Spirit of Recreation Workshops

 Topic: CRS Versions
A history of recreation workshops misses the spirit behind the movement.  This may because of deeply entrenched views that suspect anything that is not utilitarian. [1]  Thus, when people make public statements about why they attend sessions, they tend to list the things they learn. [2]  Useful as such comments are, they do not explain why people return year after year.

Perhaps the best illustration of the workshop spirit is the life of Bruce Good, son of Kathryn Thompson Good who named him for her mentor, Bruce Tom. [3]  He was born in 1943 when his parents were living on a farm.  Even though he lived in Columbus from the time he was five, he remembered he “grew up in the woods and the water.” [4]

After graduating from high school in Columbus, Ohio, in 1961, Good took classes at the Columbus College of Art and Design.  The end of his freshman year coincided with the Summer of Love in San Francisco in 1962. [5]

He stayed in San Francisco and worked as a musician. [6]  In 1968, he was playing lead guitar with Black Swan when it recorded some songs for Matthew Katz.  He wrote one of the band’s songs, “Lady Blonde,” while the piano player, Jeffrey Cohen, wrote the other. [7]

Katz has an unsavory reputation.  After Jefferson Airplane fired him in 1966, [8] he formed Moby Grape with the Airplane’s former drummer, Skip Spence.  David Rubinson signed them for Columbia records in 1967, [9] and later that year Moby Grape fired Katz. [10]  Rubinson remained their producer through their last recording, which was released in May of 1969. [11]

Rubinson left Columbia for Bill Graham’s Fillmore Records in October. [12]  The relationship is not clear, but Good and Cohen also joined Fillmore Records. [13]  In 1970, they produced their first record for Rubinson, an album by David Lannan. [14]

Fillmore Records folded in 1972, [15] and Rubinson organized a multi-purpose management company the same year. [16]  His first major artist was the Pointer Sisters in 1973.  Good wrote the lyrics to one of the songs on their debut album with John Shine. [17]

Good and Cohen wrote one song, “Bangin’ on the Pipes,” [18] for their second album, and collaborated on “Salt Peanuts.” [19]  Herbie Hancock played piano on the latter. [20]  By 1977, Cohen was the A & R man for Rubinson, while Good was managing tours. [21]

When Good was 38-years-old, he left the music business to write.  Since that does not provide a steady paycheck, he also taught scuba driving.  From there he worked for Lindborg Explorer as a dive master. [22]  Anne Kalosh said “he fell in love with this and became expedition leader/cruise director on Polaris for several years.” [23]

While his early career may have been inspired by his mother’s interest in music, his second career drew on his family’s interest in ecology and the skills he absorbed in Buckeye Recreation Workshops he attended with her when he was young.  Susan Pierres recalls:

“Good led a nightly passenger briefing on the next day’s anticipated discoveries, emphasizing respect for nature and any human encounters, then entertained visiting dignitaries of the host African nations for cocktails and dinner.

“‘By day Bruce was the epitome of an adventure traveler, bandanna around his brow, steering the Zodiacs into shallow inlets and creeks seeking out rare saltwater hippos and the extraordinary bird life of the region, graciously meeting tribal chiefs, including those of Alex Haley’s ancestral village of Juffereh on the Gambia River’.” [24]

The life on cruise ships necessarily is peripatetic.  When he reached 43 years of age, Good went to work in the offices for Royal Cruise Lines in 1985.  By then, nothing was absolute in the corporate world.  He survived reorganizations that forced him to leave San Francisco for Miami, Florida, and then Seattle, Washington.  When he retired in 2014, one of his colleagues said:

“Not only did he have the history, but he had a passion for the guest experience.  He understood the fabric of the interrelationship between the people who deliver the service (the crew) and those who receive it (the guest).” [25]

This may sound like an odd way to transform the ice breakers promoted by Lynn Rohrbough in early recreation programs as a way to break down barriers between individuals and ensure everyone participates, but it is the spirit that is the same.

When Bob Nolte tried to identify the essence of the Northland Recreation Laboratory, he finally said:

“Northland is much more than a time and place and program and much more that a recreation laboratory.  Somehow, over the years, Northlanders have become each others’ best friends, - supporters when one stumbles, consolers when one weeps, celebrators when one succeeds, but mostly ever present as one lives.” [26]

He concluded his history of the movement by saying: “Northland is not so much a week long retreat from life as it is a one week encounter with it.”  He does not mention they came together to have a good time. [27]

End Notes
1.  The post for 3 October 2010 describes ways the National Recreation Association and the Buckeye Recreation Workshop have used to promote their activities among conservative supporters who were raised in churches that do not approve of frivolity.

