Origins are an old English legend, oft put to song: They say an old salt who is tired of going to sea should walk inland with an oar over his shoulder. When he comes to a village deep in the country and the people ask him what he is carrying, he will know that he's found Fiddler's Green. The people give him a seat in the sun outside the Village Inn with a glass of grog that refills itself every time he drains the last drop and a pipe forever smoking with fragrant tobacco. From then onwards he has nothing to do but enjoy his glass and pipe and watch the maidens dancing to the music of a fiddle on Fiddler's Green.
USNTC Bainbridge -- Wonderful 1964 photo with the Fiddler's Green EM Club in the background.
What gave Bainbridge its character was the simplicity and unpretentiousness of the "temporary" architecture and the rolling terrain -- no granite, no polished marble, no gold plating, very few bricks, no air conditioning, no frills.
Wood, glass, asbestos-cement transite sheet siding, tarpaper/gravel flat roofs, coal by the trainload for heat. Constructed as only a temporary wartime training facility Bainbridge served the United States Navy very well (and inexpensively) for 30+ years.
Check out the red Chevrolet Corvair automobile; Ralph Nader was writing his book "Unsafe At Any Speed" to be published the next year that would unfairly put an end to the Corvair. ▼
USNTC Bainbridge -- Another view of the EM Club, date unknown. Never being off the farm I was initially fascinated by the large rotating mirrored ball that hung from the ceiling. The 1964 photo above shows handrails were added to the entry steps, seems like a very prudent addition considering the condition in which many departed the premises, albeit 3.2% beer was the strongest liquid most had consumed. ▼
USNTC Bainbridge -- Scene from inside of the EM Club circa 1969. Is that a bottle of National Bohemian beer? "Natty Boh", brewed on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. Fiddler's Green legend had it that girls who drank Natty Boh, got drunk, squinted one eye and had sex all night ..... or so us teenage 'never seen an ocean' sailors did fantasize. ▼
USNTC Bainbridge -- 1968 photo of the rock band The Runabout's appearance at the Fiddler's Green. The Runabouts, a local band from Havre de Grace, Maryland played several shows at the EM Club in 1967-1968. Amazingly the rock group still performs today with the original members - http://www.therunabouts.com ▼
