Matewan Massacre Re-enactment 2024

Attending the Massacre re-enactment has been on my bucket list for a few years.  Since retiring I have managed a World Science Fiction Convention (Dubblin 2019) and the Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival (2022).  Up next are the Mother Jones Festival in Cork (2025?) and the Cumberland BC Miners Festival, especially Ginger Goodwin Day (2026?).

 

Turns out it really isn't, thankfully, a re-enactment. It's a play with lots of segments (soliloquies???) in which a character addresses the audience and provides explication of what's going on or background to the character or events. Written, directed and organized by a local woman with an interest in the area's history.  Miss Donna is how she is referred-to.

 

Hugely enjoyable and very well-done (writing and performance), my buddy, a retired union in-house solicitor, and I went to both shows. The second show a bit of a disappointment only because it lost a scene and some other bits as the event before it ran long. 

 

Mebbe 110 in the bleachers for the first show and 200 the second.

 

Sociologically interesting too. The mix of proud Hillbilly culture, fundie Christianity, and, I have to say it, cringy USian patriotism with a dollop of Trumpism all rolled-up in a ball with a very powerful local union culture was very, very interesting to experience.

 

But as Gavin, my travelling buddy has noted, there wasn't a lot, other than two of the soliloquies, if that's what they are, in the play and one display re. a relatively recent West Virginia teachers strike in the Mine Wars Museum, connecting the historic struggles by local unions with what's happening in the present.

There also wasn't a big UMWA presence at the re-enactment.  Mebbe twenty retirees, one of whom stood and shouted "God bless the United Mine Workers of America" when the play ended.

 

The Mine Wars Museum small but lovely and growing. Great to see a union making a commitment like that to its history.  Plus it gets funding from foundations etc. for things like oral history projects and a 'Black Music of the Hollers' project that is currently under way.

 

The town (village really, pop. 394) interesting in a bunch of ways.

 

Altogether I would highly recommend all of it save for the 11 hours drive getting there and the 13 hours back.

 

Here's a few stills and some video samples of the play:

https://www.flickr.com/.../dbla.../albums/72177720317158684/

 

Here's my entire photoset, categorized in albums but not yet really edited:

https://www.flickr.com/.../collections/72157722809936707/

 

Random thoughts and musings:

 

1.    Guns, guns, guns.  58% of the population of the state of West Virginia owns a firearm.  58% of the entire population, including children.  Pay $75 and you get a permit to carry a weapon in public, openly or hidden.

2.  Town of 394 has two police cars and no fire service.

3.  Great ribs at a BBQ place across the street from where stayed.  They have their own smoker.  But can't serve booze as legislation prohibits the sale of alcohol next to a church, which the restaurant is.  

4.    Lots of plastic. Cups, straws etc. that are banned here.  And I can't remember the last time I saw styrofoam cups but they were everywhere.

5.    Little tourism related to the Museum and the re-enactment.  Lots of people in big expensive ATVs racing along the trails in the area.  Not even much for the Hatfield-McCoy feud stuff.  But since coal mining has slowed tourism is the one reason the town still exists, such as  it is (two streets).

6.    Lots of far-right politics of various kinds in evidence.  From signs close to declaring Trump the Messiah to t-shirt and ball cap slogans.

 

7.    Everything starts and ends with a Christian prayer.

 

8.    Our new friend, Lester, wasn't drinking anything but water but sat with us on the porch while we killed a few beers.  The more we drank the drunker he got.  A self-described 'liberal' (in the USian sense), he owns five rifles and four handguns and says he is the only person we me in Matewan who won't be voting for Trump this year.

 

9.    I got a good chunk of the cast of the play to stand behind the Trade Union Football and Alcohol Committee flag that I brought (TUFAC folks collect such photos).  The star and best actor, save for Miss Donna, who played the police chief, refused as he will not stand behind a red star.

 

10.     The play doesn't take place where the actual events did.  That's a two minutes walk away.

 

11.    After several attempts at flagging down a server one stopped to ask if we had been served.  We said no. She said "OK then." And walked off.  LOL

 

12.  The music night at the UMWA Community Hall was great and deserved a much bigger crowd.  Guess all the ATV riders were in the town's one bar or working on their buggies.

