The Essence of American Living...

Greetings, Blog Friends.

As an Innkeeper, guests often ask me which room at Inn at Long Lake is my favorite. I have a preference for more masculine rooms at the inn, such as The GLENN MILLER SUITE and The GABLE ROOM for my own personal tastes decor-wise, other rooms, inspired by icons of Classic Hollywood and American music, all hold a special place in my heart.

In 2007, one year after ownership, I re-named all the guest rooms at the inn and started the never-ending decor design based on the icons I selected. My last room named was a room that I named in hesitation...it was The COPLAND ROOM on Floor 2. With other rooms named after larger than life icons like Mae West, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong, who might actually be familiar with the brilliant American composer, Aaron Copland?

Tonight, as I tooled around online I encountered an amazing quote about Aaron Copland and his music: It read:

"Copland is a reminder of what is pure, wonderful, eternal, and majestic--about this American life. If only my life could be a fraction of this goodness embedded in this beautiful piece of music..."

I feel exactly the way this reviewer feels. I create my inn business, my life, and my home cooking around this credo---that simplicity has its own purity, and that the expression of this reminds us of simpler days--much like the movie that Aaron Copland scored for his friend, Thornton Wilder--"Our Town." Music is a part of the experience of Inn at Long Lake, and this said, I endeavor to open each day at the inn with the playing of this 11 minute 'eternal' music depicting life in a honorable New England town (in the play Wilder suggested Peterborough, New Hampshire as its setting).

Grovers Corners doesn't really exist. It exists in only one place---our hearts. It is about each day starting, making coffee for our spouses, sending kids off to school, discovering love, dealing with the inescapable experience of death. Many of these are the threads of simplicity that comprise our daily lives. Small touches of afternoon cookies (that I adore making each day in the inn kitchen) still brings a smile to guests' faces. Has simplicity become its own marketing niche?!

Whatever the answer, I adore what I do every day--as Innkeeping is all about simple touches.

I remember this each time I step into The Copland Room, with its Americana feel. I look down onto Long Lake and see this New England town--and its lake-- at any given moment of the day live through its day. Copland has set the music to this so eloquently. I hope you will have a chance to explore his music.

That's all on this cool Spring night overlooking the dark waters of Long Lake.

Keith A. Neubert