Monday Music: Ghost of Tom Joad (Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen)

"The Ghost of Tom Joad" by Bruce Springsteen takes its inspiration from John Steinbeck's screenplay of The Grapes of Wrath, in which Henry Fonda played the Tom Joad character. It also draws from Woody Guthrie's "Ballad of Tom Joad." It would only be natural to consider Pete Seeger to sing this song with Bruce. After all, Pete once traveled with Woody Guthrie and his folk music laid the groundwork to inspire Springsteen's career.

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In Remembrance (Ragan Courtney & Buryl Red)

Today in Nashville, Celebrate Life! is being sung at Immanuel Baptist Church in observance of its 50th anniversary. "We will have a full congregational-sing of Celebrate Life! not only as a 50th Anniversary Celebration, but also a celebration of the relevancy of this music today that had such a profound effect on an entire generation." 

The musical drama by Ragan Courtney and Buryl Red is one of the best ever written and the music still holds up today. Here is a .selection from that musical. "In Remembrance" is often used as a communion hymn in churches of many denominations. It is sung here by the Young Adult Choir & Ensemble at The Church of Saint Paul the Apostle, NYC.

 

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Saturday Haiku: Gravestones

 and the Joker stands
with the gravestones in autumn –
it's your wakeup call

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Friday Funnies: Who would you like to be?

 

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America's Strange Subservience to Guns

Sadly, I have posted this essay seven times now since 2015.  Why are we so trapped in this death-making culture? ~ CK

The Fires of Moloch Are Burning

Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of Ben Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.

                                                                                                                  2 Chronicles 28:3

And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of Ben Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination

                                                                                                                  Jeremiah 32:35

Illustration from Foster Bible Pictures
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons 

Moloch was the ancient Phoenician and Canaanite god known in the Old Testament Book of Deuteronomy for the practice of propitiatory child sacrifice.  There are few images more horrifying than that of fearful people offering up their own children to be burned on the altar of a domineering death-making god. Yet we are seeing the fires of Moloch burning in 21^st century America.

We have seen this week yet another disturbing incident of promising lives brought to a sudden end by gun violence. Once again there is talk of stronger gun control laws, yet we are impotent to make any changes. Our failure to act even inMolochthe wake of the Sandy Hook massacre  in which 20 young children were killed, all of them 6 and 7 years old, demonstrated that we would rather sacrifice our beautiful preschoolers than do anything that might be perceived as a desecration of the Bill of Rights. Our words say that we honor American freedom, while our actions say that we live in fear and have so little regard for our children that we will willingly feed them to our modern day fires of Moloch. [To see a map of all the mass shooting since Sandy Hook, go here]

In a country whose politicians love to shout “God Bless America!” at the end of their speeches, and whose people speak of faith in the public square and argue about putting the Ten Commandments on display, it is the ancient and brutal god Moloch who holds sway over so much of our public discourse. Indeed the fires of Moloch continue to consume our children while nothing is done to extinguish those flames.

Why Do We Tolerate Death and Glorify Violence?

According to The Brady Center, “Over 18,000 American children and teens are injured or killed each year due to gun violence. This means nearly 48 youth are shot every day, including 7 fatalities.” 

And here are some more statistics from The Brady Center:

America has a problem with gun violence

·         One in three people in the U.S. know someone who has been shot.

·         On average, 31 Americans are murdered with guns every day and 151 are treated for a gun assault in an emergency room.

·         Every day on average, 55 people kill themselves with a firearm, and 46 people are shot or killed in an accident with a gun.

·         The U.S. firearm homicide rate is 20 times higher than the combined rates of 22 countries that are our peers in wealth and population.

·         A gun in the home is 22 times more likely to be used to kill or injure in a domestic homicide, suicide, or unintentional shooting than to be used in self-defense.

Gun Violence Takes a Massive Toll on American Children

·         More than one in five U.S. teenagers (ages 14 to 17) report having witnessed a shooting.

·         An average of seven children and teens under the age of 20 are killed by guns every day.

