Last weekend was the Binghamton Morris Men’s Gilbertsville tour and I probably have not enjoyed any Gilbertsville tour more than this one. Part of that was my own situation: I had not fully attended G’ville since five years ago. In 2022 I went only on Saturday and participated in the outdoor dancing; of the 35 or so people who spent the weekend in the Major’s Inn, at least 8 tested positive for covid by the following Wednesday, which made me feel vindicated, though not happy. I did the same in 2023, but no one to my knowledge got sick. This year I decided to go all in. I still have qualms about the thought of being indoors with that many people, but in practice I didn’t think about it much. Four days after it ended I’ve had no symptoms of anything, so I think I got away with it.

Guest teams were the usual: The Toronto Morris Men, the Newtowne Morris Men, and the Bouwerie Boys Morris Dancers. The BMM contingent this year was Tom Keays, Ken Kearns, Luke Willis, both Peters (Klosky and Darvin), Axel Naar, Greg Skidmore, Roberta Wackett, Maggie Ericson, and me. We also had Jim Moskin of Bouwerie dancing in, and at least once Michael Gorin also of BBMD.

I left Syracuse on Friday morning a little before 10:00, stopping along the way at DeWitt Bagels to pick up the three dozen I’d ordered the day before. I’d been feeling discontented with Wegmans bagels — they’re okay, but we’re feeding New Yorkers, for crying out loud. DeWitt seems to be regarded as one of the best bagel shops in our area, and their bagels are baked there but mixed and shaped and boiled in New York City. And they’re roughly the same price as, actually a little cheaper than, Wegmans. Arrived at Gilbertsville about noon, took my preferred room, a small one near the southwest corner on the second floor, just enough room for two (one in the bed and one on the floor) but it was just me. I managed to leave my sleeping bag behind, so after getting settled I drove to Sidney for lunch and to buy a sheet and comforter set at Dollar General.

From there on it was as it’s been for years. Dancing in the main hall that evening, one highlight of which was Toronto doing “Saturday Night” during which more musicians, including me (on melodeon), joined in one at a time in parallel with the dancers. We ended up doing the same again twice in public, once Saturday at Pathfinder Village and once Sunday in Gilbertsville. After the dancing, singing — I did “Laziness” and “The Fellow That Played the Trombone”. I went to bed around 1:00 am, woke up needing to pee around 4:00, and only dozed from then until 6:00 or so when I got up.

Saturday’s tour was much the same as usual. Notably in G’ville the Mayor, who was born about a decade later than the G’ville tour was, had the street closed to traffic for us. Between the Winster and the first set dance was the unveiling of a monument: A marble slab with a plaque honoring the late John Dexter, founder of BMM, BBMD, the American Travelling Morrice, and the Gilbertsville tour. Weather was cool but there was sun.

I didn’t act early enough on getting a ride for the day so I drove to Pathfinder Village and from there to Cooperstown on my own. Luke Willis abandoned Ken’s car in Cooperstown and rode with me from there on. A front brought rain, only a few sprinkles though, minutes after the end of the Cooperstown stand, and the Red Shed Brewery stand as usual was indoors. Notable at Red Shed was a BMM performance of “John Barleycorn” that I thought was exceptionally good, with some really together sticking. Then on to Butternuts Brewing, and then we returned to G’ville. We got heavier rain later but were back in the inn by then.

The lunch as usual was fine and the feast had plentiful appetizers so we were again well fed. An innovation from last year was continued: If you wanted to request a song, or whatever, from someone, you had to pay into the Major’s Inn donation jar. Ken also auctioned off some items that had been left behind in previous years, money again going into the jar. After the Canadians sang “Canada’s Really Big” I retroactively requested it and paid, and later paid for Ken to do his Napoleon song. Luke, who’d gone to bed before the singing the night before, ponied up $5 for a reprise of “Laziness”. Between my insufficient sleep and the need to get up to do Sunday breakfast I fell into bed and immediately asleep at around 10 pm. There was no marching band, thankfully. I woke up before my 6:30 am alarm but slept well until then.

Breakfast was about as usual. Dancing at noon in Gilbertsville went well. It was warm, mostly cloudy, but great weather altogether. We got very lucky with the weather this year.

Six morris dancers (Newtowne Morris Men), facing away from the camera, are dancing for an audience in the street in front of an old building. The dancers and musicians wear white shirts and trousers, blue baseball caps, dark suspenders with a rosette in the middle of the back, bells on the shins, and black shoes. They are all in the air with hankies in the hands raised high. A pair of musicians plays a melodeon and a fiddle.

Newtowne Morris Men dancing in the street at Gilbertsville NY, 28 April 2024

Greg and Axel had to leave before the dancing so we brought in ringers from Bouwerie.

Cleanup went faster than usual, partly because Ken organized several volunteers to pack up the dinner pottery during the morning, several people from other teams took it upon themselves to help with the chairs and tables, and Jim Moskin (and therefore his passengers) stayed long enough to pitch in significantly. We left a little after 4:00 pm, I stopped for dinner on the way and got home about 6:20. Tired, but happy.

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