Come gather round people where ever you roam... Come

Come gather round people where ever you roam...

Come writers and critics who prophesize with your pens .. .

Come mothers and fathers throughout the land...

The words from the old Peter, Paul and Mary anthem are an appropriate invitation to the Gallery Coffee House where “the times, they are a changin’.”

The monthly happenings at the Middle Street Gallery Artists Cooperative in Washington, Virginia, are indeed a change - a change back to the gentler times of the late ’50s and early ’60s when beatdom was in flower.

Those were the days, my friend. Earnest young people, the men bearded, the women with long straight hair and both in black turtlenecks and black berets, gathered in dim cafes and coffee houses. They recited poetry, argued philosophy and strummed guitars. They exchanged ideas and entertainment.

They drank coffee instead of beer; they smoked cigarettes instead of pot. (Remember, those were the times before smoking became socially unacceptable, times when a cigarette dangled casually from a limp wrist, wreathing a furrowed forehead in rings of smoke, was considered the mark of sophistication.)

Only the cigarettes are missing from the scene at the Gallery Coffee House.

“Growing up in D.C., I went to the first Coffee and Confusion and the old Brickskeller,” said cofounder Dan Lewis. “That feeling, that atmosphere, was what we wanted to have: a casual place where folks could play homey music without competitive tension. Where you could make a mistake and it would be accepted as part of the show. Where the audience could participate, sing along if they knew the words, and it would be all right if they went off key or forgot a line. ”

“Here in Rappahannock, we’ve got plenty of opportunity for visual artists,” added co-founder Bob Treanor. “Performing artists needed a showcase, too.”