From Chimayo to Wavy Gravy!

We’re in Santa Fe and we decided a day trip to Taos was in order.  Two ways to get there: the main thoroughfare or The High Road to Taos.  I always take the high road, just ask my friends.  Along the way there is a little town called Chimayo that has a chapel (sigh) called Santuario de Nuestro Señor de Esquipulas but the locals call it El Santuario de Chimayo.  Here’s a picture:

OK, we got that out of the way.  Here’s the dining establishment that makes money from all the ladies with sighing husbands that come to see the chapel:

It was yummy.

And here’s one of the monks from the chapel:

The little fella’s hermetically sealed in there.  Probably where I’ll end up if a lightning bolt doesn’t hit me.

JoJami, who is a voracious reader, found an article about this very trip we’d planned and it mentioned a guy named Wavy Gravy.  I’d never heard of him until this past February.  We were at The Townhouse with our son listening to some funky cats when JoJami struck up a conversation with an exotically dressed lady at the next table.  She happened to be one of the producers of an independent film titled Saint Misbehavin’: The Wavy Gravy Movie.  Here’s a picture of Wavy at the Saint Misbehavin’ premier in Santa Monica:

You may have heard of Wavy Gravy ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s.  Same guy.  To make a verrrryyyy long story short, in the 1960’s Wavy founded a collective hog farm in Tujunga, CA but at the time his name wasn’t Wavy, it was Hugh Romney.  That’s where B.B. King comes in.  But more about that later……

Anyway, it turns out one of the original hog farmers, Jean Nichols, now lives on The High Road!  “We have to go see her.” JoJami said.  She runs upcycledfashion.com which takes used clothing and creates new clothing using local seamstress labor.  Here’s Jean modeling one of their jackets:

And here’s JoJami with the upcycled dress she bought:

It was fun meeting Jean.  She still has the original school bus that Wavy and the Wavites toured around in.  It’s rusting on her farm along The High Road.

But back to B.B. King.  Some guys organizing a big music event called Woodstock knew about Hugh Romney and his fellow hog farmers.  They hired them to be general keepers of goodwill at the event.  That proved to be a tall order and at one point between sets Hugh had collapsed of exhaustion on the stage when none other than B.B. King knelt over him and said “Your name is Wavy Gravy.”  And so it was from that day forward…..

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