Sweet Carolina/Sweet Caroline: reminders of New England

"Wasn't there a dock around here somewhere?"

Gail and Barry "The Big Dog" Murphy's arrival in New Bern from the Cape coincided with the arrival of New England-style weather. No snow, but  rain and a glaze of ice. Churches cancelled services Sunday--which around here is saying something.

Saturday, we had lunch at The Chelsea and did a quick auto tour of town and assorted golf courses. On Saturday night, the city's public safety teams were out in force keeping cars off the cloverleaf-style ramps of the highways, blocking them with fire engines to keep unpracticed local drivers away from potentially slippery conditions.

Last night saw Livingston Taylor, who also came all the way from New England to give a concert in celebration of the city's 300th anniversary.

Taylor's great-great-great grandfather, Isaac Taylor, lived in New Bern. His descendant was an admirable combination of clever and funny, professionally smooth and "aw shucks" engaging, with quite a good voice, still. (Check out his Vineyard retreat!) Unable to travel earlier because of weather, he'd left Boston at 5 a.m. to arrive in New Bern at 5 p.m. that day, much to the gratitude of the Historical Society which had sold 600 or so tickets. At times we've thought we were the oldest people at a show; this was not the case last night.

Speaking of Boston, we got a little sentimental when the lounge act at Ratty's sang the Red Sox anthem, "Sweet Caroline." As opposed to Livingston Taylor's "Carolina Day," which he performed.

But, we are putting down our roots. We tried out the pleasantly gritty underground bar at the otherwise elegant Harvey Mansion. We've been given hope by 37th Street that we can find satisfactory pizza in these parts. And, newly equipped with new NC driver's licenses, today we can get NC plates for the cars.