Tanglewood

One of the interesting things about living in the Berkshires is what goes on in the summer. As with all areas that have something that attracts tourists, we don’t have beaches or an ocean, we have mountains trees and all sorts of cultural activities within minutes of our house. I think if you live in a tourist area you find it interesting what people come hours and spend a weekend to see what you have with in minutes away. We have many second homeowners and while many are very nice people, you can usually pick them out. And the ones who still think they are just in a different part of New York don’t even try to blend in.

Tonight we ventured across town to Tanglewood, which is the summer home of the Boston Symphony and sits on 200+ beautiful acres and at what use to be one of the big Berkshire cottage estates. In addition to the BSO it is also used for all sorts of concerts and events and also is the site of two summer music programs for gifted young musicians. If you walk the grounds during the week beautiful music drifts from various small cottages that are practice studios.

But tonight the reason we crossed town was a live broadcast of a Prairie Home Companion (on public radio). We left home about a half hour before the ticket time, to allow for parking lot traffic and having to walk from the car. The shed, as the wall-less amphitheater is known, was full as was the lawn. Unfortunately our tickets, which I purchased on the first day of sales, were in the last row and 15 rows ahead there was this pole that seemed to move as the key people on stage did…..Well I’m sure you can get the rest of it. We had planned on going because a relative really loves this show and they wanted to go. What we didn’t know, and after we had non refundable tickets, was that all the snow days of the last winter pushed an important graduation right to the same day. So they couldn’t go but our kids now got the chance to go and have the experience, which despite the seats was a fun and interesting.

Here is one of their pictures of Tanglewood. I am still working on the camera :(



Then after the show we hit the back road exits and are at the ice cream shop in 5 minutes as many others sat in the lines waiting to get out.

So far this year we have seen something at Shakespeare and Co., a nationally known theater program, the musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, at Barrington stage Co, [where it was developed before it moved to Broadway] and Prairie Home and the summer is young. The kids are also getting the opportunity to see good theater and concerts within almost biking distance, which is great.

So our pay for the quiet and boredom of the winter months is these wonderful opportunities that normally would never exist in a town of 5,000 in the hills of the remotest part of a state. But it does here and we are glad.

Here are some links to Tanglewood

http://www.berkshirelinks.com/
http://www.bso.org/bso/index.jsp?id=bcat5240070