Pete Seeger – Vassar College – October 10, 2009
Now here is a true giant of a legend, so no way I’m passing up this chance. Outdoors in front of the Vassar College chapel on a sunny but brisk afternoon. It is unsigned, so not “complete” in my mind, and I may take steps to rectify this situation, but all in good time – or not. And here’s why: I was well positioned to rush Pete when he finished up, but was approached by one of the local coed students who had also been sketching (there were a few other sketchers out in the crowd). She was amazed (as was I) that she had the exact same case (Curious George, from a watercolor set whose innards I had discarded in order to stash the pencils/leads that I use) that she used for her materials. We showed each other our works, then I suggested we go get autographs. Well, by this time Pete was on the chapel steps and quite besieged. His handler said no more signing, he had to get to another appointment, and whisked him inside. That, apparently, was that. But nor for me – he’s gotta come out somewhere, so I went to the other side of the chapel where there was a waiting limo, asked the driver if he was for Pete, and he was, so I figured “piece of cake”. Me & Toots waited, waited, all the other hangers-on gave up and split but not me. Toots went to the nearby art museum and I waited some more. After about 45 minutes, I figured I couldn’t risk the wrath (enough already! plus getting chilly), so I went to make peace, took a spin through the museum, when we came out the limo was gone and so was my chance for the autograph. Not enough reason not to post it. Along with preceding act the Roundabout Ramblers (at least partly made up of Vassar faculty), and I couldn’t get all of their signatures either. Oh well. Theirs was a 2-page-spanning sketch, both halves scanned separately and joined together for this composite. Only a cursory cleanup of the “spine” area for the blogosphere. Opening act was the Bearcats, quite decent Dixielanders.
Pete Seeger
