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Polk Street Band News
California Road Trip, Day 2 Log
author: Theo Tigno
posted: 10/15/2003 7:50 am |
What a day yesterday.
We left the home of Trony and Kathy Tigno at 8:00 in the morning to head to our first Catholic Worker, the Orange County Catholic Worker in Santa Ana, California. We hit the road and prayed the Rosary together as a community, with occasional interruptions from Theo asking, "Do I turn here?" Regardless of the interruptions, we were able to finish the Rosary and pull into the Orange County Catholic Worker driveway on schedule (if we actually had one).
Upon entry, we were greeted with tremendous hospitality from everyone at the OCCW. We were put to work immediately slicing fruit and rolling napkins around plastic forks and knives. We were under the lead of the chef of the house, Patrick, who graciously assisted us in the preparation of breakfast. Serving along with us was a group of women from Oregon State University, who are currently here until the end of July.
At 9:50, we were informed that we should begin setting up our equipment up to play for the morning brunch. We pulled the van around to the back and unloaded the equipment with the help of the guests of the OCCW. We were placed on a "stage" which called for some problem solving because the stage was narrow, and the microphone set-up for the cello placed the microphone lower than the stage. Fortunately, we found a cardboard box, a plastic clothes hanger and a styrofoam cup that solved the problem.
We began playing our first few songs before brunch was served. The wonderful kids of the house played with Steve's guitar before we began, and even took the liberty of joining us on stage while we were playing. We began playing music with our first song, A Touch (the usual). Gabe remarked that there were kids dancing around on the side of the stage and we had an audience of kids and volunteers sitting front and center.
The hour we played was full of blessings, with people coming up to us and telling us how much they appreciated the music (the cello and the flute got rave reviews). A common theme with our music is that people don't know exactly how to describe our music, but if they truly appreciated the music, no descriptions are needed. We had our first public performance of the song "Be Not Afraid," the first song written by the whole Polk Street Band in an impromptu moment two weeks ago. The other impromptu song was "Santa Monica" by Everclear because people couldn't hear Steve's guitar and Theo's vocals. Looks like we may still have some things to iron out on our makeshift sound system.
After brunch, we relaxed in the upstairs room, where the breeze was blowing through the door. The weather here is such blessing! In the upstairs room, we had the opportunity to interact with the Catholic Workers of the house. Our first interaction was with Patrick the chef, who gave us all a brief introduction to the individual members of the community. The witty Teresa kept the community in awe and laughter with her amazing ability to come up with puns during the interactions. The witty Teresa was joined by the witty Dennis, who was also quick on his toes when it comes to puns. We had the opportunity to meet the whole community while in the short time of interaction. We are truly surrounded by amazing people who do amazing things for Our Lord. The interaction time included a visit from Little Caesars dressed in pepperoni.
After the time of acquaintance, everyone parted ways. Steve and Dennis went downstairs to play guitar. Dennis was extremely grateful for the opportunity to play the guitar because he hadn't played music in years. Steve was grateful for the opportunity to hear Dennis' wide array of Irish folk music. Gabe took a short nap, still catching up on sleep lost during the last week. Teresa called her fiance, Tom. Theo went around the house to take pictures of people and elements of the house.
We reconvened in the upstairs room a few hours later with books (well, Theo had a laptop versus a book, but who's counting?) Upon hearing the kids art program downstairs, Theo ditched the laptop to see what's going on with the kids program. There, he met a boy with an amazing story. There was a boy, who appears to be born with down-syndrome, who only had one arm. Upon talking to him, we found out that he had been in a car accident with his mother, and the car accident took his his mother's life, and left him with damage to his internal organs and took his arm. Now, he's with his brother and his girlfriend and the both of them take care of him.
During this conversation, a friend from Theo's high school days, Mel, showed up. He showed up in time to enjoy the meal of the night: beef stroganoff, garlic bread and salad. After dinner, ice cream was served and there was an abundance of vanilla white mustaches on kids everywhere. The temptation of ice cream was too great for some of us and we had some ice cream. The abundance of extremely cute white mustaches also was a great time to take photos. During this time, we all had the pleasure of playing with the kids. Steve, seeing that one of the guests had a guitar, decided to re-string the guitar with new strings and broke into "Lord, I Lift Your Name on High" so the kids could sing along. We saw the transformation of the house from dining service to accommodations within an hour.
We all escaped to the upstairs room again and talked for a while, and went to a local coffee shop, where we were able to enjoy the company of our gracious hosts. There was talk of liberating an umbrella, but the talk was halted quickly when the coffee establishment began closing down. So, we headed back to the house.
At the house, we set-up to go to sleep early. Theo began writing the update for the day when he was informed that someone, who was kicked out of the house earlier in the day for being disruptive to the community (it is speculated that alcohol was a factor), had snuck into the house through an open door. We walked the property and he was gone.
A few minutes later, though, he returned to the house and began asking that he sees his wife and his kids. His voice had reached a level where the guests on the inside of the house could hear him, and we asked him to leave and return in the morning to speak with his wife and kids. One of his kids had a really high fever and his wife did not want to sleep on the street that night, so they declined to go with him. He would not leave so the police was called and he quickly departed. From there, we searched the neighborhood and couldn't find him. He returned to the house a half and hour later to resume the conversation and, at this point, the police were called immediately. We chased him down an alley. As we were chasing him, Theo had a lot of thoughts internalizing in his head. He remembers the days at Maggie's Place with dads who came to the house on drugs so this situation was not new. What was new was that we were running after him. We had no idea why we were chasing him and what to do if we caught up with him. As we crossed a major street, Mark, one of the staff members at the OCCW, told him that we didn't need to chase him any longer.
We waited on the front porch for him to return. At 2:30, as Theo was dozing off, a man approached the house. Theo told him that he couldn't enter the property and called the police. Then, while talking to the police, he noticed that the man was not the same man from earlier in the night. Apparently, he just got out of jail and needed a ride to his moms house. Theo gave him a ride to his house.
Upon returning, Theo went to turn his laptop off (because the update can wait until tomorrow). Teresa was still awake, stating, "I don't think that coffee was decaf." We looked back on pictures of Maggie's Place past and remembered "the good 'ole days."
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is day 2.
- Theo Tigno |
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