Stormy Monday

I know there have been tragic weather-related events in the past few weeks, and that while Buffalo weather is wild and wooly, it always saddens and terrifies me when the weather is so destructive around the world. Sometimes there is very little people can do even with warnings and watches and whatnot. And in the past few years, we've seen it all, yes?

Last night we had a few major storm cells pocket the region. Good sleeping weather, and great for my garden. And this morning, while the ground is damp and wet still, the sun is out, the breeze is moderate, and all seems back to normal.

I woke up in a spot so comfortable in my bed that it was a bummer to have to roll and hit the alarm (but this must be done). I'm still a little foggy. No "fresh as a daisy" today. I feel like a recovering daisy that was pelted with cold rain water all night. But, I'm getting there. To point: I made a pot of steaming hot water a minute ago. Who needs coffee grounds for coffee, I guess....

But today's Diss chunk is Buffalo in the 19th century and how/where the music organizations began and flourished. The historian in me really really digs this stuff. While gathering research over the winter, I found a lot of material that was haphazard as far as organization and placement, but will come together nicely in my Diss. I didn't do a great job of organizating that material for myself, and the unraveling of my own thoughts has been a chore. But a lesson learned as well.

The first bar in Buffalo was the Eagle Tavern. It was one of 14 public buildings in the city "center" around 1814. The building of the Erie Canal was underway and workers quickly came to the area with the promise of extended work on such a big project. It was a rag-tag group, for sure. Rabble-rousers, dreamers, pioneers. And part of this new "city" burned in a conflict with the Seneca Nation as the Canal was dug, the largest Native American presence in the area (still today even, although moved farther southwest along I-90....lots of stories there).

Funny music-related story....the first music shop owner, John Sheppard, brought to Buffalo its first piano on some sort of flat-bed barge driven down the Erie Canal by mules and rope from the landshores. It was 1827!!! I can only imagine the scene. We are a tenacious bunch!