In Memory of My Loving Sister Missy, 1950-1994

One of Missy's three beautiful daughters showed an interest in this poem when she spotted it on the mantelshelf in my house, and I love it too.  Suzy, our youngest sibling, wrote it.  I've re-typed it below in larger font.

Easter, 1960?

Matching dresses, mother-made

Yours with yellow ducks

Mine, lavender bunnies

Two brown-haired girls smiling

My hand in yours

Summer four years later

Squatting in the dirt

Our backyard baseball diamond

Snowball posing too, fluffy white

We smile at the camera

Your pixie, my crooked braids.

You'd pedal a blue bike

Me on the seat

Up Forrest Drive

To the donut shop

Knowing the clerk would whisper

"Y'all like a lemon-filled today?"

Your talkative friendliness, the welcome currency

Then back towards home

Down Forrest Drive to Stratford Road

Me perched on handlebars

You pedaling strong

Saturday night, the Stones

You me David

Entire jars of Spanish olives!

Spaghetti--from a can!

And a peacock spreading a tail of living color.

Bedtime, 

Our white and turquoise room upstairs

Double-bed beside the window

Watching pines against the sky

Moments in our childhood 

Like squares of an afghan

Sewn together like a lifetime of warmth

You and me

Sisters.

Are the Black-clad, Masked "Antifa" Planted to Discredit Us and Create a Police State?

Are the black-masked "Antifa" being planted by the Right Wing to make us liberals look hypocritical, dangerous, and hate-filled?

The so-called Antifascists use fascist tactics like the forcible suppression of opposition and seem much more like a gang than a group of protesters.

  Do they want the police state that will result if, causing 400 police officers to move away and beating protesters, they justify bringing in the militia?

Whatever happened to "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"? 

Are we going to have to have counter-protesters to counter-protesters?

Chancellor Carol Christ is correct.  Shutting down antithetical views is un-American.

The Antifa are Trump supporters' best new means of recruit.

Library Sing-along Includes a "Downtown" Quite Different from Ours

At a sing-along this afternoon, I couldn't help marveling at the lyrics of "Downtown."  I think even at the time it was written there were some critics who said it represented escapism at its worst, but now "Downtown" is anything but escape!

 We sang "Sing," "Close to You," Blowin' i the Wind" 1962, "Country Road," "Leavin' on a Jet Plane", "The Sound of Music, "My Favorite Things," "Edelweiss,"  Climb Every Mountain," "Getting to Know You," "Que Sera Sera," "As Time Goes By," "Young at Heart," "Today," Tomorrow,"  "Over the Rainbow." "Downtown," and "When I'm 64."
There were a couple of funny "connections" that occurred to me while we were singing.

First, with "Country Road," the John Denver song, I told them that Javier, my MEQUE (Mejor Que Un Esposo), sings that song with a Spanish accent because he's from Costa Rica, and I enjoy his nostalgia about West Virginia!  A singer-along from Taiwan said the Taiwanese sing it too!  West Virginia is wherever the heart is!

The other connection was even funnier:  When I heard "Tomorrow," I remembered who had taken me to see Annie, and it was the husband of a woman who's now a close friend--before they were married.  Then I realized that the woman, Eileen, was the sister of the guy leading the singing, Cliff, and when I shared this with my friend Robert and his wife Shirley, I realized that they knew Eileen because she was the director of Peter's Place when their children were going to pre-school there!  So the song "Tomorrow" reminded us of yesterdays and todays.

I had tears in my eyes at the end of "Blowin' in the Wind" because it's still so on the mark, and I've always thought "Downtown" was a rousing but escapist song, and now the lyrics don't quite fit what we see downtown!  Now we need to escape FROM downtown.

A man originally from France said there was a French version of "Que sera sera," but the words weren't an exact translation, and the only English in the song was "Que sera sera." (!)    I looked it up later and found the words and a YouTube "performance" from 1957.  In our American version, Doris Day asks her sweetheart, "Will there be rainbows day after day?" but in the French version the singer asks whether she'll always be faithful.  In both cases the answer is "Que sera sera."

