On Friday, September 10, while New York was thinking about 9-11, I went to the opening day of la Fête de l'Humanité at the Parc de Corneuve, just outside Paris. The Fête de l'Huma is the annual three-day festival held by l'Humanité, once the paper of the French Communist Party (Parti communiste français), now independent but still close to the PCF. The fête occupies a 173-acre site (that's about one-fifth the size of Central Park) and has, like any fair, a midway, vendors, panels, forums, rock concerts, and booths serving food and drinks. The primary difference between the fête and your local county fair is that the booths represent Communist parties from all over France and from around the world. For someone who grew up in a country (I mean, of course, the United States) where "communist" was a word for scaring children in the culture at large--a word that has since, simply, disappeared from that same culture--that difference is mind-boggling. (More photos at Picasa.)
3 comments:
Hi Judith, My name is Sue, I come from a small town in County Cork. My parents were very good friends with your uncle, Dan Mahoney and his wife, Sylvia, we know he passed away in 1999 but Mum recently asked me if I could find out about Sylvia and their respective families. With very little search effort, Wiki gave me information on William, your father and consequently, you. A swift google search brought me to your blog. Although we are not related per say, Dan and Sylvia were probably the nearest thing we had to family for a long time in the 70's and we look upon them with great fondness, we have many old photos we would very much like to pass on, if we could. I really hope you don't mind me contacting you via your blog, my email address is sueadams139@yahoo.co.uk
Sue--
Tried to pass your note on to Dan and Sylvia's kids, but an email to your address bounced as undeliverable--was the address you posted the right one?
Judith
Sue--
Tried to pass your note on to Dan and Sylvia's kids, but an email to your address bounced as undeliverable--was the address you posted the right one?
Judith
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