Tonight Calvin Trillin was the guest author at the Port Medway Readers' Festival. The place was packed. The tickets are always all sold but tonight there was a waiting list with people arriving hoping that some folks would not show up by the time the event begins at 7:00. He has been writing essays and stories for The New Yorker since 1962 so he was well known to both the locals and to the summer people from the US.
The event was advertised as readings from his latest book, "Jackson, 1964," a collection of his essays about race in America over the years. He was born in Kansas City and has lived in New York city for many years. His connection with Nova Scotia is Port Medway. He and his family bought a house and have spent every summer in Port Medway since 1975 so he is almost a local.
He decided not to read from his essays on race. Instead he read pieces about Canada, some specifically Port Medway. He is a very funny fellow and I enjoyed his readings. He is clever too. Those pieces can be found in his book "Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin." Fortunately, we were sitting close to the front because Calvin speaks softly. Even when asked to speak up, which he did for a few minutes, he quickly resorted to speaking in a low voice. Anyone who was hard of hearing would have had difficulty hearing him. Even though the meeting room is small, he definitely needed a microphone.
Once again, the evening was delightful. Peter drove Mary, Shirley and me. And the food served at the firehall was delicious. Now I will read what he had to say about race in America in his essays because I bought his book. But I am somewhat apprehensive as he is a Democrat, a Liberal and lives in New York City. But he made great sport in his writing of the rules and instructions for trash collection so he can not be all bad. His newest book to be published in a month is poems for children. As I said before, he is a funny, clever fellow, and I enjoyed the hour with him.
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