Month 1: Gyros and Hot Dogs

Cultural Event: The National Hellenic Museum

It’s fitting that the National Hellenic (Greek) Museum sits in Chicago, one of the historical epicenters for Greek American life.

I loved this museum.

There were photographs from the first few modern Olympic Games starting in 1896, Greek Orthodox Art, and examples of traditional Greek textiles.

There was also a significant part of the museum dedicated to the geodynamics of Greece from ancient times until the present. As an avid fan of Richard Strauss’s opera “Ariadne auf Naxos”, I particularly got a kick out of the images the museum has of the Island of Naxos.

The first floor, where the tour began, certainly caught my attention. The exhibit was all about candy, or specifically, the candy of immigrants in Chicago (from Greece and elsewhere). The city was a hub for shipping commodities like sugar, corn, chocolate, and other wonderful things. So, people put recipes from their homelands to work.

In particular, we owe Dove Bars to the Greek American Leo Stefanos.

Labor Event: The Northern Virginia Labor Day Picnic

(Pictured L-R: Timothy White, Douglas Rosenthal, Senator Wendy Davis, John McGinness, Mark Hughes, Dennis Ferry)

On Labor Day, five of us from the DC Federation of Musicians played brass quintet music at the annual Northern Virginia Labor Day Picnic at Fort Hunt in Alexandria, VA.

Organized by NoVA Labor, many unions representing electrical workers (IBEW), bricklayers (BAC), food and commercial workers (UFCW), public transit workers (ATU), and plenty more gathered for an afternoon of great food and great company. It was an excellent opportunity to mingle with our brothers and sisters from other lines of work.

There were also speeches made by members of the Virginia Legislature, municipalities of Northern Virginia, and Texas State Senator Wendy Davis, on behalf of the Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign.

We got a photo with Senator Davis, and I’m happy to report that she now has more trombone-related material to discuss during her next filibuster!