Pete Seeger on Saipan?

Subject: Pete Seeger on Saipan?
From: Bettynh
Date: 28 Sep 09 - 11:42 AM

In 1963, Pete Seeger did a concert on Boston Common that was broadcast over WGBH tv live. My dad set up a reel-to-reel tape recorder to capture it. My Girl Scout troop was't the same after that, since songs like "Little Boxes" crept into our singing.

Anyway, after that Dad would jump at any opportunity to see Pete. I remember a Ford Hall Forum in Boston, a Bread and Roses concert in Lawrence, and I'm sure there were others. In the crowds of young, hip folkies there were always a few men of my father's age, sitting quietly, watching.

Dad didn't sing, didn't play an instrument. He listened to the radio, but I don't remember him listening to any particular kind of music. He worked at GE for 45 years with a top security clearance, having been on the team that first built jet engines in the US.

During WWII Dad also had top security clearance, since he was a radar technician working in a photo recon unit. He was sent to Saipan before the B29s arrived, to set up shop. He never talked about any of that. He would never camp out under canvas, wouldn't enter closed, dark spaces, and wouldn't eat lamb. My Mom said those things had to do with his war experiences, and we accepted that, but never asked about it.

I was gobsmacked to hear that Pete Seeger was on Saipan at about the same time as Dad. Does anyone out there have family stories about him there? Considering his conviction of contempt of Congress in the early 50s, it probably would have been a bit dangerous to my father's making a living if he had admitted a connection to Pete in that time.

Subject: RE: Pete Seeger on Saipan?
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 28 Sep 09 - 07:05 PM

You've probably already done this, but in case you haven't, type Seeger Saipan into Google and you will get quite a few hits.

Subject: RE: Pete Seeger on Saipan?
From: Bettynh
Date: 29 Sep 09 - 11:49 AM

Gerry, the hits from Google just say Pete was there, mostly. I'm sitting here wishing I could ask my dad if there was more, and wondering about those guys at the edges of those folkie audiences. I find it hard to believe that Pete would restrict his singing to hospitals only.