CREATE — The Heart of the Hearth

"You know, music is like when you're getting married. Something old — traditional, something new — original, something borrowed — songs worth saving, something blue — like a good man feeling bad!" Music is never meant to be where I am up on a stage and you are out in the darkened audience. Folk music is meant to be shared across kitchen tables, in a living room, parlor, or a front porch..." — Pete Seeger (with emphasis from Richard Arnold Beattie)

My earliest memories of a musical life come from family gatherings on Long Island. My Scottish immigrant grandparents would, on many Saturday mornings, come out to our little home on the North Shore in a small village named Greenlawn. It was in the Harborfields district of the Town of Huntington, New York — Greenlawn, in Suffolk County. The main "crop" was sod. The old adage for advertising — "Don't sell me grass seed, sell me a green lawn!" — comes to mind from my copywriting background. By 1962, when I was 4 or 5 years old, I remember the house on a half acre. Early, around sunrise on a typical Saturday morning, my mother would get the coffee ready and look out the back window — and call out to my father in the bedroom, "Bob, your folks are in the backyard!" Charles Hornal Beattie (Charlie Pop) and my grandmother, the former Nellie Andrew (Nanie), lived in Brooklyn and took the Long Island Railroad from Penn Station to Greenlawn, then called a cab from Greenlawn station to our home at 169 Clay Pitts Road.

Motherwell

Charlie Pop and his father, Rob, were planning to escape a life of mining in the working-class village of Motherwell in Lanarkshire, Scotland. One day Charlie stopped at a corner market to pick up a pack of unfiltered cigarettes. The shop was owned by John McLintock Andrew as a family business. Nellie, a petite lass, waited on Charlie. His warmth and humor, song and charm — and her warm smile and homemaking skills — fit together like a quintessential gathering of family and neighbors. Her baking of savory and sweet pies, shortbread, and the fabric of the tartan and tweed, paired with his telling of stories and the singing of songs, fit together in a steamer trunk that crossed the ocean — and brings us to the back story of past, present, and what was to come.

Generational Generosity

Charlie never wanted to be the canary in the mines. The plan was to make the voyage across the pond through Ellis Island. Charlie and his father, with the steamer trunk, left the UK with a promise to Nellie Andrew — marriage and a new life in America. Father and son endured difficulty and humiliation through the immigration process. Once in the USA and processed, Pop sent for Nellie, but through Canada — for a more humane way of passage. My grandfather and great-grandfather headed up to Canada, where they met up with Nellie. They were married on the American side of Niagara Falls, making their way to a small enclave of Scots in Glen Campbell, Pennsylvania.

Songs and Stories

As in their homes in Scotland, Glen Campbell was complete with a fireplace and hearth for warmth and cooking. While Nanie provided baked and cooked goods and knitted blankets and sweaters for warmth and sharing, Pop provided the songs and stories. With a baby on the way and family life expanding, something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue were to continue along the timelines.

The Heart of the Hearth

Pop: (sung)

Good day and evening, family and friends,

New beginnings, middles and ends.

When your turn comes up, I will bring you in

To share your stories and songs.

Nanie:

So sit by the fire, feel the warmth tonight,

Hear the songs and stories of the homeland.

The tartan and tweed and all you need —

The heart of the hearth carries on.

Chorus:

The heart is stone and the hearth is brick,

Used for warmth and for cooking.

The heart of the hearth in story and song

Is the fire inside the telling — ever dwelling.

Refrain:

We're no awa tae bide awa,

We're no awa tae leave ya,

We're no awa tae bide awa

Til I come back tae see ya.

Rob:

So we drink a wee dram

By the fire tonight,

The smells and tastes

Of the timeless —

Family and friends,

Good and right,

Taste, smell and see.

(Chorus — Refrain)

Richard:

Aye, something old with something new, something borrowed and blue — a melody borrowed from an old Scottish folk song. These are the earliest beginnings of my musical life, where my grandparents were the heart of the hearth — the actual fire within my passion for stories and songs. I can still smell and taste the tattie scones that Nanie would make — a stack of mashed potato cakes she served for a birthday breakfast. They were dirt poor, and yet they were rich in stories, songs, recipes, and fabric. I can see them, I can hear them, I can smell and taste the goodness of their experiences and the experiences of our ancestors.

Richard Arnold Beattie is a singer-songwriter and interpreter of music, lyrics, stories, and songs. As a trained journalist, writer, and songwriter, he is a singer and guitarist with a heart for home, soul work, and community. With his wife Jill, who owns and operates Music Mountain Instruments for Traveling and Camping in Westcliffe, the Beatties lead a musical life in the communities they serve through recreation, education, arts, and entrepreneurship. To join us in the CREATE Community, email richardbeattie809@gmail.com.