Primo Maggio!

We had a wonderful weekend, celebrating Primo Maggio (May 1) at the Old Labor Hall. The Barre Historical Society sponsored two events that drew crowds each evening, and we were lucky enough to make some new friends. The weather couldn't have been more cooperative, showing Vermont's beautiful early greening.

Saturday morning Paul and Chris joined a group at the hall to set up for Saturday night's film and Sunday's Italian banquet. Meanwhile, I attended the opening the community gardens where I did a few preliminaries to my plot which is the same as last year's. I also signed up to be on the garden committee with my former neighbor Lori. Then I headed over to the hall myself to help set up chairs. Anticipating a crowd, we formed a human chain to move the clunky old folding chairs up from the basement.

Later in the day, filmmakers Gianfranco Norelli and his wife Suma Kurien arrived from New York and, after settling into our guest room/sewing room, we went down to Lucia's to meet other BHS members for an early dinner. We met Mary Anne Trasciati, Saturday night's speaker, and her friend Paulette in the parking lot where they unfortunately had had a flat tire on their rental car. Paul tried to change the tire but the flimsey jack collapsed. Avis promised to send someone to change it, so after we ate, I waited with Paulette until Kyle from Tunbridge arrived and put on the "donut." When we got to the hall, the film, Pane Amaro (Bitter Bread), was just starting to an audience of about 150 people. This was ten times what I had anticipated, so I was thrilled. The reception was positive and questions for Gianfranco and Suma afterwards were thoughtful.

Sunday morning, we drove out to East Calais for brunch with Chet and Karen. The weather couldn't have been more beautiful, with everything beginning to green up. All of the out-of-towners went to Hope Cemetery for an in-depth tour with sculptor Giuliano Cecchinelli who, they said, was just great. We had just enough time to freshen up before heading back to the hall for the banquet prepared by the men ofthe Mutuo Succorso Society and attended by about 200, many of whom stayed afterwards to help put away chairs and tables.

Over dinner, we got some insight into the process of putting together a historical documentary. Gianfranco won my heart by saying that filmmaking is much like putting together a quilt - you arrange and rearrange all the pieces and also insert pieces for transition until you are satisfied. After the whole work is done, he said, you may see things you might have changed but by then you have moved on to another work. Isn't this just what happens in quiltmaking? I remembered this quilt, Star of Apeldoorn, in which I found a very prominent mistake only years after making and showing it. It is well-loved, however, because it's a memorial to my Tante Jen.

It's funny how easy it is to connect with some people, and we certainly did bond almost instantly with our guests. After a quick Monday morning breakfast, Paul and the Norellis visited a sandblaster and a granite sculptor before they returned to say goodbye. We hope they return sometime, and we will certainly look them up if we are ever in New York. They urged us to consider staying in their apartment in Rome, too, which sounds increibly tempting!