Doggin' Alice's Restaurant

As the Christmas holiday continues to bully its way across our calendars everthing in its path is consumed. With Christmas music programmed as soon as costumes are stored away Halloween night, when was the last time we sang Thanksgiving songs? Even the classic Over The River And Through The Wood from 1844 has been swallowed up and forced into the December holiday catalog.

About all that remains for Turkey Day are children's songs and Alice's Restaurant.

The telling of Arlo Guthrie's Thanksgiving adventure in 1965 evolved into a record album, a movie and a radio staple every fourth Thursday of November. The real Alice's Restaurant is long gone but the building in Stockbridge, Massachusetts remains where pilgrims can visit.

The railroad track in the opening verse was just a half-mile from the restaurant but it is gone too. However, it has been reborn as the Mary Flynn Trail. After visiting the eatery site on Main Street walk you dog about two blocks to the end of Park Road for a hike on the wide, flat, packed-gravel path that trips along the Housatonic River for about a mile. This trail was laid out mostly on the bed of the old Berkshire Street Railway trolley line - America's first trolley car was built in Stockbridge in 1880. The trail was constructed in 2003 as part of the Laurel Hill Association's 150th Anniversary celebration.

If you would like to listen to Arlo Guthrie talking about Alice's Restaurant:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5028273

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