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Welcome to New Hampshire Public Television's uncorked.

Join us as we showcase the program from our archives as it originally aired.

Because here in northern New England, sharing our past will enrich the future for all of us.

Hi, I'm John Clayton, and this is New Hampshire Crossroads.

Theme Music Tonight we're on the grounds at the Saint Paul School in Concord, New Hampshire.

But it's just a starting point for stories from throughout the state.

Our first story will take us to Hampton, where we're going to meet a young man who has a special approach to music, to education, and to life.

He was a child with a passion.

He loved music.

And when they love music, they they stay with you.

They stay in your minds and your heart.

And we'll find out about a Newport, New Hampshire woman we can all thank for Thanksgiving.

She was the first American woman to earn a living and support a family through her writing.

And then we'll enjoy some downhome New Hampshire poetry.

On summer evenings and days long gone, our elders would sit on the porch and joke, hold endless arguments while they would smoke, and toss the cigarette butts on the lawn.

But first we're going to meet a young man named Brian Hall.

Brian is a musician, but more importantly, he's a man who has recently embarked upon a musical mission.

Music No one lives forever Everyone loves music, and I think you can't go through your life without being touched by it.

And I think we all have a somewhat of a fantasy about emulating our musical heroes.

Like so many music aficionados, Brian Hall spends a lot of time playing his guitar.

However, when Brian plays, it's unlike anyone else.

When I caught you Don't wait for me Brian lives in this quiet Hampton neighborhood.

On just about any day he can be found hiding away behind his house in this cramped yet cozy workshop.

It's here where he works on making himself a better musician.

The guitar has always felt like it was constantly fighting with itself when I play it.

It was a struggle to play it.

And I go, just physically to bend the strings and to make the guitar sing, so to speak.

This all may sound very odd for someone who's been playing the guitar for more than 20 years, and who studied music at the Berklee School of Music in Boston.

But for Brian, as time has advanced, the challenges of playing the guitar have increased.

No easy way to ask the question, Brian.

What is the condition you suffer from and how is it going to affect your life?

Well, it's dopa-responsive dystonia.

The way I understand it, though, which is layman's terms, too, that, my pituitary gland doesn't manufacture enough dopamine and dopamine is a neurotransmitter that allows electrical impulses to go through your body and allows your muscles to fire correctly.

It’s similar to Parkinson's.

The disease has been robbing Brian of his ability to play the guitar.

He needed the guitar to be more responsive, so he took the matter into his own hands.

Quite literally.

Armed with some simple tools, he started tearing apart his $1,500 Fender Stratocaster.

He invented a device that allows him to play.

That's pretty good.

At the time, I didn't know anything about how to make it better.

I just knew I needed to try.

I had no plan.

I had no design to follow.

I just went on intuition.

And you have no engineering background.

We should point that out.

None.

None.

I'm sorry.

Brian won't reveal his creation.

Not just yet.

It still needs to be patent protected.

What we can tell you in the meantime is this.

Basically, the strings are, let's say, the Hatfields and the springs are the McCoys, and they just been at odds for years.

And I found a way to unite them.

Music I have to keep having them show me, because I just can't believe it, that this guitar stays in tune after being completely destroyed on the tremolo.

I mean, up and down and up and down.

And then he tunes it and it’s in tune.

It’s credible.

Music How are the manufacturers responding to what you've designed so far?

Well, I at first they thought I think they thought I was a crackpot like everyone else.

My patent attorney.

But the day I first called him, when I told him what I'd done and he thought I was a crackpot, but he still came to the house.

He's been in contact with a number of manufacturers, and they're all very interested, and they want to learn about the technology more.

The next step would be going out to some research and development facilities and presenting the invention to the engineers, because guitar manufacturers have very sophisticated research and development departments, and they have to evaluate all the inventions.

And, just my limited background with it, it makes the guitar sound a lot better.

So it's an all-round good invention.

Ooh, yeah.

Oh While Brian's invention may bring untold advancements to the world of music at large, it is here in schools around New Hampshire where his true musical legacy will be found.

It's called Sound Awakens.

Brian visits schools as a musician, a mentor, and a teacher.

A lot of us can go through this life and not even realize what we have.

I use sound as a way to awaken people to seeing that, you know, it's better to focus in on what you have than what you don't have.

Boom boom boom.

With me.

Boom boom boom boom.

Boom boom boom boom.

Rhythm.

Boom boom boom boom.

Do the vocal with me.

Boom boom boom boom.

Loud and proud guys.

And he definitely conveys his passion.

And he manages to awaken in some students things that I can't.

Sure.

Oh, yeah What I do is, as a teacher or what I try to do is, is just engage them in the activity.

Watch my hand, guys.

Singing My favorite thing about that is obviously the way the kids view him and the way they look up to him.

He just does this beautiful thing with basketballs where he gets the kids to come in, you know?

And a lot of the, let's say, the athletic kids, they're not always the first ones that come up and read their poems or read some songs they've been working on or whatever, and he'll grab them up by getting them all to come up and keep rhythm with the basketballs.

Pretty exciting.

