Making It Up As We Go Along
November 21st, 2007 by Richard CockrumOne of the modern Thanksgiving traditions in my house is listening to Arlo Guthrie’s song, Alice’s Restaurant. Arlo first performed Alice’s Restaurant about 40 years ago.
I’ve sometimes wondered over the years about Alice. Here she is, her restaurant featured in a classic song, lost to history.
Alice isn’t lost anymore. National Public Radio has a segment they feature every week called This I Believe. This I Believe is based on Edward R. Murrow’s segment from the 1950s of the same name. It features short essays by people from all over the world in which they discuss the values and beliefs that guide their lives.
On November 19, 2007, This I Believe featured an essay by Alice Brock, the same Alice who owned the restaurant featured in Arlo Guthrie’s song. The essay is called Making It Up As I Go Along. The title sounds like the story of all our lives if we’re honest with ourselves.
In talking about her restaurant, Alice says
I had no idea of how anything was ‘’supposed” to be. I just barreled ahead, discovering all kinds of possibilities and making plenty of mistakes. And those are really great opportunities to learn. When something works, well, that’s that. But when it doesn’t, I have to think about why, and I have to come up with some other way that will make it work. Mistakes lead to discovery and that can produce delight…Some have said it was too bad my restaurant was a failure. Why, because it went bankrupt? I came away richer than any restaurant owner could possible dream of, just not in terms of money.
I’m thankful that I can still say with Alice I’m making it up as I go along. A known future, a planned life is a recipe for stagnation. Uncertainty is the face of adventure.
Are you making it up as you go along?
This post is a part of Nneka’s Season of Gratitude.
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November 21st, 2007 at 11:20 am
Rick,
Thanks for the reminder about the Arlo Guthrie’s song. Christine turned me on to that song/story back when we met in the 80s. We used to sit and listen to it together. I can smell the Marlboros and see the shadows of the fish nets dance on the ceiling in shades of black light purple as we sat indian style listening in front of our makeshift cinder block and lumber shelving that held our turntable. Thanks Rick, I think I’ll give the song a listen again this weekend. I wonder if we still have the vinyl?
November 21st, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Have a great Thanksgiving, Steve.
I may regret it when I’m old and grey(er), but I never bought a copy of Alice’s Restaurant. I’ve always relied on the radio to play it at Thanksgiving, and haven’t been disappointed yet.
I read your comment to my wife. She said “that brings back memories”. Don’t forget the black light posters hanging on the walls.
November 21st, 2007 at 12:56 pm
I confess that the song doesn’t ring any bells for me. I’ll have to check it out. However, I am making it up as I go along. Thank goodness for that. Otherwise, what would be the point? It’d be like cheating in a single-player game: No point. I’m glad I’m making it up as I go along, because that makes it an adventure.
November 21st, 2007 at 1:52 pm
Hi John,
The song is old and the only time you usually hear it is at Thanksgiving, and then generally on classic rock stages, especially in the US mid-Atlantic region. Do take the time to listen to the video I linked to. The sound quality isn’t the best, but the story is fantastic, funny, and ironic all at once - an outstanding example of making it up as we go along.
November 21st, 2007 at 9:16 pm
Rick: that was fantastic! Thanks for much for the link to to the video, and thanks for this post. It’s good to know that others are making it up as they go along as well…
November 21st, 2007 at 11:46 pm
Why thank you, Lyman. I’m glad you enjoyed the video. I was so glad to hear the piece on This I Believe from Alice.
If we’re rationalizing creatures, we have to be making it up as we go along to one extent or another.
Have a good holiday on this and every day.
November 23rd, 2007 at 5:54 am
You know what blows my mind Rick? Conversing with folks like Alice. It is beyond wondrous! I have a friend (college grad) who learns from the street. He’s not tuned into books or the internet. I am over-tuned into these but not the street. It is positively uncanny how in the end, we are able to relate to each other because of how much knowledge that we have in common - yet obtained in all together different methods.
1975. The first year my wife and I listened to AR. It came on the radio at twelve noon. We’ve never missed since. There were times, when on the way to dinner at relatives, we’d have to drive around until the song was over. It is one of our strongest traditions, which our twenty-six year old daughter who lives on her own, has picked up.
November 23rd, 2007 at 9:58 am
Hi Dave,
AR still comes on at noon around here. We don’t go anywhere, so we don’t have to drive around listening to the song, but we would.
People are people are people, at least once we stop trying to play a role, stop being a poser, as my son calls it. In the late 1970s I lived in Tampa. I learned a lot from from watching and talking to the street people there.
November 25th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Hi Rick,
I do hope you had an enjoyable Thanksgiving. I am going through my reader and this post especially caught my eye. I remember seeing the movie “Alice’s Restaurant” and having one of the last conversations with my grandmother who has since past. I felt such a camaraderie with her, listening to her gasp in recollection speaking about Gunthrie.
I, then last year, borrowed and ripped the whole album and continue to enjoy the story each time in comes up in my shuffle. I throughly enjoyed Alice’s essay as well as the great live performance.
The only way I know how to live is to make it up as I go along, Doing so builds my faith that regardless of how behind I think I am in my progress I know that I am defining my own path. This is in of itself quite an accomplishment in my book.
I admit to be a feed reading lurker at times but know that I am proud to call you a member of my community.
As always wishing you and yours well.
November 25th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
What a great statement. Mistakes are about making discoveries. Most of the important stuff that I have learned have been through trial and error. Think how boring life would be with no new discoveries.
November 26th, 2007 at 11:07 am
Hi Danielle,
Deep within, I believe we do have a general outline of our life. As John Lennon said, “Life is what happens as you’re planning other things.” Those other things are the frosting on the cake, our responses to the the situations we’ve built for ourselves.
Most of us lurk most of the time. I’m glad you’re still finding things worth lurking for.
Take care.
November 26th, 2007 at 11:11 am
Hi Patricia,
I’m no fan of mistakes. I avoid them, or at least what I perceive as mistakes, as much as possible. That said, Alice is right. We learn a lot more from what we do wrong than what we do right. Life would certainly be boring without new discoveries.