RIVER OF DREAMS: THE STORY OF THE HUDSON RIVER

When I was growing up in Kentucky, I used to dream about New York, the great city on the river that bore my name—Hudson.… At night I would end my prayers with “God bless Mommy and Daddy, may I please have a horse and go to New York? Amen.” And then I would drift into dreamland, picturing New York’s skyline reaching up to the stars. It was a place of wonder and possibilities. A magnet for dreamers like me.

      But the magnet’s power actually came from the river. It had been drawing dreamers to it for a very long time—long before there was a New York, long before anyone called the river—or me—Hudson.

This evocative beginning was followed by an equally evocative performance of the theme song from River of Dreams: The Musical, sung by five students from Catskill High School—Michael Coyne, Katherine Juliano, Dale Loughran, Nick Paolino, and Katelyn Pekrul—accompanied on the guitar by teacher Donna Trunzo. Yes, the book has inspired a musical, but more about that later.

Talbott went on to summarize—in a manner both interesting and entertaining—the more than four hundred year history of the Hudson River. As the author of books for children, Talbott is probably most accustomed to an audience of schoolchildren in the middle grades, for whom everything he had to say would have been both fresh and fascinating. Very few members of the audience on Sunday fit the typical audience description. Instead they were adults who already knew most of what he was presenting or children too young not to fidget and whine when required to sit still for long periods.

Still, for this writer who fit in the former category, Talbott’s account of Hudson River history offered some intriguing new insights and information. He provided a new perspective on the patroon system, explaining it as an incentive to get Dutch citizens, who, in the prosperous and egalitarian Netherlands of the 17th century, didn’t have much interest in leaving their comfortable life for New Netherland. To make it worthwhile, huge tracts of land in the Hudson Valley were offered to anyone who could persuade fifty settlers to go with him to the New World. Talbott also shared this interesting fact: the first American ship to sail all the way to China—crossing the Atlantic and going around the Cape of Good Hope—was a Hudson River slope loaded with ginseng.

On the subject of the Hudson River School and how the work of this influential group of artists fell out of fashion so quickly and completely and was forgotten for a hundred years, Talbott talked about the loss of innocence that was a consequence of the Civil War and the impact of the Industrial Revolution on the Hudson Valley. He also recalled a comparison made by John Stilgoe in a recent lecture at the Thomas Cole House which likened the paintings of Thomas Cole and his contemporaries to photographs of lost children. They are kept on display for a while, but after a time they are put away because it is just too painful to be reminded of what was lost.

Talbott continued his account of the Hudson River’s history through the decades in the 20th century when the river was used as a sewer for industry and municipalities along the river to 1963 when Con Edison proposed to build the largest hydroelectric pumping station ever into the side of Storm King Mountain. It was that threat to the river and the landscape that brought Scenic Hudson into being and marked the beginning of the environmental movement in the United States. At this point in the story, Talbott turned things over to Ned Sullivan, President of Scenic Hudson, who talked about the organization and its past, present, and future, protecting the river and its landscapes and the “places that matter most.” The book is dedicated to Scenic Hudson “in recognition of its leadership in launching the modern environmental movement and inspiring citizen activists young and old to carry on this vital cause.”

Next Casey Biggs, the producer of River of Dreams: The Musical, was introduced to talk about the project, which was inspired by a conversation with Talbott at a party and now involves high school students from schools throughout Greene County as part of the statewide Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial celebration. Frank Cuthbert, who composed the music for River of Dreams, was also on hand, and the audience was treated to a sampling of songs from the musical—all inspired by the book: “Sludge,” sung by the same five students who performed the theme song at the beginning of the presentation; and “Ellis Island Story” and “Inspiration,” performed by the composer himself.

River of Dreams: The Musical will premier at Catskill High School on May 15. It’s also going on the road and will come to the Hudson Opera House on a yet to be determined date during the Quadricentennial year.