Hanna Meyer (formerly Debbie Peterson)

On my second night at the Caffè Lena they were short waitresses and Frank Studenroth asked me to help out. I remember Brio in the kitchen. I served many Saturday nights from 1966 until 1969 when I graduated from Ballston Spa High School.
     My name then was Debbie Peterson. Lena was so kind to me. My parents were reluctant to let me take the family car to come up to Saratoga each Saturday night and attend the Caffè. They were afraid the people there wouldn't’t be a good influence on me. My father was a country western star in upstate NY, Pete Peterson.
      Lena invited my parents to come to the Caffè so experience it for themselves and she treated them so kindly, talked music with my father and fed them her incredible rum cake (I still have the recipe she wrote down) and cappuccino. I never had any more problems getting their permission to go again.
     Some Saturdays I couldn't’t have the car and I stayed at Lena’s place or the homes of other friends I made there. It was such fun. I moved into an apartment on Franklin Square after graduation and my neighbors were Pat and Victoria Garvey (now Victoria Armstrong -ed), Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright, Alan and Nano Stowell (and sometimes guest Dave Bromberg) and Bruce (U. Utah Philips).
     The apartment house had a huge foyer, two stories high, and the acoustics were fabulous. Many nights there was spontaneous jamming.
I’d never seen a Siamese cat before meeting Lena’s. I think his name was Pasha.
     I think I fell in love about 20 times at the Caffè Lena.

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added 4-sept-2002

I remember a night in the Executive [a local bar] with Dave Van Ronk and Joe Bruchac and several others. We went down in between sets. Joe was wearing a dashiki shirt. Dave was holding forth about something when all of a sudden he asked Joe if he could buy that shirt from him for $5.00. Joe laughed and said ‘No’ and Dave went on talking. He asked again several times, each time raising the offer, it went to $50!, and each time getting ‘no’ and laughs from everyone.
     Then he yelled ‘GDammit! Will you just GIVE me that shirt?!!” Joe stood up and took the shirt off and Dave stood up and took his off and they switched shirts and the conversation around the table resumed.
     It’s hard to make sense of how much time has passed since those Caffè days, but they seem as fresh as yesterday. My memory of those days and their effect on my life has more to do with life experience than music. I love music, of course, and was exposed to wonderful folk music.
     But I think the real value of the experience of that time, the Caffè and the people I met, was in observing the musician/artist persona and trying it on, observing the counterculture persona and trying that on, and watching my fantasies/interpretations of what people and life experiences appeared to be from the ‘onstage’ vantage point compared to the ‘everyday’ one.
     It was huge learning for a kid. It went a long way. The Caffè was the backdrop for my first love, my first art tutor, my first ‘other mother’, first look at theatre, first cappuccino, first waitress job, and first experience with musicians closer to my age group playing music I loved (my dad was a country western player and our house was ever full of guys and guitars and beer and poker).

Hanna Meyer