THE GREEN HILLS OF IDAHO, ERNEST HEMINGWAY, TED TRUEBLOOD, JACK O’CONNOR, MIKE CARROLL, THE MYSTIC SPORTSMANS PARADISE

Birdman first heard about the hunting and fishing in the mysterious state of Idaho, reading Ted Trueblood’s column in Field and stream magazine. Trueblood lived in Nampa Idaho, and hunted and fished southern Idaho and southeastern Oregon for ducks, geese elk and chukar partridge and wrote about the adventures in his monthly column. He lived the life of the true outdoorsman, and his motto was “Do it now.” He told the story of easterners who spend their entire lives in a city office, dream about retiring in the west, eventually head that way after 50 years, and drop dead of a heart attack, before they ever get there. Ernest Hemingway, hunted ducks on Silver Creek below Sun Valley, with Gary Cooper, and pheasants in the Hagerman Valley. He lived in Ketchum for years, as well as his son Jack, and grandchildren. His writing romanced Sun valley as the place to go for the American Sportsman life, at its best. Jack O’Connor wrote about hunting mountain sheep in Idaho, in his Outdoor life column as the gun editor. He lived in Lewiston Idaho, another center of hunting and fishing. Mike Carroll, professional hunter for years in Kenya, told stories to Birdman, about the Palouse country on the border of Washington and Idaho, near the town of Pullman. This country was a rare spot in the U.S., loaded with pheasants. Hundreds of stories were told in outdoor magazines about the great trout fishing in Silver creek, below Sun Valley, a slow, English style chalk stream, with large rainbow trout. Birdman had a dream about going to Idaho for 12 years, as he hunted and fished western Colorado, near Norwood and Montrose. It became an obsession with him. When his first marriage vanished he headed to Oregon to fish the Rogue river, made famous by Zane Gray, for steelhead trout. His goal was to get to Idaho, and see if it was real. He had in mind to fish Brownlee reservoir, part of the Snake River, before Hells Canyon. He stopped at a tackle shop and met a game warden, who told him about the jigs to use and where to fish. He drove out of Weiser to Brownlee, and remembered that Trueblood had hunted chukars in that canyon. A man at a store told him that steelhead used to come up the creek from the Columbia River behind his store, before all the dams were built. At the rocky point at Brownlee, Birdman caught and released 47 smallmouth bass, an amazing day. In the afternoon, Birdman caught 30 more and released them all. Years later Birdman spent a summer in Sun Valley, and fished Silver Creek. The fishing was difficult. The large rainbows could be seen, in the spring fed creek, but were not taking dry flies. A fisherman came along and told him that some days the fish will take anything. He also heard the story about the fisherman in chest waders who was caught in quick sand and taken under a deep stretch of water. His black labrador went out to rescue him, but could do nothing, his body became a submarine. Too many duck hunters have met their demise in chest waders that fill with water. Idaho was better than the dream, the southern foothills were green and reminded Birdman of the scenery in Spain where he ran the bulls at Pamplona when he was 19. Idaho, what a mystical place, full of wild hot springs, majestic mountain scenery, outdoor adventure, and green foothills that look like Spain. It is still there, and the spirit of legendary sportsman still haunts the place. 

AMERICAN JAZZ GREATS, NEW YORK CITY IN EARLY 60'S, CENTER OF CREATION OF BEBOP BY THELONIOUS MONK

Birdman had the great fortune to travel from St Olaf College in the summer of 1962 to New York City and live on Perry Street in Greenwich Village.  He had arrived in the center of one of the revolutions in music, the New York City Jazz scene.  It was the time of the Beatniks, who read their poetry in Washington Square Park, at the fountain, and read at the Cafe Why?, the Cafe Why Not?, and the Fat Black Pussy Cat.  Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, and numerous other Beat poets lived in the Village and prowled the cafes at night.  Bob Dylan played at the Cafe Limelight, blowing his harmonica and singing his early songs.  Birdmans first encounter with the scene, was a night at the Village Gate.  Outside the building, a group of winos from an empty semi trailer on the Hudson River, had gathered with empty wine bottles, and showed Birdman how to listen through the empty bottle, through the walls to the sounds within.  Inside, Mose Allison ws playing the piano and singing southern blues.  Later on, Birdman saw Miles Davis play at the Village Vanguard, Thelonious Monk at the Five Spot, and all the bebop greats of that era, playing in one of the Village clubs, including the Blue Note.  Jack Kerouac was strongly influenced by this jazz method and called his method of writing, "spontaneous, jazz inspired rapping." He influenced thousands of young men to buy an army rucksack, and hit the road, like his "On The Road" characters.  Birdman, after 6 months of bumming around Europe, ended up in Hermosa Beach California.  He saw most of the greats of jazz at that time play at the Light House Cafe on Pier Avenue.  He and his friend from Minnesota, hopped a freight train to San Francisco and were lucky enough to hear Thelonious Monk play most of the night at the Jazz Workshop.  Monk played and created some of the best jazz of that era, that will last far longer then the music of today.  The beatniks of that time gathered every night at the Five spot in the Bowery of NYC.  This mystical nightclub was formerly called the Bowery Cafe.  The greats of the Bebop era played there on their own or with Monk, including Charlie Rouse, who Birdman later saw at El Chepultepec in Denver Colorado.  The Beats hung out there, including Kerouac, who later in one of his novels called Monk the high priest, the Monk, the greatest musician who had ever played.  Monk had a series of spontaneous dances, getting out of his piano chair,  swirling around, and amusing the audience with his eccentric behavior.  Jack Kerouac introduced the phrase "Beat Generation" in 1948.  He expanded the meaning (tired or beaten down) to include the connotations "upbeat, beatific" and a musical association of being "on the beat".  The jazz scene and the poetry scene in Greenwich Village in the early 60's was an unusual era of spontaneous creativity, never seen since.  The Beats ended up in a kind of soulmate link with the greats of jazz of that time.  Yes they were influenced by Thomas Wolfe and Walt Whitman, but every night, in their face, the sounds of Monk, Coltrane, Rouse, Gillespie, Cannonball Adderley, Miles Davis, Erik Dolphy, Nancy Wilson, and Nina Simone, reached into their souls, to inspire their writing.  At the fountain in Washington Square Park, Big Brown and Moondog, rapped their street and jailbird poetry while a trumpet player blew a horn by their side.  Leo Jones, the guru of Beatniks, chess player and Greek Mythology professor, worked the chess tables in Washington Square Park.  He made a living rapping Mythology and hustling chess players.  A crowd would gather to watch him, the black mystic, who could recite myths of old while he played chess.  Birdman can still hear the trumpet sounds of Miles Davis, a muted howling in the night darkness.  "All the bells that ever rang, still ringing in the long dying rays of light."  William Faulkner