·         American children die by guns 11 times as often as children in other high-income countries.

·         Youth (ages 0 to 19) in the most rural U.S. counties are as likely to die from a gunshot as those living in the most urban counties. Rural children die of more gun suicides and unintentional shooting deaths. Urban children die more often of gun homicides.

·         Firearm homicide is the second-leading cause of death (after motor vehicle crashes) for young people ages 1-19 in the U.S.

·         In 2007, more pre-school-aged children (85) were killed by guns than police officers were killed in the line of duty.

Gun Violence is a Drain on U.S. Taxpayers

·         Medical treatment, criminal justice proceedings, new security precautions, and reductions in quality of life are estimated to cost U.S. citizens $100 billion annually.

·         The lifetime medical cost for all gun violence victims in the United States is estimated at $2.3 billion, with almost half the costs borne by taxpayers.

Americans Support Universal Background Checks

·         Nine out of 10 Americans agree that we should have universal background checks, including three out of four NRA members.

·         Since the Brady Law was initially passed, about 2 million attempts to purchase firearms have been blocked due to a background check. About half of these blocked attempts were by felons.

·         Unfortunately, our current background check system only applies to about 60% of gun sales, leaving 40% (online sales, purchases at gun shows, etc.) without a background check.

One question we must answer is why does our society so quickly come to the defense of guns after every deadly incident of gun violence? There are those who call for change, but such calls are always met with a push back from people who cannot tolerate any change in our gun laws. Lawmakers are forever paralyzed by the gun lobbyists and the fear-mongers.

Freedom or Fear?

Why are our citizens and our politicians are unable to put a stop to gun violence? If there were the political will, assault rifles and semi-automatic weapons could be banned tomorrow. The sad fact is, however, that our people seem to be too fearful to consider a peaceful society. We say that we are honoring the Second Amendment to the Constitution – that we hold the Bill of Rights to ensure our freedom – but the truth is, we live in fear. Why else would we be so powerless to stop our current practice of sacrificing children to the fires of gun violence?

Poster from The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence

Picture depicting worship of Moloch from The Jewish Encyclopedia

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Dylan the Welder

I wrote and posted the following poem back in 2013 when I heard about Bob Dylan's projects of turning scrap pieces of metal into iron gates. It struck me as the perfect metaphor. I am reposting it here upon learning of Dylan's most recent and largest welding project: 

Here's to the subterranean fires and the luminous eye of Bob Dylan!  ~ CK

 

Dylan the Welder*

Bob Dylan is a welder

Taking words

That have been scattered

Abused

And misused

And putting them through the fires

Of humanity’s forge.

It takes a hot pen

To bind mythic thoughts to modern ways;

And a fiery riff

To weld common chords to forsaken phrases,

Fashioning a memorable song of love or theft or ruin.

It takes a spark that was lit by subterranean fires

To ignite the passions

Of a restless generation

Until they gather on the streets

Or courthouse lawns

Or the National Mall

To sing of how many roads.

It takes the fire of human consciousness

Erupting without summons or awareness

To fashion songs that can

Shake a tambourine

Survey a watchtower

Foretell a hard rain

Or catch a slow train.

It takes old embers

To join hands with

Woody

Blind Willie

Hattie Carroll

And the sad-eyed lady.

It takes new fire

To speak to the hopes of a young woman

In a world that is spinning

Or the dreams of an old man

When shadows are falling.

Bob Dylan is a welder

Fashioning new gates

From worn-out words,

Burning old hopes

Onto new frames.

It takes ancient fire

To fashion timeless tales

Of joy and struggle,

And a luminous eye

To forge a song that is true.

                              ~ Charles Kinnaird

*The inspiration for this poem came from an online article telling about how Bob Dylan keeps welding supplies at his home in Malibu where he creates iron gates from scrap pieces of metal. Some of his welding work has been on display at London’s Halcyon Gallery.

(photos by John Shearer via Daily Mail)



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Celebrating Bob Dylan's Birthday: "My Back Pages" (30th Anniversary Concert)

"I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now." 

