OUR ANCESTORS Berkshire274 side is the almost-as-exclusive Stewards’ Enclosure, which holds ten thousand of England’s upper crust during regatta. “On race days, the ‘old oars,’ in their tattered bright blazers and school caps of decades long past, crowd the space, their elegant ladies in long skirts and floppy Victorian hats by their sides. The assembled will eat pounds and pounds of strawberries and thick cream and wash it down with gallons and gallons of Pimm’s275 New York Times: “The Henley Royal Regatta, four days of caste reunions, cheap carnival and classic crew racing. “As they like to say here, great crews row and go, but the Thames flows on forever, and so it did today [June 30, 1965], two miles of its narrow, green serenity choked with motorboats and punts and kayaks, both sides of its bank filled with picnickers, penny slot machines and dabs of glorious heritage: Eton College blue, 274 Pronounced “Barksha.” For a colonial, it seems that British pronunciation is virtually impossible to follow unless you are already in on the joke. “England and America are two countries separated by a common language.” – George Bernard Shaw 275 According to the label: “Pimm’s No. 1, The Original Mixer, Made since the year 1840, from a closely guarded secret recipe” which presumably includes various fruit juice extracts along with plenty of gin (?). One favorite recipe: one part Pimm’s, three parts lemonade, served over ice with pieces of fruit added. 276 Jack Grinold, Cinderella Squad, www.neu.edu/numag “In between the two shores lies an eighty-foot-wide course upon which it is the dream of every oarsman worldwide to row. “Henley’s two-lane straightaway course, complete with log booms on either side utterly changed the nature of racing in boats. In essence, it was the first modern artificial rowing venue.”278 It was indeed the first site in Great Britain to allow unimpeded head-to-head racing for two crews under relatively fair and even conditions. As the course was gradually narrowed from 150 feet in 1886 to 80 feet in 1914, it limited and finally prevented the London habit of wandering the river in search of favorable currents and winds, and the distance of “one mile two 277 Robert Lipsyte, Henley Starts to Separate Flotsam From the Fleet, The New York Times, July 1, 1965 278 Jack Grinold, op.cit. Westminster pink and Leander Club cerise, the oldest colors on the river.”277 The Henley Regatta Course and cham- pagne.”276 Robert Lipsyte, The Author The Hole in the Wall 271 meters to go 79