The sing-along was a lot of fun!  We sang "Sing," "Close to You," Blowin' i the Wind" 1962, "Country Road," "Leavin' on a Jet Plane", "The Sound of Music, "My Favorite Things," "Edelweiss,"  Climb Every Mountain," "Getting to Know You," "Que Sera Sera," "As Time Goes By," "Young at Heart," "Yesterday," "Today," Tomorrow,"  (See link to film by that title)  "Over the Rainbow." "Downtown," and "When I'm 64."
There were a couple of funny "connections" that occurred to me while we were singing.

First, with "Country Road," the John Denver song, I told them that Javier, my MEQUE (Mejor Que Un Esposo), sings that song with a Spanish accent because he's from Costa Rica, and I enjoy his nostalgia about West Virginia!  A singer-along from Taiwan said the Taiwanese sing it too!  West Virginia is wherever the heart is!

The other connection was even funnier:  When I heard "Tomorrow," I remembered who had taken me to see Annie, and it was the husband of a woman who's now a close friend--before they were married.  Then I realized that the woman, Eileen, was the sister of the guy leading the singing, Cliff, and when I shared this with my friend Robert and his wife Shirley, I realized that they knew Eileen because she was the director of Peter's Place when their children were going to pre-school there!  So the song "Tomorrow" reminded us of yesterdays and todays.

I had tears in my eyes at the end of "Blowin' in the Wind" because it's still so on the mark, and I've always thought "Downtown" was a rousing but escapist song, and now the lyrics don't quite fit what we see downtown!  Now we need to escape FROM downtown.

A man originally from France said there was a French version of "Que sera sera," but the words weren't an exact translation, and the only English in the song was "Que sera sera." (!)    I looked it up later and found the words and a YouTube "performance" from 1957.  In our American version, Doris Day asks her sweetheart, "Will there be rainbows day after day?" but in the French version the singer asks whether she'll always be faithful.  In both cases the answer is "Que sera sera."

They sang one or two other songs after I'd left to mail a packet to a friend in need of some cheering up.

Here's a link for Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, the film that came to mind as we were singing the three songs with those titles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6Rrj3LgAPs

Young at Heart, the 1954 film that apparently only I had ever heard of

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFWG0iR3DYc

"True Love" from High Society.

Not a Very Happy Ending but Like a Fairy Tale

There's a homeless man in my neighborhood.  The only thing  I know about him aside from his behavior on the street is that his first name is Larry.

  A couple of years ago, I walked him over to the Manor Cafe and paid for a meal for him, but I didn't really feel good about the way I did it.  I was in a hurry, and I just basically gave the owner of the Cafe money for his meal.

A couple of months ago, when Larry  asked for a handout, I told him I didn't give money to people on the streets, that I give it instead to organizations to help people on the streets. 

He said, "That's phony.  That's an excuse."

So when I heard about HandUp, an organization designed to help specific individuals on the street, I bought a couple of their gift cards--$25 each. 

https://handup.org/members#category/spotlight

 Here's how it's laid out.

I carried around two cards for a while and never saw Larry, so I gave one to a woman who was begging on the street.

Then one day recently, I saw Larry lying on the street and took a picture.

For some reason, as soon as I got it onto my computer, it became my Desktop photo!

This reminded me of a fairy tale in which a woman promises to come back to the man holding her captive because her captivity is part of the bargain--compensation for what her father has taken from this man.   But she forgets, and then she has a magic mirror showing him dying of heartbreak  because she hasn't kept her promise.

A few days ago I saw Larry on West Portal, and I said,  "Hi, Larry.  How are you doing?"  He said he'd been sick, and I told him I was sorry and brought out the $25 gift card.  He refused it!  He wanted a hand out, not a HandUp!

I then gave it to another panhandler.

The next time I saw Larry, he accused me once again of not wanting to help.

 I said, "You refused the twenty-five dollar gift card," but I didn't tell him about his being on my Desktop every time I turn on the computer!

I'm happy to say that with Jonathan's help at 3000 miles away, I was finally able to get Larry off of my Desktop!