It's been a couple of years since I recall a posting about DS's influence on our lives. I wrote a long piece about the kinds of correspondences that come up in daily life that continually remind me of DS.
In the ensuing couple of years, those correspondences have become fewer and farther between. I supposed I've had too many other weighty concerns on my mind.
But here are a few things that came up just this past week that reminded me of this subject.
In my work, I deal with old books, and last week I came across several volumes of "Theater World," an annual, from the 1960s. There were a couple of names I wanted to look up in the index, one of them being Jonathan Frid. And sure enough, I found him in two of the volumes, 1963-64 and 1966-1967. (I made detailed notes of everything but am not sure where those notes are.) I was surprised to see Mr. Frid listed as an understudy in two plays on Broadway and performing in yet another in 1963-64; I hadn't remembered hearing of these plays before. In the second volume he was listed twice, I think, and there was a picture of him playing Caliban in "The Tempest." This made me think about how Jonathan Frid must have been a noted presence on the Broadway stage not long before he joined the cast of "Dark Shadows." Given that, many New Yorkers would have recognized him when he came on the scene as Barnabas. An interesting thought!
Another book that crossed my desk only a couple of days ago caught my eye because it dealt with the Roma, or gypsy people. The title is "In Sara's Tents" by Walter Starkie, and I decided to purchase the book myself since it looked so interesting. The book concerns the annual piligrimage of the Roma to the town of St.-Maries de la Mer, Camargue, Bouches-du-Rhône, on the Mediterranean coast of southern France, where they gather to honor Saint Sara. The festival takes place for three days in May when the reliques of "Sarah-la-Kali" ("Sarah the Black" in the Romany language), in legend the Egyptian maid to Mary Magdalene, who supposedly sailed to southern France, are on view and believed to have healing powers. The book also discusses gypsy beliefs and practices of witchcraft, and vampirism. Magda could surely tell us more!
Yet a third book that I saw only yesterday was a small book about the Maine coastline. I debated about setting that one aside for personal perusal, but decided I couldn't take the time with all these personal interests.
Another thing that reminded me of DS a while back that I don't think I've mentioned here before is that I discovered that a cousin of my great-great grandfather (same last name as ours) served as a gendarme à cheval (mounted police) in Gros Morne, Martinique. Of course, "Martinique" caught my eye at once. I'd like to research more about his life since all I know is that he was born in the same town in northeastern France as my direct family line, his wife was a Bouet, and he died in Martinique at the 1866 at the age of 47 (the same age as my own great-grandfather's death, which slightly concerns me personally ... ). My preliminary search for information showed that there was cholera epidemic in the Caribbean that may have touched Martinique at that time. My cousin may have more information since I found this in his database.
A few years ago I was looking through the Family Tree charts of the Collins family in one of the Pomegranate Press books and thinking how remote in time some of their ancestors were. About that time I also saw the 1840 storyline with its flashbacks to events in 1692. I remember how long ago that seemed, and it was as if it must have been a dark distant period lived in frightful shadows. I guess DS made it seem that way, but I no longer view that time period as such since I've researched so much of my own family in the 1600s and even much earlier. I didn't get my interest in historical and genealogical research from DS, but I sometimes like to think that my work in this area might have been useful around Collinwood!
- Philippe Cordier
