Pontiac-Oakland Club 4th of July Cruise

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June 27, 2020 — It wasn't technically a car show, but a meeting of participants and their cars in a parking lot in Bedford, New Hampshire, before leaving on a tour of several southern New Hampshire towns. The tour was sponsored by the NorEastern Pontiac-Oakland Club and, as far as I could determine, all but two of the approximately forty cars were Pontiacs. I took advantage of the pre-tour gathering to take pictures of many of the cars, along with a video. I didn't follow the cars on the tour.

Oldest car at the event was a 1956 Pontiac. Other than that, most of the cars were '70s and later. The Pontiac-Oakland Club is dominated by muscle cars such as GTOs and Grand Ams. In the several years I've been following them, I have yet to see an Oakland.

My photos and a video of a portion of the cars exiting the parking lot can be seen at this link:

https://www.linwoodstreet.com/fourthcruise/

Two Shows in One Day

June 21, 2020 — It probably seems petty to complain about canceled car shows in this bleak season of coronovirus when many have suffered debilitating illness and families are grieving lost love ones. In New Hampshire we have been relatively untouched by the pandemic, with daily new cases mostly in the thirties, and many days go by with no deaths reported. Still, our antique car hobby takes us to other states hit harder by COVID-19 that have caused mass cancellations of shows, some as far in the future as the fall.

But small shows and cruise nights are making a comeback in New Hampshire, and on a blistering hot Sunday I actually got to see two shows in the same day. In the morning, I went to a show in Derry hosted by Southern New Hampshire Cars and Coffee. Held in a shopping center with ample parking, I'd estimate about 100 cars showed up, attracting hordes of spectators.

I came home for lunch and a break from the heat, then went to a show hosted by NH Muscle Cars at Dream Works Muscle and Classics in Manchester. I think this show had even more cars than the morning show in Derry. Besides the car show, spectators were invited inside the Dream Works shop where we could see cars in various stages of restoration. Burgers were grilled and cold soft drinks were available. The show ended with trophy presentation.

Both shows were on hot, paved parking lots with no trees, no shade, no shelter. The temperature reached 93 degrees in the afternoon, more common in July and August than June. Good social distancing was forgotten by many and a majority went unmasked, but if you're conscientious about avoiding infection, you can wear a mask, carry hand sanitizer and make your own space. It's not hard to be safe at a car show.

My photos of the Derry show, mostly new and late models, can be seen at this link:

https://www.linwoodstreet.com/carsandcoffee/

The Dream Works show, dominated by muscle cars, also mostly newer models but with a few antiques, are at this link:

https://www.linwoodstreet.com/dreamworks/

NH Muscle Cars at Murphy's

June 14, 2020 — Cruise nights are making a slow comeback. I'm holding out hope a few of the big weekend shows can be salvaged before time runs out this season. The NH Muscle Car Club held a cruise night at Murphy's Taproom in Bedford, New Hampshire. Fine weather brought out more than 100 cars, completely filling Murphy's main parking area.

This was predominantly a muscle car show, not one of my favorite categories, so I didn't take a lot of pictures. Also, muscle car enthusiasts are gearheads who love engines, so there were many hoods raised which I feel makes a poor picture. There were a few old standards like a 1958 Oldsmobile and a 1950 Dodge, both restored to their original glory. Also a 1974 Hurst/Olds with an interesting history.

Some of the cars I found most appealing, or at least most interesting, can be seen at this link:

https://www.linwoodstreet.com/taproom/

Andres Sculpture Park

June 7, 2020 — With the car show season mostly wiped out by COVID-19 this season, I'm looking for other photo ops. I was unaware of the Andres Sculpture Park in Brookline, New Hamphsire, only a 40-minute drive from my home, until I read an article about it in the New Hampshiire Sunday News. With more than 100 sculptures by artists from all over the world scattered throughout the park's heavily-wooded mountainside, it sounded irresistible.

It would take eight hours or more to cover the entire park with its narrow footpaths, strewn with rocks and criss-crossed with tree roots. So I divided it up into two days of a little over three hours each. I didn't get to see all the sculptures, but I found about 75

Cruising at Target

May 29, 2020 — It may be a long, boring summer. All but two of the summer theaters I frequent have canceled all performances for the season. The two that remain have delayed their opening until late August, and even that is not a certainty.

The New England and Northeast car shows I cover have canceled all their shows for May and June, a few so far in July and August, and one as late as October. However, I just learned the weekly Friday evening show at the Target parking lot in Nashua, New Hampshire, has resumed, so I high-tailed it down there. It was a small show, barely more than thirty cars, but it felt good to walk among and photograph cars, antique and late model, once again.

Everyone observed social distancing and many wore face masks, including yours truly. We all found it easy to stop and talk about cars from six feet through masks. The evening was hot and humid, but even that was welcome after this unusually cold spring up to now.

I'll be on the lookout for car shows wherever they may be. The Target show proves a small show can be very safe. My photos of the event can be seen at this link:

https://www.linwoodstreet.com/target20/

"Two Radio Plays"

March 15, 2020 — I fear this may well be the last live theater performance in New Hampshire for a while, thanks to the coronavirus. The Winnipesaukee Playhouse (the "Winni") in Meredith, New Hampshire, managed to complete the three-day run of Two Radio Plays by Louise Fletcher with sparse audiences.