2.  One example is quoted in the post for 9 February 2020.

3.  John Blocher, Jr.  Email, 2 July 2016.  Good’s parents are discussed in the post for 10 October 2021.  Tom is mentioned in the posts for 12 September 2021, 19 September 2021, 3 October 2021, and 10 October 2021.

4.  Diane Moore.  “Royal Cruise Line’s Spirit Is Still Alive.”  Facebook website, reprint of an obituary for Good who died 26 January 2021.

5.  Moore.  The Summer of Love is discussed in the post for 27 September 2020.

6.  Anne Kalosh.  “Seabourn’s Good Is Retiring after Lively, Adventure-Laced Career.”  Seatrade Cruise website, 20 August 2014.

7.  Black Swan.  “Lady Blonde” and “She Encircles Me.”  Fifth Pipe Dream – Volume I .  San Francisco Sound S7-11680.  Released 15 November 1968.  The other musicians were Mark Hanesworth on guitar and Tom Bright on drums.  [Discogs entry.]

8.  Wikipedia.  “Jefferson Airplane.”

9.  Simon Glickman.  “Moby Grape Biography.”  Musician Guide website.  Skip’s first name was Alexander.

10.  Wikipedia.  “Matthew Katz.”

11.  Andrew Lau.  “Alexander Spence – ‘Oar’ (1969).”  Beat Patrol website, 1 January 2010.

12.  Ben Fong-Torres.  “Fillmore’s Latest: A Record Label.”  Rolling Stone, 4 October 1969.

13.  Joel Selvin.  San Francisco: The Musical History Tour.  San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1996.  71.

14.  David Lannan.  Street Singer.  San Francisco Records SD 202.  Released 1970.  [Discogs entry.]

15.  “Label Guide: Fillmore.”  C Vinyl website.

16.  Jim McCullaugh.  “Self---Sufficiency Keys City’s Prime Producer.”  Billboard 89:SF-4, SF-6:19 March 1977.   The company was David Rubinson and Friends.

17.  The Pointer Sisters.  “Old Songs.”  The Pointer Sisters.  Blue Thumb Records BTS 48.  Released 1973.  “Old Songs” written by B. Good and J. Shine; [28] arranged by B. Good and N. Landsberg. [29]  Good’s name appears on songs on other albums, along with the Pointer Sisters.  Since it still was common for record producers to add their names to receive some of the royalties, [30] I am not mentioning those songs here.

18.  “Bangin’ On The Pipes” written by B. Good and J. Cohen.  [Discogs entry.]

19.  “Salt Peanuts” lyrics by B. Good and J. Cohen; music by D. Gillespie and K. Clarke; arranged by B. Good, J. Cohen, and N. Landsberg.  [Discogs entry.]

20.  The Pointer Sisters.  That’s A Plenty.  Blue Thumb Records BTS 6009.  Released 1974. [Discogs entry.]

21.  McCullagh.  SF-4, SF-6.

22.  Lars-Eric Lindblad began his company in 1966.  He has been described as “the father of ecotourism.” [31]

23.  Kalosh.  Polaris has been used in the names of several companies.  I could not identify which employed Good.

24.  Susan Pierres.  Quoted by Kalosh.   Alex Haley’s book Roots [32] was the basis for the twelve-part television miniseries, Roots, broadcast in 1977. [33]

25.  Pamela Conover, past Seabourn president and CEO.  Quoted by Kalosh.

26.  Bob Nolte.  Northland Recreation Lab: A History.  1984.  30.  Copy provided by Heidi Ryan, 21 June 2016.

27.  Nolte.  30.

28.  John Shine is described as a “country-jazz-folk, blues rocker with a sharp wit and a flair for writing melodies” by Robert Ford Jr.  “Marilyn Sokol, John Shine: Reno Sweeney’s, New York.”  Billboard 87:20:6 September 1975.

29.  Discogs website.

30.  This practice is mentioned in the entry on “B.B. King - Come by Here” posted on 13 April 2018.

31.  “About Lindblad Expeditions.”  Expeditions website.

32.  Alex Haley.  Roots: The Saga of an American Family.  Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1974.

33.  Roots.  ABC Television, 1977; produced by David L. Wolper; directed by David Greene.