 

13.    A nice thing about staying in a small town like this is that you can use your hotel's wifi connection just about everywhere. LOL

14.    The Matewan Massacre was part of the lead-up to the Battle of Blair Mountain.  More HERE.

 

15.    Had a bit of a union nerd geek-fest.  Museum's gift shop really needs to be a LOT bigger.  :-)  I even bought a camo Museum hat and tee.

 

16.    Despite their enthusiasm for Jesus these people are godless. No brown sauce and no pickled onions in both restaurants and shops.

 

17.    Folks astoundingly friendly. Buying stamps came with a great 5 minute chat with the village postmaster.

 

18.    The Matewan Historic House is highly recommended if you need a place to stay whilst in Matewan.  Dave and Helen own it.  He is descended from the Police Chief who sided with the miners and was later assassinated on a courthouse's steps, by the mercenaries hired by the coal mine owners.  With impunity I should add.

 

19.    The only unpleasant moment was when the US border guard listened to where we were going and why and then lowered the barriers on us and closed his door to consult with someone by phone. Bit tense.  Otherwise the long drives there and back a great chance for Gavin and I to catch-up on things.

20.    Love the accent there. Regulars in restaurants updating staff on how their kids are doing etc. Lovely, friendly people, UMWA supporters each and every one, and likely all Trump voters.

 

21.    Radio snips from the journey here. Church guy explaining how Biden has forced the banks to release all transactions to the FBI that have the key words "Holy bible" in them. So send cash. LMAO.  Creative Concrete advert:"The lord has blessed us with beautiful weather so it's time to repave your driveway".   

Advert from a uni that goes on and on about how conservative it is.  Talk show panel which reaches agreement that (a) the feminists are taking over the republican party and (b) vaccinations can result in positive drugs tests causing the loss of employment and of driver's licence.  Advert for the heapest colorectal screening clinic in northern Ohio followed by one from a lawyer who specializes in malpractice lawsuits.  Way more loonie political talk shows than music all the way down there.  On the way back we listened to pods.

 

22.    Server when I asked about the Matewan Massacre Burger: "Darlin', dont matter what side yer people wur on in the Massacre or whether you are a Hatfield or a McCoy, we're all on the side of tourism now." [She laughs]

 

23.    Condom dispenser in wash warns only for disease prevention and not birth control, reminds us all that abstinence before marriage and monogamy afterwards is the only sure way to proven the spread of disease.

 

24.    "Do you follow Jesus this close?" a popular bumper sticker. 

Lots of billboards advising us that 'beyond a reasonable doubt' he lives.

 

 

 

 

Finally! Back to Cuba!

 

 We spent Christmas 2023 at the Melia Cayo Coco.  Our first trip to Cuba since the first lockdown.  Much-needed.

We had stopped going to resorts and were instead spending our time in Cuba at casa particulars (private homes, what we tend to call bed and breakfasts) as we just found it way more interesting and fun to walk around rather than lie around as we did when at work and in need of down time.  But as Geri now occasionally needs a wheelchair we decided to return to resort living whilst on holiday.  Getting around a small town or even many parts of larger cities can be a problem if the wheelchair is needed.  Resorts work a lot better in that regard.

We had been to this resort once before.  At a guess about 15 years ago, perhaps longer.  We chose it for two reasons: proximity to the airport we'd be arriving at (15 minutes) and a close look at reports from current guests on Facebook and to a lesser extent Trip Advisor.

We tend to discount TA posts and reviews a bit as the place is something of a battleground for people with all kinds of often wacky agendas.  And it is harder to pick out the wackjobs.

The Facebook groups were full of positive reviews from people who had a long history on FB and whose other posts seemed reasonable.

This is key I think.  Cuba is going through the kind of terrible time it hasn't seen since the Special Period of the 90's.  The collapse of global tourism really hit their economy hard and that is on top of the US blockade.  So if you really want the pre-2020 experience for the next while this resort and a very few others may be your best bet.

It worked out really well.  

We had thought about other resorts where we know more people on staff that we haven't seen in a while but chatting with them convinced us that we should look elsewhere.  I won't mention those hotels as the plan apparently is to channel resources like food and high-end booze to a selection of resorts and slowly expand that pool as more becomes available.  So by the time you read this those resorts may be just fine.  

In the meantime the resorts that are receiving less by way of such things than they did prior to 2020 are more inexpensive than usual.  But cheap was not what we were looking for so...

There were two days, back-to-back, when the Melia CC didn't have white wine.  Otherwise it was fine, though I guess I should note that neither of us is into high-end scotch etc.  So no feedback from us on that.  We're happy with wine, beer and rum.  And there was lots of all that.

