Back when Revival was at Westchester Community College in Valhalla, the Site Crew had an encampment back in the weeds behind the college’s maintenance buildings. A big tent with several picnic benches end-to-end, a field kitchen, 2 refrigerators, and a kegerator (a keg of beer inside a refrigerator with a spout thru the door), and outside the tent a shower, a fire ring, and at a decent distance, a portasan. Tents and campers scattered about, and I think some of the crew slept in the empty storage trailers.
In 1994 Pietro and I had news: in January, after living together happily for 10 years, we had gotten married while we were visiting my dad in Florida. We hadn’t made any fuss about it, because it was just 
for “business” purposes, so I could get on his very good health insurance. But I had made a little album of a few photos and showed it to the crew. Our dear friend Amy was quite upset because we hadn’t told her we had gotten married.
In those days, it was our habit on Friday before the festival opened to come in from the field, wash up and put on nice clothes, and go out for dinner. This particular year, for some reason, there was delay after delay in getting everyone rounded up to carpool to dinner; finally, Pietro lost his temper and stormed off in our car. Later he showed up at the restaurant and we all had a pleasant evening.
Pietro with Amy, the baker of the wedding cake.
On Saturday night of the festival, Pietro and I got into our glad rags and walked over to the Dance Tent for the Volunteer Party, but when we got there and discovered it was a square dance band, we walked away because he doesn’t care for that kind of music or dancing. We wandered through the dark festival grounds until we came upon the Captains’ Tent (that year there was a reunion of sloop captains). In candlelight, a bunch of people were singing quietly. We joined them.
Presently, I noticed that people were looking behind us with puzzled expressions. I turned, and out of the darkness came the Site Crew, led by Amy carrying a 3-layer white-frosted wedding cake! We shared the cake around, and heard the story:
Susan at Revival in 2015.
Beloved Amy had baked that cake for us in the field kitchen, and one of the refrigerators had been emptied to hold it; somehow they had prevented Pietro and me from opening that refrigerator. On Friday night the delay had been trying to get him and me into one car while loading the cake into another car, so at the restaurant it could be presented to us at dessert time! But when Pietro drove off in a huff, they had to scrap that idea.
Plan B was to present it to us at the Volunteer Party! The MC was going to be told when we arrived, so he could stop the music and call us to the front. We were spotted arriving, the cake was hustled to the stage, and… “Pietro and Susan, please come to the stage… Pietro and Susan…? Pietro and Susan…?”
Plan C was that they were going to find us sleeping in the back of our minivan and dump it on our heads. But one of the crew happened to walk by the Captains’ Tent and spot us, and once again there was a scramble to round up golf carts and cake and Site Crew members.
To the end of our days, we will be warmed, charmed, and delighted by the thought of us wandering innocently through the festival, while unbeknownst to us the Site Crew was chasing madly after us with that amazing cake! And festival or not, we will always be Site Crew.
Pietro and Susan at Mardi Gras in New Orleans, LA.
Susan Murphy and Pietro Poccia met in 1981 as volunteers for the Mobilization for Survival in NYC. They were also both nurses, Clearwater members, and members of the Ground Zero Club, a satirical anti-nuclear group. They partnered up in 1983. In 1990 they joined a group developing Cantine’s Island CoHousing, where they live to this day. In addition to his 39 years on Site Crew, Pietro has been a volunteer and paid crew on the sloop. Susan has served as a Clearwater board member, Chair of the Revival Planning Committee, Volunteer Coordinator for the festival, Coordinator of Sign Painting, and Kitchen Coordinator for Site Crew. The whole month of June was dedicated to Revival: preparing and packing, then arriving two weeks ahead to transform the grounds by building stages, networking light, and sound systems, putting up tents, and much more, staying another week for breakdown and putting everything back into storage, then unpacking at home. Many lifelong friendships grew out of Site Crew and the whole Clearwater community. They miss Revival very much, but they continue to adventure together today.
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