Pat Guidon, the long-time (40 years) owner of Foggy Notions, our very beloved town tavern and restaurant and hangout, has died after a long illness and the Bog  has been shut down by state authorities,  in keeping with state law.

It isn’t clear if the Bog can or will re-open again, there are rumors that Pat was in the process of selling the Bog before he died, but I don’t really know what is happening.

The Bog is one of those institutions that transcended itself. It is well-known for it’s  hamburgers, biker parties and band nights, but Maria and I knew it best as a warm, friendly special place to eat in at atmosphere of great comfort and community.

The burgers were fine, but in recent years, I think it was really Kelly Nolan, whose smile I have captured in a hundred or so portraits over the past few years, that really kept the Bog going.

Under state law, a liquor license is automatically revoked upon the death of the holder.

If someone buys the bog, a funky old building with a giant wood stove (no longer legal in new licensed taverns in New York State). A new buyer can apply for a new license, but that  takes some time and money, it isn’t clear whether anyone is going to try to make the effort.

Everyone in the town hopes Kelly can or will somehow take over, but I don’t know if she is interested, or if that is possible.  If there’s something I should know, she’ll tell me.

As of today, she’s out of work, as are Molly and the other staffers there.

I never knew Pat well, I barely ever spoke to him, he had a hands off management style, and rarely changed the bog. I almost never saw him there. He did make it a warm and comfortable place to go, and left it that way.

Kelly was an anchor. She always kept her cool and just glided from bar to table to kitchen and back, in a never-ending circle. She never lost her smile or her temper, and it was common to see people get up from their tables and give her a hand clearing and cleaning tables.

Kelly’s radiant smile and easy management style was – is – a wonder. She was the spirit of the Bog.

She tended bar, waited tables, brought food, wrote out the bills, cleared tables, even on  nights when the tavern was crammed with people. I am so grateful to her for permitting me to take her portrait again and again, her smile was a miracle, natural and honest. That is who she is, a great worker, a devoted mother and wife and daughter.

Kelly is much-loved.

I lived around Cambridge for about 13 years before I set foot in the bog.

I thought it was a biker place where I wouldn’t be welcome, sometimes the bikes were lined up all down Main Street. Another lesson in not making judgements. It turned out, the bikers are some of the nicest people I’ve met, and it was never a biker bar, it was just a tavern that welcomed bikers sometimes. I always felt welcome there.

Kelly handled all of it. I always thought of Kelly the embodiment of the Strong Woman.

Many woman get nervous when I point a camera at them, they think they are ugly or ill-prepared. Kelly never blinked. She looked the lens right in the eye every time, and dared me to click the shutter.

We will dearly miss the Bog, for sure. This is a blow to the idea of community here, the Bog is the kind of place that seems to be vanishing in America, I hope someone can keep it going. But as much or more, I will miss seeing Kelly and taking her portrait, I hope I can still catch that radiant smile, wherever she goes.

So thanks, Pat. I can’t claim to have known you, but I am grateful to you for the Bog, and your faithful vision for it. I hope it will live on.