One Man’s Opinion

When a little town like New Windsor, Maryland has a Little Theater Group that clears the hardwoods in the basement of St. Paul’s Methodist Church and employs local talent to perform the musical Oklahoma, that’s…NEWS.

Luckily, on Opening Night, my wife and I were in town from North Carolina to visit my parents.

So, Billy Fleagle (auctioneer’s book keeper), playing Curlie, Kitty Hartzler (Funeral Director), as Ado Annie, and Jack Coe (local plumber), singing the part of Jud Fry----this was something we just weren’t going to miss---pay for view!

And as we filed in to the makeshift theater, we heard a buzz in the crowd. It seems that Jacob Hay, the Baltimore Sun columnist, was amongst us, there in the audience to put his “seal of approval” on the performance. 

Now, here’s what I recall. At intermission, after my friends had danced and sung their lungs out to everything from Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin’ to The Surry With The Fringe on Top I noted that a group from the audience had sidled up to Hay, who was wearing a herringbone coat and was drawing on a freshly lit pipe of tobacco. Obviously, the paying customers wanted to hear what the famous writer had to say.

I arrived just in time to see him lean over to the lady at his side and to hear him say, “Gutty Little Group!”