Robert Lindner

In our senior year,

the Musical was Carousel

And so Happy June First

And

Just Because It’s June

“June is bustin' out all over!
All over the meadow and the hill!
Buds're bustin' outa bushes
And the rompin' river pushes
Ev'ry little wheel that wheels beside the mill!

June is bustin' out all over!
The feelin' is gettin' so intense
That the young Virginia creepers
Hev been huggin' the bejeepers
Outa all the mornin'-glories on the fence.
Because it's June!
June, June, June
Jest because it's June, June, June!”

“June Is Bustin' Out All Over!”

Rogers and Hammerstein for Carousel
 

This year, because it’s June,

We can remember and sing the spring tune

We sang in sixty-four

And this year it means more

Because last year was for

Quarantining. All we could do was croon

Our sad tune as the walls

Enclosed us in our claustrophobic halls

But it’s June. The real thing,

And we can feel the spring

Changing as we’re turning

To summer and now we can hear the calls

Of June, the carousel

Is on the stage, casting its joyful spell

Because it’s June, because

June, June, June like it was

When we were Kits with paws

Just finding their way and no one could tell

What we would find after

Bustin’ out with youthful joy and laughter

Over meadow and hill

To hone claws with a skill

That could last and would still

Take us to joy of Kits ever after

In memory of days

Gone by with remembrances of the plays

And musicals where we

Would strut and sing, like “Three

Little girls.” I can see

Them now. They’re singing “loud our voices raise”

And June is bustin’ out

All over” and “that’s what it’s all about.”

Like the Hokey Pokey

Time of more memory

Back to the nursery

School, as our youth calls us to cheer and shout

“Welcome back!” to summer.

It’s come back again, after the bummer

Of last year’s pandemic.

To avoid getting sick,

We had to hide out, stick

To home. But we can march to our drummer.

Now and let summer come

To us, with June, July, August, in sum-

Sum-summertime, that’s what

We want, that’s what we got

And we know we’ll be hot

But we also know that we can go some

Place. Our summer place where

It’s safe and warm, the summer wind blows fair

So we can walkabout

And we can sing and shout

That June is bustin’ out

All over and we are taken back there

By our sweet memory

To where we were and wish we still would be

Riding the carousel,

Singing songs, we know well.

And in their wondrous spell,

We’re as joyful as we could ever be.

Sherrie Igoe (Dembrowski)

CALLING ALL HAVEN SCHOOL ELEMENTARY STUDENTS:

I am looking for anyone who was in first grade at Haven, in Mrs. Jacoby's class!  That is the one class photo I don't have, and being as my family was moving about then from that area to College Hill area in Skokie, I am unsure of where I went to 1st grade.  Being as I remember the teacher's name, am pretty certain it was at Haven.  If you have that class photo from what would have been probably 1952, would you pretty please, share it with me via email or whatever?  Thank you so much!

I totally appreciate your efforts!

Sherrie Lulling Igoe Dembrowski

Lesley Mentgen (Delmenico)

Thanks for the poetry, Robert!  Always appreciated!

Robert Lindner

I just dicovered when trying to send 75th birthday wishes to Penny Thoms that she had unfortunately passed away last August. I am trying to locate an obit to put into the in memory forum. 

Robert Lindner

Ruth Gross

Robert,

Thanks for letting us know about Penny.  She was a lovely classmate, whom I remember from ETHS. It sounds as if she was loved and cared for.  (These notices are coming too quickly and furiously for my taste, so please, everyone--take care.) 

Suzanne Linfield (Spindler)

Robert Lindner

A Penny For Heaven

A Penny For Our Thoughts

For Penelope Ann Thoms (Our Penny)

In for a Penny, in

For a Pound. So they say when they begin.

But Penny Thoms was more

Than any money or

Some other metaphor.

She was poetry, she was genuine.

She cared for the dying,

And brought peace to them, as they were lying

In their Hospice beds. She

Was Chaplain and would be

Bringing eternity

To their souls and to those who were crying

For a dying parent

Or for family. She was heaven sent.

