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| Jim Collier and Pete Seeger, Madison Square Garden, 1970 |
Pete Seeger, the great folk singer, died yesterday at the age of 94. There are many tributes to him, including this one in the
New York Times. I actually met Seeger once. I was attending the national convention of Lutheran youth (Luther League) at Madison Square Garden in 1970, and Seeger was on the program, and sang for us (15,000 teenagers) with Jim Collier. I found the photo (
online here) above, which shows one of the moments of that performance. Somewhere during there performance, Seeger invited everyone to come down to his sloop, the Clearwater, which was docked at a pier on the Hudson side of Manhattan Island. As part of a tour that some of us were given during this convention, we stopped near his dock and had to walk a little ways to get to his boat, but we did get there and, low and behold, Seeger was there, too. He invited us onto the deck of the Clearwater, and I got to shake his hand. He was nice and friendly. I don't recall what he said, but it was a moment that I've never forgotten.
Also, George McGovern, the 1972 presidential candidate and longtime senator from South Dakota, was at the convention and spoke to us. Here's a photo of him at the convention:
5 comments:
I was there and it was a gathering to remember! Now nearly 50 years later I am a Lutheran Pastor. Who'd a thunk it?
I was there as well. Stayed in the new Yorker as well
Wow--I was there too, and went the dock where the Clearwater was located. We must have been in the same place at the same time. And yes, Pete Seeger seemed very nice, generously chatting with everyone. --Tom Long
My husband and I were there. We were overseeing the attendees that were staying at the New Yorker Hotel. It was an amazing experience. Janet and Jim Dale
I was at a Luther League Convention at the Houston Astrodome in 1973 with Johnny Cash, Andrae Crouch, and Mary Travers as musicians. Did not know anything about this precursor before reading this. The 1973 event and this 1970 event are hugely overshadowed (almost entirely forgotten really) in the scholarly literature by evangelicals flooding the zone with stories about all the Protestant kids listening to early CCM.
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