Let us congregate for the Waterside community gam¹ on the blue moon of May 31, 2007. Don't miss this once in a blue moon opportunity to re-orient ourselves ~ and gauge where we have been, where we are and where we are going ... as individuals and as a community.

Begin gathering 6PM at Somerby's Landing at the easternmost "historic waye to the Waterside" (link within) during the family event organized by the Commission for Diversity and Tolerance (which will conclude"Peace Month"). Interactive entertainment for the young (and young at heart) will be provided by "The Sea Wall Singer" Jerry Leggett's touring "Peace Bubble" (link without) ~ with social exchange on the periphery. This event will end around 7PM to 7:30PM, when the "Peace Bubble" drifts off into the sunset. And on that chord of harmony ...

• All hail! Let the gam begin ~ with social exchange and "tidings" ~ announcement of the gam's roster and discourse about upcoming events and forums
  
  • Complete the cairn-building^{2 ~} entries in the Ship's log & transcript
    
    
• Begin the "solvitur ambulado" (pre)amble³ ~ eastward along the Waterside boardwalk, with a stop at Market Landing's "generation foundation stone"⁴ at 8PM (around eight bells to conclude the Second Dog Watch (see link without for more insight).
  
  
• The gam concludes with a moon watch at the easterly end of the boardwalk, culiminating with ...
  
  
• The full blue moon rise at 8:29PM ~ experience a "Once in a Blue Moon Opportunity" ~ a cosmic "touchstone" for the Waterside people's individual and collective progress

"But what is a Gam? You might wear out your index-finger running up and down the columns of dictionaries, and never find the word, Dr. Johnson never attained to that erudition; Noah Webster's ark does not hold it. Nevertheless, this same expressive word has now for many years been in constant use among some fifteen thousand true born Yankees. Certainly, it needs a definition, and should be incorporated into the Lexicon. With that view, let me learnedly define it.

"GAM. NOUN - A social meeting of two (or more) Whaleships, generally on a cruising-ground; when, after exchanging hails, they exchange visits by boats' crews, the two captains remaining, for the time, on board of one ship, and the two chief mates on the other.

"There is another little item about Gamming which must not be forgotten here. All professions have their own little peculiarities of detail ..."

Henceforth this being the accepted definition, explained and expanded at Merriam-Webster Online and American Heritage Dictionary at Bartleby.com and printed versions. Of course, referring to "another little item about gamming which must not be forgotten" ~ the Waterside people also profess our own "little peculiarities of detail" as well, collectively and individually.

Fast forward nearly four generations after Melville's ponderous parable ~ when an adventurer and shipbuilder with the given name Columbus was more wont to use the word "gam" to mean a friendly conversation or visit between those more landlocked ~ identifying the bedside chair he would set his ailing wife upon to encourage visits and conversations with family as the "gamming chair."⁶

A generation later, as one of today's generations of the Waterside people ~ his granddaughter hoped to revive the word to identify the Waterside gatherings held in a Motion of Comity ~ be they large community gams or more intimate meets. The word seemed to have (at)traction. And it was a beginning.

And inevitably people ask the question: What is a gam? This offers the opportunity to explain and expound and expand our horizons, exchanging the "certain knowledge" imparted here and elsewhere. With many taking part in the conversation.

² At the upcoming gam, would hope to build at least one physical cairn to mark that "we have come this far" ~ at the western-most and eastern-most "historic wayes to the Waterside." (See the cairn-building during the last blue moon milestone on July 29, 2004 at this link within.) This symbolic event will be complemented by a webpage to indicate the progress made here in the Waterside since that last blue moon milestone ~ and the goals to reach by the next blue moon (which will occur on December 31, 2009).

³ "Solvitur ambulado" is a Latin proverb translated as "it is solved by walking." Metaphorically (and physically) ~ this (pre)amble by the Waterside will energize today's generations of the Waterside people to resolve many outstanding issues ~ many of these looming large in moons to come.

[E.g., the first of the consultant's public forums on "developing" the NRA lots as some combination of park/parking commence by mid-July (the New Buck Moon) with completion of the plan anticipated by the Full Hunters Moon in October; The Newburyport School District must submit a formal letter of intention to the Massachusetts School Building Authority detailing necessary improvements to school facilities by the end of July (The Full Buck Moon). And of course, no matter the results of the May 22 override, there remains the feat ahead to improve and facilitate education based upon the reorganization plan.]

⁴ Come to know more about the Waterside people's "generation foundation stone" at this link within.

⁵ A footnote retraced from footnote 2 of the link within about gams and gamming: Ishmael ~ being one of the Knowing Ones ~ obviously knows to ask good questions and question the answer. Though observe the monomaniacal Captain Ahab, who is interested only in the answer to one question: "Hast seen the White Whale?" At the Waterside community gams, both the questions and the quest will be more far-reaching: Well-versed and diverse ~ extensive and comprehensive ~ entertaining and enlightening. Proposed and posed and posited (then posted) by today's generations of the Waterside people who aspire to become the Knowing Ones. Do you?

⁶ A footnote retraced from footnote 3 of the link within about gams and gamming: Sometimes elaborate, more often improvised from a sturdy Windsor chair, an oak barrel or the bosun's chair (link without) ~ the "gamming chair" would be used to transport those less adept at seafaring (usually women and children) from one ship to another. Securely tied into the gamming chair ~ the prospective gammer would be dropped down to a dory or wherry then rowed over to socialize with the other shipmasters' family. While the officers and crew "gammed" amongst themselves ~ the women would socialize, share news and sew, exchange sewing patterns or fabric and such. The children would do what children are wont to do: explore new hiding places, play and gambol about ~ and scramble in and out of the way on deck.

Sometime during the first or second dog watch (4PM to 8PM) a dinner would be arranged by the mistress of the hosting ship. (Provisions from all ships' galleys were frequently shared for this special occasion ~ offering victuals beyond the more mundane "square meal.") Amusing pastimes and musings would be enjoyed on deck, and then the gam would end. Visitors would then return to their own ship ~ some dropped down via the gamming chair to the dory, rowed back and hoisted aboard to make the next leg of their journey ~ recording the gam in both the ship's log and in personal journals.