19 Dec
2013
19 Dec
'13
5:21 a.m.
On Wed, Dec 18, 2013 at 07:26:37AM -0500, Andrew K. Bressen wrote:
2-3 years ago, some friends of mine got married in the
former
church in Stockbridge, Massachusetts that figures in the song. Guthrie
bought the place in the early 90s and turned it into a music and events
venue and community center.
I saw a poster once at an ice-cream shop in West Stockbridge that was for a
concert over at that church and the ad said "yes, THAT church". Very cute.
I find it astonishingly surreal and somewhat poignant
that the most
well-known thing that officer Obie did with his entire life is spend two
hours going through a pile of garbage to find evidence of who was
littering in his tiny town in Massachusetts. That and posing for a
Norman Rockwell sketch will be the only things he is ever remembered for.
It was pretty cool of him to play himself in the movie. I remember a blurb
in the Albany papers when he died, that made him out to be a decent guy.
The song casts him (not very seriously) as the villain but obviously you've
got to expect the cops to do something in that situation. I'm impressed
that he solved the crime, even if he couldn't make the charges stick!
John Wilson
D Bit