09/04/2026
Levitt alum returning!
TOMORROW! Saturday, September 5th
Mean Mary is coming to Cà d'Zan House Concerts!
🎟️ Tickets: xroadscc.org/events
🍉 6pm - potluck/social hour
🎤 7pm - show
💵 $20-30 suggested donation
👨👩👧 All ages, family-friendly
Bring lawn chairs/blankets, BYOB
☂ Rain Location: Bishop Hill Creative Commons
“Mean” Mary James, youngest of six children, was born in Geneva, Alabama, though her family lived in Florida, a couple of miles below the Alabama line. Her mom (author Jean James) and dad (WWII veteran William James) lived a very nomadic lifestyle. On one occasion, they packed up the family (Mary was four at the time) and moved from Florida to northern Minnesota, near the Canadian border, to rough it in the wilds.
For three months they lived in a tent built from a roll of Visqueen they had brought with them. During this time, they built a log cabin using only an axe, hand saws, and the trees around them. They cooked their food on a campfire, got their water from a deep hole they had dug, and read at night by the northern lights shining through the clear walls of their plastic tent. On one occasion, their tent was mauled by a large, 7’1" black bear that Mary’s mom, Jean, was forced to shoot.
The tent soon became unbearably cold, and when they finally moved into their almost completed log cabin, winter was upon them. Without electricity or running water, and cold enough to freeze water five feet from the only source of heat (an old wood stove), the family spent many hours reading books by kerosene lamp and enjoying the great outdoors (cutting firewood!).