Today is Bob Dylan's 81st birthday. To mark the occasion here is a clip featuring Dylan's song, "My Back Pages." A veritable Who's Who of musicians were on hand to celebrate Bob Dylan's 30th anniversary in the music industry back in 1992. Almost another 30 years later and the man is still at it with his latest record album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, having been released just last year.

 

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Monday Music: Hard Times (Bob Dylan)

As we celebrate Bob Dylan's birthday this month, here is one of my most delightful finds: Dylan's rendition of Stephen Foster's, "Hard Times," written in 1854. Bob performed this one at Willie Nelson's 60th birthday television special. He is accompanied by John Jackson (guitar), Tony Garnier (bass), Bucky Baxter (accordion) & Marty Stuart (mandolin).

 

 

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Saturday Haiku: Eclipse

 

casting a shadow
across the lunar surface
Earth looks in wonder

______________________

Photo by Don Biadog

View of Flower Full Moon Lunar Eclipse, May 15, 2022, from Carmel Mountain Ranch, San Diego 

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Jacob's Ladder: Pete Seeger at Sanders Theater

Pete Seeger had a great gift of getting people to sing together. I heard him in 1985 at a benefit concert at the Sloss Furnace in Birmingham, Alabama. At one point he turned the entire audience into a wonderful choir singing all the parts to "Wimoweh." He did the same thing in 1980 in Cambridge Massachutts' Sanders Theater with "Jacob's Ladder."

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Remembering Pete Seeger

The following post was written in February of 2014 following the news of Pete Seeger's death. I am re-posting it now during his birthday month (May 3, 1919) to honor a man of vision, integrity, and continuing influence.  ~ CK

Several years ago I wrote a blog essay titled, “How Pete Seeger Taught Me about Forgiveness.” It is one of those blog posts that continues to get hits month after month, then with the news of Pete Seeger’s death at the age of 94, my blog site was inundated with hits. I was glad that so many who were searching the web for information about the folk singer were finding an essay that was so personal and had such meaning to me. That story, which you can read here, related how Seeger’s example helped me as an adult to learn an important life lesson.

A Lifetime of Influence

The fact is that Pete Seeger was influencing my life before I even knew who Pete Seeger was. As a kid, when we were at school or at church and someone decided we all ought to sing a song, someone would usually come out with, “If I had a Hammer.” On the radio, The Byrds were “Turn, Turn, Turn.” At youth camps and retreats we would sing, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” I knew all of these songs without knowing who Pete Seeger was or that he had written those songs. He had an important message to share about what it meant to be alive, what values were important for us to strive for and hold on to. Those values and lessons were being instilled into our minds and into our culture by way of the songs that the folk singer wrote. 

The first time I became aware of Pete Seeger was when I was in the seventh grade and he was a guest on The Smothers Brothers Show. Having been blacklisted from radio and television since the 1950s, that was his first national broadcast TV appearance in my lifetime. I remember him singing "Guantanamera." He also sang a song in protest of the Viet Nam war, "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy," which was censored from the telecast, but Seeger was allowed to come back on a later date to perform it again. His call for peace struck a deep chord with me since I had been living in the shadow of Viet Nam since I was  11 or 12 years of age and would continue to do so until the draft was ended just before my eighteenth birthday. The ideal of peace in our time would remain with me to this day. 

It was my privilege to finally see the folk singer in person back in 1985 when he came to do a benefit concert at Sloss Furnace in Birmingham, Alabama. My wife and I attended and it was quite a memorable event. Pete Seeger would have been around 65 and he gave a dynamic performance. I still remember how he turned the entire audience into a choir singing in parts the refrain to "Wimoweh" while he bellowed out those high notes. 

