This year, we managed to get an early start setting up the Noodle Talk booth at the Beacon Sloop Club’s annual Strawberry Festival. (It also helped that we had a whole year’s experience exhibiting at the GreenFlea market on New York’s Upper West Side.) Conditions were therefore perfect for giving Pete Seeger, the legendary folksinger, his 90th birthday present a year late when we spotted him at the strawberry shortcake tent not far from our location. He was talking with another man as Noodle Talk approached and explained what we were there for. His two hands were full of litter he’d been picking up before the crowds arrived so the other man had to shove our gift of a Noodle Talk set into the singer’s shirt pocket. We were certain it would fall out minutes later once this giant of American music, civil rights, and justice resumed his humble garbage-picking rounds.
Thirty minutes later, Seeger walked by the booth checking out the wares of different vendors. “No thanks, I already have one,” he shouted in our direction. Hmmm, we thought, a possible advertising slogan: “Pete Seeger already has one!” While fantasizing, an i-reporter caught this on video (audio may be difficult to hear so check out the slightly edited transcript below the clip):
Here we are in Beacon, NY, right on the waterfront along the Hudson River. We’re at the Strawberry Festival where thousands of people have descended — all on the Noodle Talk booth. Now it doesn’t look like there are that many people here but they’ve each taken a couple of questions and gone off to the other side of the railroad tracks in small groups of 10 to share their answers with each other. Very inspiring, totally moving. Pete Seeger came by, saw what was going on, composed a song on the spot, and is now on the stage singing it but only about two or three people are in the audience because most attendees are over there [pointing to his right towards the tracks]. Just an amazing, amazing experience. This has never happened before at the Strawberry Festival and — what can you say — it’s so touching. To me, it’s so [unintelligible] Noodle Talk.
One thing we learned at this year’s Strawberry Festival is that the strawberry shortcake isn’t free (as we’ve mistakenly assumed). In fact, it cost $5/serving — which was still worth it, even in this recession and having to stand in line for an hour or two to satisfy one’s craving.
We discovered something of more significance when a shopper answered one of our sample questions, “Please explain one of your pet theories,” by saying, “No grapes.” When asked to elaborate, she told us a very sad story: After giving her dog 8 grapes as a treat, the animal quickly succumbed to renal failure and died. Its owner had no idea that grapes, like raisins, are toxic to pets. Nor did we. And never in our wildest imaginations did we expect an answer that took this form. We share it in the hopes that no reader will ever make the same mistake.
A far happier note was sounded by a young woman in response to the question, “What is the highest you’ve ever been?” Three years after she and her boyfriend met, they decided to celebrate at the pub where the blessed event took place on St. Patrick’s Day. As she stepped out of the cab at their destination, she saw these words written on the sidewalk: “Will you marry me?”
Being the sentimental mushes we are, we couldn’t help but choke up and become teary.
As happened last year, we met some fascinating people at the booth: Gail T., our favorite fashion designer; the son and two grandchildren of Mr. Noodle’s college roommate whom he hasn’t seen in thirty or forty years; eight students from the Culinary Institute of America who confessed that cooking schools can be pretty competitive; a bunch of wholesome-looking teenagers from across the river who assured us that Newburgh wasn’t quite as bad as its reputation; staff members from the Capuchin Youth & Families Ministries Center just south of Beacon in Garrison, NY; two Princeton University graduate students in music composition who characterized their musical interests as “post-ugly”; and a woman dressed in a vivid orange shirt — the closest thing to the sun we saw all day. Wouldn’t you know her name was Dawn!
Then there was the mother and teenage daughter, both quite beautiful, who looked like sisters and immediately got what Noodle Talk is all about. There was a very sweet energy between them that one couldn’t help but be caught up in. We asked the daughter if she had a boyfriend, and when she replied in the affirmative, we suggested that they ask each other this Noodle Talk question, “What do you wish more people recognized about you?” — and never forget the answers. At Noodle Talk, we think it’s the best question in the whole collection. The girl didn’t have an immediate response but her mother had one for her — that she was every bit as intelligent as she was beautiful. The look of pride and appreciation they exchanged with each other left no doubt mom was speaking the truth.
Another customer was a young woman who thought Noodle Talk would be a great stocking stuffer for her grandmother. She was the type of consumer, she explained, who did her Christmas shopping throughout the year, only to forget she had done so when the holiday season arrived. Then she’d go out and buy more gifts. Here, we thought, was someone who truly deserved a Medal of Honor: Imagine what great shape the economy would now be in if she were the role model for other Americans.
A paramedic who pulled this question, “Looking back on your life, what earlier experience(s) do you now understand were a harbinger of things to come?’” was stumped at first. As we talked about its meaning, an answer became apparent: His grandmother worked in a hospital’s emergency room and whenever he visited her at home as a young child, he was captivated by the blood pressure cuff and stethoscope she kept in a drawer. Now, many years later standing under the Noodle Talk canopy because it had begun to drizzle, he found a connection to his youth he had always missed.
Another reason why Noodle Talk is so much more than a conversation starter.
Tags: Beacon Sloop Club, Capuchin Youth & Families Ministries, conversation game, conversation starters, conversation stirrers, Culinary Institute of America, Garrison, GreenFlea market, Hudson River, ice breakers, N:F:P, Newburgh, Noodle Talk, Noodle Talk conversation game, noodle talking, Pete Seeger, social networking, Strawberry Festival
I love your account of this festival. The video cracked me up, the stories were (as always) touching. How cool that Pete Seeger now has his own set of noodles.
Mr. Noodle:
I enjoyed the whole website and the video. Although the quality of the video is poor, you look pretty much like you did at Harpur (haven’t aged much).
I chuckled after reading your spoof of how people discussed their recently obtained noodles in groups near the tracks, an activity that flitted away Pete Seeger’s audience. This reminded me of your sense of humor.
Hope to see you soon.
Alan
Your write-up is wonderful but I think your videographer should be fired. I really wish I could hear and SEE you – also hear and see Pete. But I’m not really complaining – the stories are great. Next time let me know when the festival is and I will go. !