Text Size:
A|
A|
A
Email
Print Courtesy of Phil Bimpson Phil Bimpson, of Liverpool, England, is visiting all the Liverpools in the world. |
Phil Bimpson, a 50-year-old mechanic, martial-arts instructor and married father of six, arrived last weekend from Liverpool, N.Y., near Syracuse.
He'd landed in America on Sept. 21 on this leg of his tour, which, by Nov. 17, is to take him to Liverpools in Illinois, Texas and Pennsylvania (in Perry County just north of Harrisburg), as well as unpopulated points by that name in Alabama and Tennessee.
He's packing a laptop computer, three cameras, 100 blank tapes "and a change of underwear," he jokes in his thick-as-sailors'-stew accent, and traveling by "hire car" -- that is, a rental, with unlimited mileage. "Boy, are they going to be surprised when they get it back!"
On a separate trip earlier this summer, Mr. Bimpson spent 10 days in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, Canada.
He plans to wind up the year visiting, with his wife, Liverpool, New South Wales, Australia.
His end goal is to edit all the video he's shooting into a film that he can show at the 800th anniversary celebration of Liverpool, England, next August. He may even enter it in film festivals -- and definitely will share it with the other Liverpools.
"At the same time, I'm trying to spread peace and love, if you will, like the Beatles did," he said Wednesday afternoon over the phone from his local base, the Sturgis House Bed &Breakfast.
He'd already shot some tape in the basement of this former funeral home, where gangster Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd was embalmed in 1934.
Next, the self-styled ambassador was off to meet the mayor and give him one of the red Liverpool caps he's handing out.
The Ohio River town, 40 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, reminds Mr. Bimpson of his seaport hometown, what with its Victorian and other old buildings and "a little bit of dereliction in the outskirts of town."
According to the Ohio city's Web site, it was, in fact, named by "nostalgic English potters who migrated here and in 1834 incorporated as East Liverpool because of a town in Medina County, Ohio, already named Liverpool" (now a township).
Mr. Bimpson also has visited the Museum of Ceramics and the Lou Holtz/Upper Ohio Valley Hall of Fame, which was named for the locally born Notre Dame football coach ("I'd thought he was a golfer"). He said he was enjoying the region's rich history and, "I'm meeting some absolutely lovely people."
The B&B manager offered to take him to see the World's Largest Teapot in nearby Chester, W.Va. Others have invited him for dinner.
As much as he appreciates the hospitality, especially since he's paying for this trip, it's not a surprise. "I'm just taking it as normal Liverpudlian good taste. It's just what we do."
He was delighted to hear some locals use the term "East Liverpudlians," though he understands those in Illinois refer to themselves as "Liverpoolites" (as do the Pennsylvanians).
He's found so far that most Americans don't know much about his hometown, "but they want to know everything."
His take on the origin of the name Liverpool? The settlement arose around a deep pool of water that was a reddish color that in Viking tongue was lever.
He's been telling everyone he meets, and showing a video he's brought, about how his once-depressed port city has turned itself around -- enough to be named the European Union's Capital of Culture 2008. Its slogan: "The world in one city."
Americans may have an inkling that Liverpool is where the Beatles got their start. Mr. Bimpson's travels have been haunted by echoes of the band.
In Nova Scotia, he met and taped a man who can sing all the published Beatles songs chronologically, nonstop. And in Liverpool, N.Y., he hung out with fans and members of a tribute group called "Fab Five," whose leader he'd taped this summer as the man renewed his wedding vows at Strawberry Fields.
While in East Liverpool, Mr. Bimpson made a side trip -- to Ohio's Calcutta, no less -- to meet the members of another Beatles cover band, "Abbey Road."
Tomorrow night, on his way to Illinois, he's driving to Akron's outskirts to hear them play.
He invited ex-Beatle Ringo Starr to join him for any part of this dream journey. He hasn't yet gotten a reply, but who knows? "There are lots of weird things going on on my trip."
