The Story of Jake Tuesday – 1
If you passed the fire station in Brattleboro, Vermont the night of May 29, you may have seen an unusual sight – The outfits with bells on the legs mark this as a morris dance, a type of English ritual folk dance that predates Shakespeare and has spread to the U.S. – but why is it here on this Tuesday night?
Geoff Rogers: “We’re called the Juggler Meadow Morris Men; we’re based in Amherst [Massachusetts].” Juggler Meadow is here with local morris team Windham and others for Jake Tuesday, an annual event in honor of former member Jake McDermott, who moved to Putney and in April 2001 had a heart attack. “We have an evening of beer and song and dancing – celebrating life in general and Jake in particular.”
“Jake was not the kind of guy you would ever expect to have something like that happen to him … really an iron man; really, really fantastic shape.” But during an easy bike ride on Kurn Hattin Road in Westminster, he died of a heart attack.
hey, Colin, this is great! can’t wait to see the print copy.
thanks,
S
Thanks! For some reason I thought the print version came out Thursday; when I realized I was wrong I hustled over to Bratt to get some copies! I’m still going over Friday, though, and I’ll probably grab a few extra copies for “just in case” (Geoff, for example, should probably get a copy).
Nice work. Thanks for taking the time to get the story right and capturing the people and the feelings of the day in your art.
Thank you – and thanks for taking the time to tell me so!
[...] Clough says Jake Tuesday is fascinating Colin Tedford’s “The Story of Jake Tuesday” is fascinating for the way it celebrates a bit of local culture and history, and how the [...]
[...] at The Cartoon Picayune The Cartoon Picayune interviewed me about “The Story of Jake Tuesday“, which ran in their fourth issue. January 16, 2013 | Blog, News | Tags: [...]