The Newspapers touted our arrival even before we got there and in a way they couldn’t know was accurate. “Beatmobile Roars toward CCM” they said. There’s no way the reporter could have known about the header/manifold problems that had been dogging us since Detroit. We’d been nursing the Beatmobile along, stopping at three different RV shops, only the first of which was willing to take a whack at fixing it. See, these RV places are used to people leaving their rigs for weeks at a time so they order just the right parts and take it slowly and are in no rush. When you’re zipping from city to city with the Traveling Beatmobile Tour you can’t afford that luxury. So we drove on – loudly.

Our English Department host, Deb, met us with her friend Margo and Terry from Security and directed us to our assigned parking area. Later we all went to the local CCM hangout, The Quiet Man, where we met up with other interesting locals who entertained us into the evening as Deb and John did a fine ‘Lucy & Ricky’ routine..

The Quiet Man was a great place! The owner, Frank, was actually on the set in Ireland when John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara starred in the film in the early 1950’s. This is actually one of my favorite films of all time - when I was a kid my parents actually bought me a ten minute 8 mm film clip (dating myself, prior to video). The ten minute clip was of the fight scene between the Duke and Victor McLagen. See, Sean Thorton (The Duke) was an American boxer who accidentally killed a man in the ring and he goes to Ireland to regroup and meets the flaming haired Mary Kate Danaher (O’Hara). He gets into all kinds of beefs with her brother (McLagen) because the brother won’t let them get married and won’t give Mary Kate her dowry (which any self-respecting Irish Lass must have) and McLagen is always taunting Duke and the Duke won’t take a swing at him because he vowed after he killed the guy in the ring he’d never hit a man again, but it’s either fight the brother for the dowry or lose Mary Kate’s love forever so what’s a self-respecting American/Irishman to do but do his ladies bidding?

So the fight scene is classic, probably the greatest ever filmed. It’s lasts forever and goes from one end of town to the other as all the town-folk turn out for what everyone knew was coming. Every couple minutes everyone stops in at a bar to have a drink and the Catholic Priest and the Protestant Minister are making bets with each other on the side. Great character actors like Ward Bond, Barry Fitzgerald, Barry Fitzsimmons and others. John Ford sure knew how to make a movie! So of course the Duke wins the girl and Maureen O’Hara with he big doe eyes became ever young man’s fantasy.

So the show at CCM the next day was great, with hundreds in attendance. The students came in waves as classes would come in en-masse and thirty young people would pile into seats and then leave after twenty-thirty minutes and then another class would come in and take their place. Lots of list members came by as well. Andrew and Joel and another Andrew who actually works in New Orleans at Tulane with Douglas Brinkley but who has been temporarily displaced because of Hurricane Katrina. There were multiple photographers and lots of books were signed. A crowd walked with us back to the bus and the faculty treated us to dinner afterwards and then we all piled into cars and made our way back to The Quiet Man again later that night.

Thanks for listenin’ - Pilgrim.

Jerry Cimino