His Social Vision

Many people have been writing this week about the remarkable life that Pete Seeger lived. PBS aired a re-broadcast of “The Power of Song” a beautiful documentary of Seeger’s life.  Arlo Guthrie shared some personal reflections about him with Time Magazine:

Pete had a real vision of what the country was about. He came from a long line of Puritan stock. His family had been in the country a very, very long time, and he had a sense of history. He wasn’t just a scholar of music; he was also a political scholar and a historical scholar. He loved the idealism of a nation founded on the principles he thought were important, and he spread that wherever he went.

I think to be asked about his religion, or about his beliefs, or about his political thoughts, was such an insult to him, because it was insulting to every American. He had a way of taking these personal events in his life and moving them forward so that they included everyone. If it had just affected him, he wouldn’t have said anything; he wouldn’t have written about it; he wouldn’t have made a big deal. But because it affected everyone, he was involved. I think that’s one of the things that motivated him about the environment, the war in Vietnam, the Civil Rights movement. Sometimes he was right; sometimes he was wrong, but he was right most of the time. And he set out to make the country in what he imagined it was meant to be, what it could be. Whatever was going on, he was there because he had a sense of how it impacted everyone. It was not just personal. It was America.

Here is a brief excerpt from a tribute, “Remembering Pete,” by Rich Warren, host of The Midnight Special on WMFT radio in Chicago:

Pete Seeger, singer of folksongs, became the icon of American folk music against his will. He insisted the song was more important than its singer, and the listener was more important than the performer... Pete Seeger: idealist, iconoclast, and inspiration. He welcomed the friendship of anyone who loved music; his humble cabin in Beacon, New York became a gathering place of song. Pete lacked the gorgeous voice of his contemporaries such as Theo Bikel; he may have lacked the banjo and guitar finesse of the many he inspired to take up those instruments; but it was his spirit and his presence; his complete conviction and caring that always carried the day, the movement, and his popularity.

Coincidentally, in the January edition of The Oxford American is an article by Daniel Brook about the Highlander Folk School, a grassroots education center that once existed near Monteagle, Tennessee. It was there that Pete Seeger taught Martin Luther King his version of “We Shall Overcome,” which became the anthem for the Civil Rights Movement.” 

"An Inconvenient Artist"

Pete Seeger was blacklisted in the wake of the Communist scare during the McCarthy days of congressional hearings back in the 1950s and early 60s. Unable to appear on television or the radio, the folk singer began a career of touring college campuses. Ironically, he had a greater influence there than he might have had if he had remained in the broadcast media. He was highly instrumental in the folk revival that swept the college scene and gave cohesion to the student protests for peace during the 1960s. He was a strong and constant advocate for important social causes that included civil rights, peace, and environmental responsibility. The man who had been feared as a communist sympathizer when he was younger was honored with the National  Medal of the Arts at the age of 75. Upon granting the award, President Bill Clinton called him "an inconvenient artist, who dared to sing things as he saw them." Pete Seeger was a truly remarkable man. May his inspiration and influence continue in the years to come.   

From the film documentary, Pete Seeger: The Power of Song:

“Once upon a time, wasn’t singing a part of everyday life? As much as talking, physical exercise and religion, our distant ancestors wherever they were in this world, sang while pounding grain, paddling canoes, or walking long journeys. Can we begin to make our lives once more all of a piece? Finding the right songs and singing them over and over is a way to start. And when one person taps out a beat while another person leads into the melody, or when three people discover a harmony they never knew existed, or a crowd joins in on a chorus as though to raise the ceiling a few feet higher, then they also know there is hope for the world.”

                   ~Pete Seeger

For further reading:

• The Telegraph, always an excellent source of information, has an obituary that includes video clips from some of Pete Seeger’s performances at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10601366/Pete-Seeger-obituary.html
• To see a 2008 interview with the folk singer on the radio program, Thistle & Shamrock, go to   http://www.thistleradio.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=682:pete-seeger&catid=41:archived-interview-transcripts&Itemid=69
• See Pete Seeger along with his grandson Taos Rodriquez and Arlo Guthrie performing "Wimoweh" at The Wolf Trap at http://notdarkyet-commentary.blogspot.com/2012/10/monday-music-pete-seeger-wimoweh.html
• "Pete Seeger: How can I keep from singing?" By Sarah van Gelder  Folk legend Pete Seeger talks about his life in music and social activism – and the power of making millions of small changes. At http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Making-a-difference/Change-Agent/2014/0131/Pete-Seeger-How-can-I-keep-from-singing
• Pete Seeger In His Own Words, by Pete Seeger (2012) Paradigm Publishers.  “Although he has never written an autobiography, his life story is nowhere more personally chronicled than in the private writings, documents, and letters stored for decades in his family barn.”