Oh, and one day no french fries.  Truck breakdown or fuel shortage apparently.

We had an accessible room.  It was fine, the roll-in shower nice even if not really needed as stepping over the high tubs they have in the regular rooms might have been a problem for Geri.  And me for that matter.

Friends of ours went there on our recommendation a few weeks later and had a great time.  Same experience as we had only no wine shortage.

Tips?  Take lots of $5 bills, tip less often.  And take a bunch of $20s so that you can swap them for the loonies and toonies the staff will be getting from many guests.  As with banks everywhere the Cuban ones won't exchange coins.  We swapped about $200 worth.  See below too.

We booked Air Transat's upgrade as it got us extra luggage.  So we showed up with four large suitcases.  One with our stuff.  One with menstrual supplies, toothpaste and brushes, soaps and other 'gifts' for staff.  And we, as we always do, had a couple of large suitcases (small available) supplied to us by Not Just Tourists.

Please, please: the medical supplies NJT provides you, along with the bag they come in, are desperately needed.  Not a scary thing, we have been doing it for years and often three times a year.  Never a problem.  They even provide you with a contact for delivering the bags.  

I had an extra bit of fun this year as the taxi driver I went to the hospital with has a car that belonged to his grandfather and which has been in his family since the 1950's.  And I got a photo of (not on Flickr as I don't want to cause him problems at work) and some chit-chat with the world's friendliest speed trap cop.  LOL

I made our drop with the Nursing Director at the hospital in Moron.  Much appreciated, simple and did I mention desperately-needed and much-appreciated?  No?  Desperately-needed and much-appreciated.

More on NJT HERE.  Note this is the Toronto chapter but they have chapters across the country.

Photos of the resort, odds and ends and of the NJT drop can be found HERE.

Fourth Time to Portugal for a Month

 

 It's not really travel that we do when we head to Quelfes for a month.  More like a cottage experience.  We hang out by the pool, or in our favourite local bar in Olhao or mebbe head to Fuzeta (all are at most a 20 minute drive from the villa) for breakfast on the beach...

We did have a couple of days in Lisbon as a stopover but the weather meant we only had one morning and as that morning was part of the Easter weekend everywhere we went was packed with and by British tourists.

See last year's entry for more details about the place.  Photos of the whole trip HERE.

Best bit?  We are booked again for next April.

Quelfes, Portugal 14-03-2023 to 12-04-2023

Here’s the thing: it was the best of trips and it was the worst of trips.  Hence the delay in getting this postcard out.

The Good:

The weather was perfect by our standards.  22-25 every day.  Thermometer left in the sun would get to 35-40.  Almost always clear blue skies. No rain for the four weeks.  Wonderful, helpful hosts (e-mail for their contact info), roomie upper floor of a house in the middle of an orange orchard with lemons (and later in the year, pomegranates).  Wander out before breakfast and pick a few oranges to juice for breakfast, go our later for lemons for cocktails as the sun goes down over the swimming pool.

 Fast internet connection, pool, fish tank with the food needed to feed them supplied, friendly dog, short walk to where the village's monthly flea market  and soups and tapas festival take place.  Lots of balconies, roof terrace, two bathrooms...perfect for us at this point in our lives.  Not the near-random itinerant wandering-by-train trips we have done mostly in the past but perfect for now.

In 2018 (see the entry for that trip HERE) we had a few weeks in the same spot, really enjoyed ourselves. The only down side is that in October-November each day the weather gets a little cooler and a little cloudier.  Not that it was ever unpleasant but the trend was a bit...almost depressing.  Not really but kinda.  We thought, rightly as it turned out, that it would work a bit better for us if we went in the spring, when the weather gets better every day but before it gets really hot.

Add Geri's son David for a week and the usual attractions of Olhao, the very nearby fishing town, the beaches on the barrier islands, great little restaurants and bars in an only recently ‘discovered’ bit of the Algarve (so recent that many don’t consider it a part thereof), meetings with some local union folks, the planned overnight trips to Sevilla and elsewhere in western Spain, other bits of Portugal…shoulda been great, right?

Wrong.

The Bad:

Geri’s back is always a problem after a long (the definition of which has been shrinking over time) flight.  But until this trip it has bounced back after a day or two.  Especially when, as we did this trip, we book her a business class seat.