I mean, what happened here?

Yeah, Courtney.

It's made me more confident about myself because I used to be kind of like, I didn't really like myself that much.

And then, well, now I believe that I can do things and I'm more confident.

Well, that's the blessing of this disease.

I think we all get very clever at hiding our imperfections.

This one I can't hide.

And they know it.

And, they see me as a very stripped down person.

And, you know, being that open and honest with them allows, gives them a platform and that’s a relationship to build on so they can be as well, Singing What you've given me I want to thank you For what you've given me Thanks, guys.

The great thing about what I get to do now is what music brought to my life as a child was, it helped me to realize I wasn't alone with my problems.

And there are other people in the world that have similar problems, and they write about them and they helped to connect with me at the time when I needed to be feeling like I was connected to something or someone, and now it's like a dream come true that I get to do that every day when I go to a school and do something to help, to connect with another child, to get them to, to maybe, hopefully a healthier place for them to move forward in their lives.

Love makes the whole world change I wanna hear you sing it louder.

Love makes the whole world change.

Sing it to me now Love makes the whole world change Anyone want to ask me something?

Yeah.

How are you doing?

That's, the mind is strong.

The body is a little weak.

That's the truth.

I'm totally receptive to being well When you're chronically ill, that's a challenge.

So telling yourself you can be well at any time in any day, you got to wake up and face the day that way.

It's tough.

But, mentally, I’m really strong.

Physically, I've been having some difficulties.

But, you know, at this point in my life, it doesn't matter.

I don't want to get worse.

But if I get worse, I'm going to have a good life no matter what.

What I really want to do with my life is I want to be an advocate for children and keep this program going.

The program is is my real thrust.

The guitar is, I'm hoping that the money will support this endeavor with the children.

That's really what I want.

It's the money, a residual income base from the guitar thing to take care of my my needs and so I can go off and work with the schools.

See that man with no life to live open his heart with love That's the gift Love makes the whole world change Brian is a special guy and he's become a special friend.

Now, if you're like me, Thanksgiving is probably a special time of the year.

But I wonder if you realized that it was a woman from New Hampshire, Sarah Josepha Hale from Newport, whose letter to President Abraham Lincoln is what gave us our Thanksgiving national holiday.

Music She was not a feminist.

She would have bristled if you called her a feminist, but she did more to further the cause of women's rights than any other woman of her time.

And although she exhorted women to be helpmates to their husbands, her own personal life was an example of independence and strength that was an inspiration to thousands.

She was smart and tenacious and indefatigable, and she crammed into a long and illustrious life a list of amazing accomplishments.

Music She organized the movement that raised the money for the Bunker Hill Monument.

She provided much of the impetus that saved George Washington's home, Mount Vernon.

She was a founder of the Seamen’s Aid Society.

Music She helped to found and influence the curriculum at Vassar College.

And it was through her efforts that mostly women were hired as faculty members there.

For 40 years, she edited one of the most successful magazines in America.

She knew nine presidents and was held in high regard by all the literary and political figures of the day.

And she is the person who wrote Mary Had a Little Lamb.

Music And this is the woman most responsible for Thanksgiving Day.

Her name is Sarah Josepha Hale, and she was born in 1788 in Newport, New Hampshire.

Music She was the first American woman to earn her living and support a family through her writing.

This is author Sherbrooke Rogers, who wrote the definitive biography of Sarah Josepha Hale.

She pushed for eduction for women, for getting women as teachers in the public schools system There were no women as public school teachers?

No, all men.

That's why she got a job in a private school.

When she started out.

Her maiden name was Sarah Buell, and the school she taught at was in the western part of Newport, in the community called Guild.

In 1813, Miss Buell married one David Hale, a local lawyer.

For nine years, it was a secure and good life, and then.

That was the tragedy, was when she had five children.

And David Hale, her lawyer husband, got pneumonia and died suddenly.

And, it was two weeks before her son, William.

So she was left with five children.

Music David had been a worshipful master at the local Masonic lodge, and after his death, the lodge set Sarah and her sister-in-law Hannah up in the millinery business, making hats.

Hannah was very good at making hats, but Sarah, she was terrible at it.

But what Sarah could do was write, and she got together a small book of verse, and with the help of the Masons, she was published.

The little book of verse that they paid for a publishing, got her name spread around.

And so that, you see, that was a an in sort of.

But yet it wasn't until she wrote Northwood, her first novel the first novel of consequence by an American author.

Northwood was one of the first novels to deal forthrightly with the topic of slavery.

It predated Uncle Tom's Cabin by 25 years.

The story was set in the actual town of Northwood, which is located on the highway between Concord and Portsmouth.

Due to the success of Northwood, Sarah now held a splendid literary reputation, and in 1828 she received an offer from a Boston publisher to become editor of a brand new women's literary magazine.

But in order to accept the offer, she would have to place her children with relatives.

It was a difficult choice, but in the end it was all she could do.

And so all but the youngest, William, was sent to relatives or school, and Sarah went to Boston, where she lived in a rooming house.