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Monday Music: To My Old Brown Earth (Pete Seeger)

Two music luminaries were born in the month of May: Pete Seeger (Mat 3) and Bob Dylan (May 24). Typically, I have given a lot of space on my blog during the month of May to celebrate Dylan. This year, I am giving some time to both artists. The video below is taken from the PBS American Masters series "Pete Seeger: Power of Song," broadcast in 2007. As Pete said, when a group of people can find harmony in music, "then they will know there is hope for the world."

 

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Saturday Haiku: Elusive

my first real haiku
so stubbornly elusive
rests in the future

___________________

Photo by bortonia (Getty Images)

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They All Had Names

This essay was first posted in 2018 shortly after The National Memorial for Peace and Justice opened. I am taking another look at my own experience there because it is all the more important that we remember our all too recent history. As can be seen in the inscription in the photo, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice assures that "We will remember."

 

Photo by Elaine Kinnaird

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice opened in Montgomery, Alabama on April 26, 2018. Last week, my daughter and I toured the new memorial which is known as “the lynching memorial.” The day we went, it was well attended, with about an even number of black people and white people present.

During the time between Reconstruction and the Civil Rights Movement, many thousands of African Americans were lynched, and those lynchings served to preserve white supremacy – to assure that blacks “knew their place,” as the saying went down here in the South. It was a time of systemic terrorism aimed at black citizens whereby lynching served to instill fear and subjugation. The National Memorial for Peace and Justice is intended to be a legacy for those African Americans who were “terrorized by lynching,” and “humiliated by racial segregation.”

Confronting Our Past

Most whites, by virtue of their innate societal privilege, had no awareness of the fear and oppression that blacks lived under for 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Yes, those of us who grew up in the South knew about the boundaries: the segregation, the separate water fountains, the impoverished black neighborhoods. But most of us did not understand the fear, the terror, and the sheer danger of being black in America.

At the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, the Equal Justice Initiative has collected some 4,400 names of people who were lynched. Those names are engraved onto 800 corten steel monuments, each steel structure representing a county where lynchings took place. We learned that lynchings occurred between 1877 and 1950 to terrorize the black population and keep Jim Crow laws enforced.  The most recent lynching date I saw occurred in 1948. The farthest place north that I saw represented was Duluth, Minnesota. 

By confronting our past and its continuing legacy, the memorial can serve as a catalyst for reconciliation and healing.

Reactions to the Memorial     

My first reaction upon entering was to try to read every name. There were too many names to read each one. I then began looking at the counties where lynchings occurred and the years that each one took place. I overheard some visitors asking, “Have you found our county yet?” Then I realized there were also too many counties. I decided just to walk around the monument and let the structure speak.

In one section of the memorial, one can read the stories behind some of the lynchings that occurred. There was the prosperous farmer in 1948 who was lynched because he went to the polls to vote. There was the woman lynched because she protested the lynching of her husband, and the young man who was lynched simply because they could not find his relative who was the one they intended to lynch. The magnitude of the atrocities that our society condoned was incredible, but they all had names, and they all had a story to tell. Perhaps we can finally hear those names and those stories.

The most moving moment for me was when I had come through the display of names to a wall over which water flowed down (justice rolling down like waters?). It was there that I saw a young lady sitting, with her eyes closed and head bowed, as if in prayer. Tears came to my eyes as I saw her. Was she praying? Was she asking forgiveness? Praying for the victims of systemic violence? Or was she meditating? Perhaps she was bringing herself in touch with the reality of the atrocities represented in the naming of each lynching victim. Or perhaps she was just trying to take it all in.