This time it didn’t bounce back.  I will spare you most of the details.  A very painful time for her.  We got to explore the Portuguese medical system a bit.  We bought a wheelchair (our one souvenir of the trip) and Geri, though she made an extraordinary effort while David was with us, spent virtually the whole time after his departure at the house, leaving only for medical appointments and one lunch at a place only a few minutes drive away on our last full day there, just on principle but also in pain.

The wheelchair was even needed for short distances in the house is how bad it was.  Host Martin built a quick and dirty wheelchair ramp so that Geri could more easily get onto her favourite of the five balconies, the one off the kitchen.

We regularly talked about coming home early but in the end Geri decided each time that being in a wheelchair and in pain in sunny, warm weather was better than doing the same at home in the cold.  So we stayed.  The back problem had an impact on some others of her medical conditions as well, just to add the misery.

Since we returned home Geri has been undergoing pretty intensive, almost daily, physiotherapy, been seeing her MD regularly and getting 2 massages a week so getting back to normal or close to it we hope.  Not in the wheelchair as much.  So bad days but the good days are more frequent and getting better.

On Balance:

I feel particularly bad for David, Stepson #1, as his week with us might have included more excitement than the day trip to Sevilla that we were able to fit in and much more of the local seafood.  He travelled all the way from Radium Hot Springs to Olhao just to sit, read, and drink beer, get a bit of sun.

We wanted to do this trip as we REALLY enjoyed it all in the fall of 2018, had cancelled it in March of 2020 for the obvious reason and had been waiting for things to open up enough that we could relive a previous visit to the same house of a few years ago…so hard to say that we shouldn’t have gone.

But for the first time ever I think we can say that we didn’t really enjoy one of our long trips.

But of course nothing can stop me from taking hundreds of photos in and around Quelfes, which you will find HERE and of Sevilla with David HERE.

London and Tolpuddle July 2022 - Scratch One Bucket List Item

This was a solo trip as, for some odd reason, the prospect of joining my in re-living my egghead (academic) time in London and then heading to the countryside for three days of a British union and labour history circus/festival didn’t appeal much to Geri.

 Pearson was a nightmare.  My travel date was right in the middle of the giant mess that the airlines created by trying to fly a normal schedule whilst leaving as many employees on layoff as possible, just cause the pandemic losses needed to made up somehow.  So flights were being continually delayed or cancelled.  On the up side, my Air Canada return fare with one piece of checked luggage (reading the news made me go carry-on only), was less than $700.

 There were lines to get into all restaurants and bars and people were sleeping on the carpeted floors in the duty-free shopping area in Terminal 1.  I eventually got a seat at a table of elderly folks on their way to Israel.  They had been at Pearson the whole day (my flight out was around 19:00) after their connecting flight arrived from Winnipeg.

 My flight was delayed repeatedly so when we were told to go to our gate and line up it seemed as though it might happen and so I popped a couple of cannabis gummies.  Inevitably there was a further delay and so the weed had well and truly kicked-in by the time I boarded.

 Which was a good thing as a couple that had somehow gotten past the Air Canada staff checking luggage for size with two large suitcases masquerading, successfully (!!!), as carry-on, managed to cram their luggage into an overhead bin.  Which promptly collapsed at one end under the weight.

 Thanks to the gummies I found that funny, unlike the fellow who had been sitting under it.

 That generated another flight delay of about a half hour while a tech came and fixed it.  All in all I think the flight was delayed about 5 hours.

 Heathrow was fine in comparison (something I never thought I would say) and I was on the tube and headed into central London right quick as I had only a carry-on.  Long lines at the luggage carousels as a result of staff shortages made me feel downright smart.

 I try and have almost always succeeded in staying at the St. Athan’s every time I am in London.  A comfortable but cheap hotel in Bloomsbury.  I first stayed there in 1984 I think and as I like (am obsessed with?) being a ‘regular’ and because the London portion of my trip was meant to be a nostalgia binge, I had one of the small singles I stayed in for a couple of months in 1989 as well as a couple of times whilst there for shorter periods.

 How small you ask?  Take a gander HERE.

 I wandered around (but not in, as security is now rather tighter than it was in 1989) SOAS and UCL.  I finally, on foot even, made it to the Cable Street Mural (photos HERE), visited the pedestrian underpass at Blackfriars where I was once mugged…all the big tourist spots.  😊

 I also got out to Clapham to see a young old friend now working for the ITF and for a few pints at The Bread and Roses, photos HERE, run by the Workers Beer Company, a worker-owned co-op, one of my fave pubs in London.