One of the boarders in that rooming house was a young medical student and a writer, whose name was Oliver Wendell Holmes.

And in his autobiographical treatise, The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, Holmes refers to Sarah as the pale schoolmistress in her morning dress.

Sarah was a success, and her success attracted the attention of one Louis Godey.

Now, Godey was the publisher of Godey’s Lady’s Book, one of the most successful magazines in America, and he offered Sarah the editorship if she would move to Philadelphia, where it was published.

And for 40 years, Sarah Hale guided this great organ of public opinion.

As to Thanksgiving.

She really thought when she started proposing it, she didn't think she was going to take her thirty-eight years from then to get Lincoln to sign it.

But she wrote congressmen and territorial governors, governors of states, and I believe it was six presidents.

So there it is, the story of a great lady who, incidentally, is remembered each year in her hometown in Newport with the awarding of the Hale medal.

Music And also remembered at Thanksgiving each year, at least in my house, where after the turkey and pumpkin pie, someone raises a cup and says to Sarah Josepha Hale, God bless her.

Music So see, there’s a New Hampshire connection to every single story in the world.

And for our next story, we're going to Center Harbor.

We're going to meet a retired minister and a poet named Frank Greene.

He's going to teach us something about life in the slow lane.

Music When I retired up here about 17 years ago, I began to write a great deal.

And then I began to concentrate on the poems.

And, they meant a lot more to me.

And it sort of put everything together, and it filled a great big gap in my life.

Life in the slow lane, it's good to let the others pass in their mad rush from nothingness to who knows where and get adjusted to life in the slow lane.

Forever leaving the get up and go lane, where you are gauged to other driver’s speed.

It's good to travel at our personal rate, not to be determined by another's fate.

We make it on our own here in the slow lane.

It's varied here in nature's ebb and flow lane.

And we can roll now with the countryside.

While we may miss the challenge of the race when in the easier tempo of the slow lane, we soon forget the hype of the big dough lane.

When settled into the pleasures of the ride.

Music This house was built about 1892 by my grandfather, Doctor Frankie Greene of Roxbury, Mass for a summer home.

This estate was paid for with the profits from a patent medicine called Doctor Greene's Nervura, which was very, very popular during the 1880s.

I think that my grandfather and his brother, Doctor J.A.

Greene, must have been the inventors of modern advertising, because they advertise this in a very big way.

I've written a little poem here in which I have tried to adopt their style of of advertising.

You no longer must endure a sickness that there is no cure-a Thanks to Doctor Greene's Nervura.

Drops of bitters, angostura mixed with Indian herbs and spices give it a flavor that entices, and you'll find that it is twice as helpful at much lower prices.

Recommended by most doctors, authors, guides, professors, proctors, preachers, statesmen, singers, actors, fashion leaders taste concoctors For a number of diseases: dropsy grippe, asthmatic wheezes female troubles and neuroses, diarrhea, swollen kneeses.

From rival tonics be a switcher.

Why be sufferer or bitcher?

Drink Nervura by the pitcher.

Make the greens a little richer.

So I would think this to be just a, just a proper pick-me-up after a heavy Thanksgiving dinner.

Dixville Notch in northern New Hampshire is famous at election time because their election results come in before those of any other town in the country.

With all the nation standing by to watch, with flourishes of trumpets, snare drum rolls, the 34 march slowly to the polls in Dixville Notch.

First to be counted in the first election.

The voters trudge in silence.

Well, they know it's their responsibility to show the wind's direction.

Yours was a difficult, if short, career.

On the late shift alone, you had to steer the ship of state.

Music Gilbert Point, part of an early land grant to George Freeze, storekeeper in the town.

To have and hold.

The Point, not too much later was HP's only in 1820 to be sold for 125 to Samuel Came, who sold it later to Clarissa G. Of Providence, who gave the Point its name and then conveyed it to O.A.J.V.

whose widow sold it next to Joseph P, who afterwards conveyed it to his son Walter, who later sold the property to Edwin Smith in 1901.

Later in 1906, Smith sold a lot, one acre at the tip to Robert G. My uncle Bob, and that is how it got to be possessed in course of time by me.

So this place has been here almost 100 years and it's held up pretty well, all things considered.

A Thanksgiving Litany We used to know, O Lord, the pangs of hunger.

But now it seems we're feeling them no longer.

Most every day we read of some new diet, and that we’ll kill ourselves if we don't try it since we are plagued with too much food and drink.

For sustenance, we thank you Lord.

I think Throughout our lives the enemy was Russia and all we heard was how they try to crush you.

But she's no more the enemy.

Instead, we're helping her to pull out of the red and help us get Saddam Hussein to blink.

For peace, we thank you now, O Lord, I think.

Choir singing What I've been asked to do next is to take the favorite poems out of my first four books that are now out of print, and put them all in a, another book.

I'm probably going to call it News from the North Country World.

Music We hope you've enjoyed tonight's program.

And until next week, for New Hampshire Crossroads, I'm John Clayton.

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Theme Music Way to see me.

Will see me.

On my way.

To be.

On my way to see me.

See me over there.

To give me a better.