Photo by Charles Kinnaird

This is indeed one of the values of having such a memorial. It allows all of us to stop and take it all in. We need to acknowledge that these atrocities took place; that this is who we are. We can no longer pass things off by saying, “I’m not responsible for what happened back during the days of slavery.” In order to move forward, we must come to terms with the fact that we grew up in a society where such systemic evil took place. If those of us who are of white privilege feel some inner resistance when we hear the phrase, “Black Lives Matter,” then we must acknowledge that we are still held captive to a legacy of hate and violence.

We Will Remember

By commemorating the incidents whereby terrorism was used to keep blacks suppressed and subjugated, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice brings us face to face with our own history. On their website, the Equal Justice Initiative states: 

A history of racial injustice must be acknowledged, and mass atrocities and abuse must be recognized and remembered, before a society can recover from mass violence. Public commemoration plays a significant role in prompting community-wide reconciliation.

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice provides a sacred space for truth-telling and reflection about racial terrorism and its legacy.

Photo by Charles Kinnaird

 
Learn More

Read more about the National Memorial at the EJI website at https://eji.org/national-lynching-memorial.

See the video below, produced by The Guardian in which Bryan Stevenson, founder of Equal Justice Initiative, tells about The Legacy Museum and The National Memorial for Peace and Justice. Then go to Montgomery to see it for yourself. It is definitely worth the trip.

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Monday Music: Ukrainian Now

When I was growing up, Russia was acting as an atheistic totalitarian state, a threat to the free world, and a terror to Eastern Europe. Today, they act as an authoritarian state with the blessing of the Orthodox Church yet they are using the same old bag of tricks. Evil will co-opt any system. How are we to respond in the face of such oppression?

We can refuse to get comfortable with authoritarian ideas whether they are under a Russian banner or the product of our own home-grown fascism. We can declare our solidarity with the oppressed as Tom Paxton and John McCrutheon have done with their new song, "Ukrainian Now."

 

From the YouTube site:

Tom Paxton and John McCutcheon have written a heartfelt, stirring song, "Ukrainian Now," that touches us all. Noel Paul Stookey edited this beautiful video that includes the voices of Peter Yarrow, Bill Miller, Tret Fure, Holly Near, Emma's Revolution, Rebel Voices, Crys Matthews, Carrie Newcomer, Christine Lavin and Joe Jencks - whose playing of the electric bouzouki adds a haunting complement to the piano of McCutcheon. The lyrics scroll across the screen and the sheet music is at the end. Please share far and wide. As Holly says at the video's conclusion, "We are all Ukrainian, now..."

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A Mother's Day Memory

A re-post from Mother's day, 2016:

Revisiting Our Town (a Mother's Day Memory)

Fredonia State University of New York photo

It may have been the first play I ever saw and it is certainly my earliest recollection of live theater. I must have been around 7 years old. While I did not follow the story line at such a young age, it was all such a fascinating experience. I knew many of the actors who were in the senior class at Dadeville High School and I knew the director, Mary Kinnaird. She was the high school English teacher and she also happened to be my mother. The play was Our Town, by Thornton Wilder.

It must have been quite a big night for the town as well. I recall my mother saying years later that as they were working out the logistics she mentioned to the high school principal the matter of paying royalties out of the proceeds from the play. “Royalties?” he said with astonishment, “I never heard of doing a senior play that required paying royalties!” That became the routine, however, as my mother continued to produce the high school senior plays over the years. She guided future students in a variety of plays that included I remember Mama, Cheaper by the Dozen, You Can't Take It with You, and Pygmalion.

The Play is the Thing

Our Town was first performed in 1938 and found immediate success on Broadway, earning a Pulitzer Prize for Thornton Wilder. The play has had continued success down through the years as a classic American play. From that high school performance that I witnessed years ago, I was left with vivid memories.

