer!

 Thinking of music during the summer of my second Chautauqua brings back memories of Jay the Potman. He was called the Potman for two reasons – first, his job at the Cary Hotel was to scrub the pots and pans from the kitchen. When the last of the dishwashers and waitstaff were clocking out for the evening, Jay the Potman was still scouring away at the sink in the breezeway between the kitchen and the employee dining room. He was also called Potman because of the obvious double meaning of Jay.

 Jay the Potman bought a stereo system with his first couple of paychecks – it might have even been three or four paychecks – I don’t think two would have paid for the system. People tried to talk him out of it, especially the adults. They said his parents would be ticked when they found out. He did it anyway and enjoyed playing his stereo, his very own stereo, until the end of August when he then realized that yes indeed, his parents were going to be really ticked at him for spending a good chunk of his summer earnings on a music system. Jay packed up the stereo and returned it to the store. People tried to talk him out of it, even a few adults.  But he had to experience it for himself – the store would not take it back. Jay was stuck doing some major explaining to his parents.

        Jay the Potman reminds me that there were two other guys named Jay – three total – working at the Cary Hotel that summer. That’s a lot of Jays! One was very tall and had the good looks that one would ascribe, more in those days than in today’s modern America, to the All-American boy. My only other memory of him is of the night we were partying in one of the dorms and Jay let us take a picture of him smiling and holding a marijuana joint – good thing it was just an old fashioned camera with old fashioned film – nowadays with the Internet, the picture would haunt him forever – but then again, the Jays of today’s world hopefully know better.

        The third Jay working at the hotel that summer was a little shorter and not quite as attractive as the All-American Jay. I forget what his job was, but the very first day of working there, he struck up a conversation with me and led me to believe he might be interested in me! Oh my! Then Jay invited me to a gathering he and his friends were having after work that night. Well wasn’t I feeling good! Someone had flattered me into hanging out with him and his friends that night!

        When I got to the gathering place I was surprised first of all to see many of my other female co-workers from the Cary Hotel were standing there with me, but I got the bigger shock when it became apparent that the gathering was a group of evangelical Christians – who we referred to at the time as Jesus Freaks. I was so mad at being duped – which was really my own fault – that I did not speak to Jesus Freak Jay for the rest of the summer.

        Which was unfortunate, because at the end of my Chautauqua time that August, someone said that he really wasn’t such a bad guy after all.

        Pride is totally more damning than the Internet.

        That next Christmas, I gave my brother, Eric, a copy of Tapestry by Carol King, and my brother, Clark, a copy of Tea for the Tillerman by Cat Stevens. These were of course vinyl albums, 1971 being an era before all the other forms of media became available. By giving my brothers these albums, which I was sure they had not heard of, I wanted to share with them something I felt was really special.

        About five Christmases ago, I gave Eric a CD of Tapestry and Clark a CD of Tea for the Tillerman – I thought after all these years, they might not be playing albums anymore and these were still so dear to me. Since then Eric says he does play albums all the time, and as evidenced by last night's birthday party, albums are back in fashion.

 A few Christmases ago I gave Mike a CD of Tea for the Tillerman – I think I play it more often than he does. But then again, it means so much more to me.

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