Conversations on The Road

Christmas is Santa Claus, mistletoe and the giant tree at Rockefeller Center. But It’s also so many smaller seasonal traditions and customs.

 One such regional traditional Christmas can be found in Elkhorn, Nebraska. It was there on the Prairies and the Great Plains that many Scandinavians made their home.

 This heritage is celebrated each year at the Little Scandinavian novelty shop on Main Street, the Old Lincoln Highway.

Christmas traditions from Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland are to be found being celebrated. There’s food and music and customs in the midst Norwegian sweaters, Scandinavian textiles, candles napkins and other novelty gifts. There’s a Scandinavian Deli, and even free coffee and Scandinavian Ginger Snaps.

In this “Journey into Nebraska” we speak with Leona Anderson of the Little Scandinavia about her little corner of Scandinavia in Nebraska and how they celebrate and preserve their traditions at Christmas-time there.

 

 Leona Anderson - Main Street Nebraska [14:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The Providence Reds, later called the Rhode Island Reds, played in the Canadian-American Hockey League (CAHL) 1926–36 and the American Hockey League (AHL) from 1936–76. They won the Calder Cup in 1938, 1940, 1949, and 1956. The team was renamed Rhode Island Reds in 1976. The Reds played at the Rhode Island Auditorium, located on North Main Street in Providence, Rhode Island, from 1926 through 1972. The name came from the rooster known as the Rhode Island Red.

Though the Reds have not played hockey for a fgood longtime, they still endure. There is an active Rhode Island Reds Heritahe Society and recently there has been a release of a DVD chronicling teh Reds story “When the Reds Ruled the Roost”.

The half-hour program, includes rare and lost film and photos from every decade starting in the 1920s and many colorful stories from Reds greats, hockey Hall of Famers including Milt Schmidt, Johnny Bower and Ed Giacomin, owners, general managers and coaches.

 In this Journey into Hockey we speak with DVD producer and former Providence sportcaster Joe Rocco, as well as Buster Clegg, former RI Reds General Manager and PR man and former Red Bobby Leduc. 

I hope you feel, as I did, how the Reds were so much more than just a hockey team. They, in fact, were a vital part of the community.

 

 Rhode Island Reds [23:17m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Dog Fish Head Craft Brewery of Milton, Delaware  makes an interesting seasonal beer. It’s called Punkin Ale, and is described by the brewers as “a full-bodied brown ale with smooth hints of pumpkin and brown sugar”.  It is brewed with pumpkin meat, organic brown sugar and spices. 

Punkin Ale is named after a locally-famous and seriously off-centered event  in southern Delaware –Punkin Chukin, a competition where pumpkins are  hurled more than 4,000 feet through the air. In fact, Punkin Ale made it’s debut as it claimed First Prize in the 1994 Punkin Chunkin Recipe Conest - 6 months before the brewery opened for business. 

This podcast is about Dogfish Punkin Ale, which starts to be brewed in September and is gone by Thanksgiving.

More about the Punkin Chuckin event can be seen at this video (from Discover Channel) that inspired the name of the beer: http://science.discovery.com/videos/punkin-chunkin/

(Apologies for some porr sound quality towards the end- It’s a good beer, worth a listen and woth a taste)

 

 DogFish Punkin Ale [5:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Bill (The Big Whistle) Chadwick, a native New Yorker and the first United States-born official in the National Hockey League and later a popular broadcaster for the New York Rangers, died Saturday, October 24, in Cutchogue, NY. He was 94.

For 16 seasons, from 1939 to 1955, and despite being blind in one eye, Chadwick was one of the best officials the NHL has ever known. He invented and perfected the system of hand signals to signify penalties, and the system is now used by hockey officials throughout the world.

In 1965, at the urging of Emile Francis, the Rangers’ long-time general manager and coach, Chadwick embarked on a remarkable, 14-year broadcasting career, working first on radio with play by play man Marv Albert, and most notably, on television with Jim Gordon for nine seasons.

In this Journey into Hockey, we speak with John Halligan former PR Director of the New York Rangers, and now a Journeys into Hockey regular about Chadwick and his remarkable career.

 

 Bill Chadwick [12:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

On November 19, 1959. Rocky and Bullwinkle first went on the air. “Tongue in cheek dialogue” contrasted with the simple plots in which Rocky (Rocket J. Squirrel) and Bullwinkle Moose tangled in Cold War fashion with Soviet bad guy Boris Badinov and his wife, “The Beautiful” Natasha (who worked for Mr. Big).

 Other popular features on the show included “Fractured Fairy Tales” (with Everett Edward Horton), “Bullwinkle’s Corner” and the Adventures of Sherman and Mr. Peabody (an intelligent talking dog). In 1961, the program was re-named the Bullwinkle Show, though characters and format remained the same.

Joining us to talk about it and more is regular “Journey into Hidden America” contributor Bob Thompson, the Trustee Professor of Television and Popular Culture at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture.

 

 Rocky [14:44m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

“Over the river and through the woods” goes the song.

Many of us have a mental picture about the perfect Thanksgiving. Some of su extend tis image beyond the Thanksgiving to the preparations for Thanksgiving Day as well.

In this Journey into Hidden America, we speak with contributor Elizabeth Muse from A Days Outing about some ideas for shopping which can take beyond the mega-Super Market and the local parking lot to places beyond the interstate and off the beaten path – places for superior food and a quality life experience too.

 

 Traditional Thanksgiving [10:47m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download