A greeter met us at the theater entrance and squeezed sanitizer into our hands. We showed our tickets to theater personnel who did not touch them. Programs were in a rack which we were instructed to help ourselves to, and either discard them in a bin on the way out or take them home.

Are these steps really effective, or do they just make theater owners feel good for having done their part, and theater-goers feel safer? Unfortunately, the only really effective means of preventing  disease spread would be to close. Two other New Hamphire theaters have already done that, at least for the spring. In neighboring Massachusetts, the governor's ban on all gatherings of more than 25 people will probably shut down all that state's theaters.

But small audiences did get to enjoy another of the Winni's popular radio shows. The stage is set up like a radio studio with a microphone on the right, foley artist (that's the professional name for sound effects person) with all the sound-producing equipment on the left. In the center and set back back slightly was the control room. Some of the actors enter from stage right and stand at the microphone to read their dialog from a script. Others spoke from behind a glass partition in the control room.

The radio plays are always from forties-era programs, usually of the suspenseful or horror variety, and include commercials for products of the forties. Two shows in one were included in this performance, Sorry Wrong Number and The Hitch-Hiker, both directed by Margaret Lundberg. Michael G. Baker was the foley artist. Gail Ledger as Mrs. Stevenson is convincing as an invalid bedridden and alone in her apartment. Apparently connected to a wrong number, she overhears a plot to murder a woman. With rising anger and frustration, she is unable to get either telephone operators or police to take her warnings seriously. Her anger eventually turns to terror when she reallizes the conversation she overheard describes the location of her own apartment.

In The Hitch-Hiker, Pat Kelly has his turn at the microphone as Ronald Adams who sets out on a cross-country trip from New York to California. He hasn't gone far when he comes across a scruffy hitch-hiker, not the type he'd want for company, and drives on. He sees him again in Pennsylvania. How did he get this far so quickly? Maybe someone else picked him up and dropped him off. But Ronald soon becomes as terrified as Mrs. Stevenson when the hitch-hiker appears on the long and deserted highways across Oklahoma and New Mexico, at the entrance to tunnels and at gas stations. How does he do it? What does he want with Ronald?

You could close your eyes and follow the action, just as you would listening to the radio. There are many other characters, telephone operators, police, a gas station attendant, and a girl hitch-hiker Ronald picks up, but who leaves him when he becomes increasingly unhinged when repeatedly seeing the other hitch-hiker only he can see. Because all but the lead actors have such small roles, you get the impression of a small cast. But we were surprised at the end of the show when fourteen actors came out for curtain call to well-earned applause.

"A Skull in Connemara"

March 1, 2020 — The first day of March was cold and blustery in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, after the second-warmest February on record. I was there for the final performance of A Skull in Connemara by Martin McDonagh at the Players' Ring in the city's historic waterfront.

The Players' Ring is as intimate as a theater can get. In a corner of a 19th Century brick building, the small theater can seat 75 in rows of seats on three sides of the floor-level stage. In playwright McDonagh's typical bleak, dark style, four characters living out their lives in a small Irish village torment one another with suspicion, anger and hurtful comments, at times driving an individual to nearly homicidal rage.

Under Peggi McCarthy's fine direction, Mick Dowd (Roland Goodbody) and Mary Rafferty (Deborah Chick) irritate each other in an evening of conversation and drink. Mary's adult grandson, Mairtin Hanlon (Sven Wiberg) arrives, loud, accusing, impossible to ignore, but not very bright.

We learn Mick's wife died in a car crash seven years ago. Rumors have persisted her death may not have been accidental. Could Mick have had something to do with it? We also learn it's Mick and Mairtin's job to dig up the graves in the small graveyard of the local church every seven years to make room for new burials. Mick's wife, dead seven years, is buried there. Tomorrow is the end of another seven years and they will have to perform their duty once more. See where this is headed?

The theater goes dark temporarily while a small stage crew quickly and expertly converts Mick's living room to a graveyard. They're joined by Mairtin's brother, Thomas (Peter Michaud), a local police officer with visions of making a name for himself by solving once and for all the circumstances surrounding Mick's wife's death, and this is where the evidence might be found. But when her grave is opened, it's empty!

After intermission, the set is restored to Mick's home. On the table are several skulls. Mick and Mairtin, in a drunken frenzy, demolish the skulls with mallets, scattering fragments all over the stage, barely missing the closest members of the audience. Finally, both almost too drunk to stand, Mick hands his car keys to Mairtin to take them on an errand. They both leave, the stage goes dark for several minutes. When the lights come back on, Mick returns alone, his shirt covered in blood. There's a skull on the table that wasn't there before. There's a hole in the top of the skull.

Mick is looking over the devastation when there's a knock on the door and Mary calls to him. This is not what he needs right now, but he lets her in. He attempts to keep his back to her so she can't see the blood, but she spots it. There's another knock. Who could this be? What happened to Mairtin? Whose skull is that? What if Officer Thomas shows up? The audience gasps when tumbling actors, in an outburst of violence, almost collide with patrons in the first rows at stage level.

This is the fourth play I've seen at this charmingly confined, rustic theater surrounded by brick walls. The small space presents unique production challenges, but in each show I've attended, producers, directors and actors have met the challenge and put on plays as good as any you'll see in much larger venues. I hope to return again soon.