Hey, Uncle Dave, I think that the "Alfred E Newman" drawing from Mad Magazine was inspired by the "Combination tickets" from the old Steeplechase Park in Coney Island (which used to really be an island until they filled in the saltwater "Coney Island Creek"
We used to go to Steeplechase a lot when I was a kid living in Bensonhurst.(part of Brooklyn, NYC) We paid 55 cents admission which included a combination ticket for the rides, which you could go on as many times as you wanted (except for the "Steeplechase" iself) The ticket was a cartoon "Alfred E. Newman" likeness with numbers printed on every tooth. When you went on one of the rides they'd punch a hole in that tooth. Then you could ride as many times as you liked just so you stayed within the , very reasonable, boundaries. Steeplechase and "Nathan's Frankfurters" were the two best things about coney island. I, and every other kid lucky enough to get there, LOVED Coney Island. I saw the original release of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" as well as "Gulliver's Travels" (the second full length cartoon ever made, released only 5 days after "Snow White") at the RKO Tilyou movie theater on Coney Island.
For those of you who have never tasted a Nathan's hot dog, "AAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWW" I however, am one of the few people alive today who bought a hot dog from the Hebrew National Delicatessen across the street from Nathan's, because Nathan's refused to put sour kraut on their franks. Wht the hell is this thread about, anyway? Oh yes, Old time banjo pickers. This Summer, I did some "Bluegrass Festivals" in the area just South of Springfield Mass, (including Windsor Locks, Conn.) I was billed as, "MAKING A VERY RARE APPEARANCE IN MASS. (OR cONN.)FROM NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND, JODY GIBSON "THE CRANKY YANKEE" AND HIS OLD TIME BANJO.

Oh yes, I did some of that, but the main thrust of my bits was to introduce "hard core" Bluegrassers to Maritime Folk Music. I guess the ime has come, because the stuff went over big, I even got a standing ovation at the Hartland Hollow festival. I was wearing a home made "Monkey Jacket" Seafarer bell bottom jeans and a straw sailor hat. Mind you, we're talking about Yankee (New Englander)Bluegrass fans who are not entirely unfamiliar with the marine environment, and it was a genuine "Tall Ships" sailor who was doing the introduction.

I usually do "Can't You Dance the Polka" with my banjo anyway, tuned in "Uncle Dave Macon 'C'" tuning (E C G Low C and the fifth string tuned to G) so I started off with that, then did the two Windlass Chanteys that Uncle Dave Macon recorded (Though they were far from being in a usable tempo) "Sail Away Ladies" and "Rock About my Saro Jane". Then i Spent about three minutes explaing, to the audience, exactly what sea chanteys are and how important they were (and still are) on the old British and American Sailing ships. with, "You want to hear some more "Water Department" music?" The audience reply was very affirmative. They especially liked the a-capello ballads, "Flying Cloud" and "Stately Southerner". The Stately Southerner (John Paul Jones) (the only colonial Naval officer of any distinction, was born in Scotland, but was from a Southern Colony. HE WAS A PLANTATION OWNER WHO DID NOT USE SLAVE LABOR, MADE MONEY, AND IN FACT WAS A RABID ABOLITIONIST) was Captain of the only American ship that was built to be a warship, "Ranger" built in Portsmouth New Hampshire, a 6th rate 24 gun ship about the same size as our HMS Rose. It, however only carried 18 "long Tom" long range 12 pounders. The Ranger, with Jones at the helf, raised havoc in the English ports on the west coast of Engand, They landed a party of Marines in Portsmouth and burnt the shipping there. This cruise of the Ranger was so succesfull that the King kept many regiments at home that could have been very usefull in the colonies, to protect England's west coast. The Song, "The stately Southerner" written by a member of "Ranger's" crew, relates an episode that did not involve actual combat, but rather the Seamanship and audacity of their Captain swhen he "Ran away from a fight". Ranger was tacking off a lee shore near the "Old Head of Kinsale" in a full gale, when a British fleet consisting of a first rate tripple decker and three accompanying 36 gun frigates, .....For by her thunderous press of sail and by her consorts, four,
We saw that our morning visitor was a British Man of War"

Although we'd rather fight than run we dared not risk defeat
Under the guns of the three decked ark that led the British fleet"

To make a short story longer, Captain Jones put on every stitch of sail AND EVEN SET STU'NS'LS (the little sails that are set outside of the main ones) in a howling gale. The riggin held, and Ranger ultimately rached across the British ships bows,. and charged on out into the open sea.

The poetry in this ballad is so good that it has rmained virtually unchanged since the day it was first heard (when Ranger put into port at the end of this famous cruise) To continue, Capt Jones gave up command of Ranger to take over command of a fleet consisting of an old (wormy) French three decker, re named, "Bon Homme Richard" (after Benjamine Franklin's "Poor Richard's almanac")and some "mostly independent" French Vessels. They attacked a convoy of merchant ships escorted by HMS "serapis". Serapist did an admirable job of defending the fleet. Not a single merchant ship was lost. In the "Mele",. Jones's "Bon Home Richard" was set afire and her colors (red white AND blue stripes with 13 7 pointed stars) was shot away. The British Captain ,seeing the ensign come down, asked, "Do You Strike Your Colors, Sir?" To which Jones replied, the famous, "I have not YET BEGUN TO FIGHT" With both Serapis and Bon Homme Richard ablaze, and grappled together, Jones' crew boarded Serapis abd took her. They extinguished the fire on Serapis while the ill fated, "Bon Homme Richard" burned and sank. of course, in accordance with the "Gentlemanly" rules of engagement, in those days, Serapis' Captain was released and put ashore. Upon arrival in his home port, Jones was told that the King had Knighted Serapis' Captain (much deserved) for his gallantry and success in protecting the fleet. To which Jones remarked, "excellent, and whould we meet again, I'll make an Earl of him"

which has very little to do with old time banjo picking except that I told this story to the hardcore Yankee Bluegrassers, sang the "Stately Southerner" in the midst of some damned good banjo playing by My old Pal Roger Sprung with whome I'd worked 6 nights a week for four years at the old "Black Pearl Tavern" in Newport and who knew all my material, as I did his. All in all, old time and newfangled banjo picking with a nautical fl;air or two, won the hearts of the bluegrass audiences,. to whome I pointed out that there really isn't such a thing as "Blue Grass" (and I've been to Kentucky, a wonderful place) it's really green, but "Blue Water is indeed Blue" (when the sun is shining.) Just as we were packing up after the last show of the series, I said to Bill Flagg, the producer, "Think I should brush up on some more clawhammer banjo stuff for next year"? "Oh No!!", Bill replied, "Just keep doing what you've been doing"

Bill, an old friend from the middle 1950's, has been playing tracks from my "Spanning the Decades" CD. Like "Farewell to Tarwaithe", "All for me Grog", "Heave Away, Johnny",", "Keep on Fishin'" and "Fredericks of Galilee" on his Bluegrass radio show, at the request of his audiences, who especially liked "Farewell to Tarwaithe" which I did with Guitar, banjo, steel guitar(Dobro) and "Bass Foodle" (and to hell with all the Folk music fascists) "Cheeses" I realy am long winded, aint I?

I got to go, Donna just called me "King Nebuchudnezzer" which she does when I "Babble On".

bye
Jody Gibson