Even though I saw the play at a very young age, I can still recall some of the scenes. I remember the stage manager who kept the audience informed about the action on stage, the paperboy delivering the morning news; I remember the actors using step ladders to simulate looking out upstairs windows in neighboring houses; and I remember the lovely Emily who was played by high school senior, Carol Jane Meigs. I can still see her in that white dress bidding a tearful good-bye to Grover’s Corners as she played the part of Emily.

                                                                                                                      

Perhaps the reason I have had Our Town on my mind is that Mother’s Day is approaching as well as my mother’s birthday. She would have been 95 years old on May 10 if she were still living.  I decided that I would honor my mother's memory by viewing the play that she directed so many years ago.

Since it is one of the most frequently performed plays in the country, I was hoping to find a recording of it.  Upon visiting the public library, I was excited to find a DVD recording of a 1996 production that had aired on Showtime and on PBS. It was directed by Joanne Woodward, and starred her husband, Paul Newman, as the stage manager. I happily checked out the DVD and viewed it a few days later when I had a quiet span of time to give to the viewing.

Set at the turn of the 20^th century, the play presents ordinary scenes from the lives of people in a small ordinary town, Grover’s Corners, in New Hampshire. In the words of the stage manager, “This is the way we were: in our growing up and in our marrying and in our living and our dying.” As I watched the play unfold on the screen, I had another play going on inside my head. I was re-envisioning that spring night in 1962 when the Dadeville High School production took place. I loved the way the audience was drawn into the play at the bidding of the stage manager; I was intrigued by the minimalist stage setting which allowed closer attention to the conversation; and I was amazed that this very production had taken place in the small town of Dadeville, Alabama.

The Gift of Live Theater

With a population of around 3,000 people, my hometown of Dadeville was comparable to Grover’s Corners, which the play tells us had a population of 2,642. The people I knew growing up lived according to the customs of the day, not unlike the people depicted in Thornton Wilder’s play. As I watched the drama of Our Town play out, I realized that my mother’s production of the play was great gift. It was a gift to the graduating seniors to be involved in such a production and it was a larger gift to the community to give the people a chance to look thoughtfully at their lives for just a moment.

The stage manager put it this way: “Now there are some things we all know, but we don't take'm out and look at'm very often. We all know that something is eternal...everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. There's something way down deep that's eternal about every human being.”

In Act III, Emily, who had died in childbirth observed, “It goes so fast. We don’t have time to look at one another.” She made that observation after having been given the chance to revisit the world for one day. She had chosen what she remembered as a happy day, her 12^th birthday.

“Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it...every, every minute?” she asked while looking on her family’s interactions on the day she chose to return to life.

“No,” replied the stage manager, “saints and poets, maybe — they do some.”

“In Our Living and Our Dying”

I cannot say how the townsfolk reacted after that production of Our Town. I’m sure they all thought it was a nice play, and I’m sure parents were proud of the production that their high school children had accomplished. I have to think that some, at least, took time to reflect upon the life that they were living. I know that the actual lives of the actors played out in ways that were similar to the characters on stage. Some died too young; most went on to ordinary lives of marriages and mortgages. There were also disruptions that lay just ahead: the assassination of a president, the war in Vietnam, the civil rights struggle, Woodstock – all of these cultural markers of my generation were yet to be encountered by that small tight-knit community.

All of these years later, I am all the more impressed and thankful for the role my mother played in bringing good things to a small mill town in the South. One of the characters in Our Town said, “There isn't much culture...Robinson Crusoe and the Bible; Handel's 'Largo,' we all know that: and Whistler's 'Mother' -- those are just about as far as we go.” We didn’t have a lot of culture in our little town either, but there was one high school English teacher who brought gifts from Thornton Wilder, George Bernard Shaw, and other playwrights to enrich the lives of students and others in the community. 

In her annual production of those senior high school plays, my mother gave the town a few moments to listen to “the saints and the poets.” She enabled us all to ever so briefly recall the truth that “There's something way down deep that's eternal about every human being.”

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