The Guthrie Center in Great Barrington, Massachusetts

No American Thanksgiving dinner is complete without turkey, stuffing, gravy, and "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" by Arlo Guthrie, son of legendary folksinger Woody Guthrie and a talented songwriter in his own right. Based on a true story, the ballad recounts an act of kindness gone awry where Arlo, who had dumped the garbage that accumulated in Alice's home off a cliff, was arrested for littering in the small town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts. And it's this criminal blemish which jeopardized Guthrie's chances of getting drafted into the US Army to "burn women, kids, houses, and villages," as he dryly remarks. The nearly 20-minute song helped put the town of Stockbridge on the map, and as critical as Guthrie might have been towards the local police institution, residents seem to have welcomed the artist's cultural contribution with open arms, the site of Alice's Restaurant becoming something of a tourist destination. But as astute listeners of the song will know, "Alice doesn't live in the restaurant, she lives in the church nearby the restaurant, in the bell tower." The church in question (also a quick jaunt from the railroad tracks) was built six miles south of Stockbridge as St.…

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