 Speaking of pubs, I was able to meet up with David (stepson #1) and his Kate at The Lamb.  Been a regular (as in I drop by for a pint once every 5 years like clockwork) there since 1989 I think.  One of the few pubs in which snob screens (see definition HERE) survive.  Which I love.

 Whilst David and Kate weren’t as enamoured of the snob screens as I am, we did have, I think and hope, a fine time.  I certainly did.  There’s something really lovely about meeting-up with people you know when all are far from home.  We parted, me to continue my goofy farewell tour and them to sleep before heading to Scotland, David having won a lottery that got them tickets to the British Open at St. Andrew’s.

 Photos of our visit at The Lamb HERE and of them in particular HERE.

 Another couple of days of that and I decamped for Muswell Hill in North London for time with Eric Lee and Cindy Berman.  But before zipping up north  I horned-in on Cindy’s birthday dinner for Eric at a very nice Argentinian restaurant not far from my hotel.  Some fine and unusual cocktails were consumed before dinner.  On an embarrassing note, I hadn’t realized that Cindy was picking up the tab for the whole shebang and so ordered us a very pricy bottle of wine.  Despite Cindy’s protests I tried to make up for it over the week that followed but suspect that I failed dismally.

 Eric gave me the tour of his neck of the London woods (literally: some very nice park walks in MH), which on one day included a giant full English of course.  And we spent a day down on the South Bank catching me up on the food carts and restaurants that have sprouted there since I last visited.  One of the restaurants we used for a lunch with another old union fart, Roger Darlington, someone I see regularly about once every 20 years.  Photo HERE.

 An artist of some renown who lives in Muswell Hill hates gum on the sidewalks there and so decorates them, turning them into tiny works of fine art.  Lovely things really.  See HERE.

 Cindy, Eric and I then packed-up and headed to the village of Tolpuddle for the Martyrs Festival.  Cindy drove (I was very glad of this), Eric navigated (we got there, despite Eric never having had a driver’s ticket), and I sights-saw.

 Cindy had booked a lovely Airbnb outside the village (pop. 400).  Photos HERE.

 I don’t know quite what top say about The Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival.  Even though it was the first since the 2020 lockdowns began there were still over 5,000 paid attendees (normally it is close to twice that) plus the folks who don’t pay but who can join in even so. 

 Going to the festival the same year that I attended the London (Ontario) ceremonies at the monument to the Martyrs was near the top of my Bucket List.  Deservedly so as it turned out.

 Labour history workshops, current struggle panels, surprisingly good food, union banner displays, and of course the LabourStart table and presentation.

 It was a union geek and nerd circus all lubricated by the tent set up by The Workers Beer Company (operators of The Bread and Rose – see above).

 Best of all, the LabourStart table in the gallery was right across from the table occupied by a bunch of comrades from TUFAC, the Trade Union Football and Alcohol Committee.  Lovely folks who work at weaning young workers away from yobbism and the far right types who recruit footie fans into racism etc.  This they do with high-quality football gear, a brewery and their own brand of gin and vodka.  They do their own organizing on the side of good but also give away all their profits to support others with more expertise in anti-fascist work.

 I had a really wonderful time and would happily go back, hopefully after the village pub and its rooms above re-opens.  Unless you camp (lots of spaces for it), booking a room there would be the only way to avoid having to drive back and forth each day.  And now that we know how things work LabourStart could have a much bigger presence there if we were to return.

 For more on the Martyrs see HERE.  For my many, many photos of the festival see HERE.

 The Great Heatwave was in the news when we headed back to London.  Put paid to my plans for more wandering.  Hung at Eric and Cindy’s.  The impact of over-40 temperatures (photo proof HERE) on a city where little is air conditioned was quite striking.  Trains cancelled or running slowly.  Most of the Tube trains sidelined.  Shops and other businesses closed. 

 Fab night at a play near their place that I REALLY enjoyed, a Turkish restaurant beforehand.  So, a fine time despite the heat on my last night before Tubing it to Heathrow for long lines on the way home.

 As Bucket List items go this was a great one, in large part because of the company (in order of appearance: David, Kate, Cindy, Eric and Roger)..  And the nostalgia bits fun as well.

 Next up at some point:  The Mother Jones Festival in Cork.