A home cooked meal, TBE stuff and the local NAACP scholarship breakfast

Posted By: David Fortier January 15, 2023

By David Fortier 

Come Sunday morning, there will be crepes for breakfast and, later in the morning, TBE will meet for our weekly gathering where we will review the week and do some planning. But first the crepes. These are not the wonderful creations of time-honored Paris cuisine, those thin as paper creations holding delectable concoctions suitable for dinner or dessert. 

These are the crepes my dad made all-year round but especially on cold winter mornings. These crepes are the ones for laborers, like the miners in my father’s family, the ones who over time emigrated to Maine and New Hampshire and then to the Connecticut Valley and eventually Bristol where they found work at factories, Marlin-Rockwell for my grandfather, or “Pepere,” and construction sites, for my uncles. 

These crepes are at least a quarter of an inch thick, fill an entire 12-inch skillet, are cooked until crisp–you know they are done cooking when a crack appears on the surface. Slap on a slab of butter, pour a heap of syrup and sprinkle on a few tablespoons of brown sugar. 

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At our TBE meeting, we plan to do some audio recording, play around with a podcast with our staff and what they have been up to for the week. This is something we have talked about and now taking some practical steps to make happen. 

It seems we will always be getting our legs under us, so to speak, and this year we have a few surprises coming. Each of our initiatives is a reminder that locally sourced and reported news, just like locally sourced produce, is good for us all.  

As with any change, it will take time, but it is easier if we have people behind us, willing to support us with a few dollars a month. As with many hands make light work, many supporters making small donations do the work of a few donors. We will not turn donations away, of course, but we do like the idea that more rather than fewer people choose to support us. 

All of our reporting is local. For instance, last week TBEer’s took a tour of the Bristol Arts and Innovation Magnet School, complements of the Bristol Board of Education. Deputy Superintendent Michaell Dietter was kind enough to lead the tour.  

We will be reporting back about our visit and regarding other aspects associated with the school and theater, including talking to people in Bristol with unique perspectives on the project. 

In a few words, the building and theater are jaw-droppingly wonderful, especially for students and for the community. What caught my eye this time around were the connections between the theater and practical skills that I don’t typically associate with a theater.  

For instance, my head exploded when I saw sewing machines in a workroom where students not only make the costumes for productions but also design them. It was the same with the workroom where sets are designed and constructed. Ideas are all around, but for students to make the connection between costumes and where they come from there is a now practical knowledge and skill to produce them. 

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For this week’s reading/listening, how about trying a live event? For you early risers, who have the day to themselves on Monday, head out to the annual NAACP scholarship breakfast, 8 a.m. at Bristol Eastern High School. There is a donation at the door, a hearty breakfast, a chance to test your voice, some entertainment and a speaker, whom many of us might be familiar with—Danisha Craig, Bristol native now working in Washington, D.C. 

Can’t make it to the breakfast, try this episode of the Ones & Tooze podcast, “The Economic Philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr.” The podcast is hosted by Foreign Policy economics columnist Adam Tooze, history professor and popular author, who happens to have an encyclopedic knowledge of most things. Cameron Abadi is Foreign Policy deputy editor. The episode provides a more well-rounded perspective of King as a person and thinker. 

Enjoy. 

All TBE readers, supporters and donors       

The Bristol Edition will be limiting the number of stories non-members and free readers may access each week. This decision is based on our financial projections and, most certainly, to remind people that TBE is serious about providing accurate, timely and thorough reporting for Bristol. To do this we have devised a financial support structure that makes unlimited access extremely affordable, beginning with a $6 monthly donation.       

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