As close to saintliness,

As could be. And she’d bless

Lives that were in distress

With her presence. Fading lives that she spent

Last days with, consoling

Them, their families, while she was bringing

Heaven to them. And now

She’s found it too somehow,

And ‘neath the golden bough,

She sleeps. And all the angels are singing.

From Robert Lindner For Penny

Thomas Wardell

Robert,  I didn't know "Penelope" but your poetic memorial is quite special-really beautiful.  Thanks for posting.

Robert Lindner

I never met a saint before. But Penny was the embodiment of saintliness. 

Vicki Hlavacek

Sherwin "Jay" Siegall

Bob:

Your Penny Poem is your best work!

Lesley Mentgen (Delmenico)

Thank you, Robert.

Sherrie Igoe (Dembrowski)

I didn't know Penny well, but became reacquainted a bit by reading about her and her writing.  That is one beautiful tribute to her and I'm sure she well deserved it.

Keep up your good work "Poet in Residence", did you learn to do this fine work at ETHS or pick it up later in life?

Either way, very impressive Robert!  Thank you so much for speaking up for those of us far less eloquent!

Susan Spiegel (Pastin)

That really is lovely, Robert!

Renee Sherer (Schleicher)

Robert,, what a beautiful tribute.  I don't remember Penny, but your poem makes me feel that I missed knowing a kind, generous and special person.

Patrick Furlong

With many of us already having reached the "4th Quarter" mark, and the rest doing so within a few months, and with classmates leaving us too quickly, this wonderful piece of music, which looks back wistfully to childhood, might strike a resonant, melancholy, and perhaps cathartic chord:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvPynMI6Umc

Holly Romans (Green)

Thanks, Pat, for sending that Youtube address.  (I took a screen shot of it and it included my Montana bank - oops!) I looked up the words of the song "Only in My Sleep" because I had a hard time deciphering the lyrics.   I could tell from the heavenly voices that they would be equally moving and they are.  And, Ah, the last quarter.   That's a good way to put it.  In my reverie, I can often find segments of my life, envision my friends now gone, my grown children as babies, all of my precious dogs and pets, reliving my first date with my husband, and especially vividly seeing my mom and dad and being grateful I had the good fortune of having them as parents.  That is probably the greatest gift one can have and which is beyond our control AND it can make all the difference in the trajectory of ones life.  So as I enter this last quarter, I feel two things  - gratefulness for making it this far, and sadness for those who did not.  And I  especially love the American Boomer journey we all traveled together.

Marty Campbell

what a wonderful exchange of words Pat and Holly!  thank you.  all heart.  winter spring summer fall

i/we am with you.

Karen Kaz

Beautiful! 

Sherwin "Jay" Siegall

Love your post Holly and your last 2 sentences especially resonate with me on a daily basis  And even more so thinking about the poor souls who went to sleep last week in that Surfside FL condo filled with plans, relaxing or other enjoyment for the next day they never saw  tell all your friends and family how much you love them as you never know when you won't be able to!! Hugs and love to my 64 Wildkit family!! Siegall

Susan Spiegel (Pastin)

Beautifully put, Holley!

Marty Campbell

Wholly Holy

Robert Lindner

Sleeping and Dreaming is now the best

Part of my days. I often spend the rest

Of my time takin' a long thinkin' walk

Or writing about talkin' happy talk

Off And Running

“Get your motor runnin’! Head out on the highway!

Lookin’ for adventure! And whatever comes our way…

Like a true nature’s child,

We were born, born to be wild.”

Born to be Wild   Steppenwolf (1968)

In 1964

We were off and running. Took our motor

Out there on the highway. It was our time, our day.

“A true nature’s child.” They’d say,

“Youthful foolishness,” but we wanted more.

And four years later, we

Were still in the invincibility

Phase of young existence, listening to intense

Hard rock that was as dense

As we were, like Steppenwolf and heavy

Metal, like tanks in war,

Since Viet Nam, like death, was waiting for

Us, and like it might get Us in harm’s way. Viet

Nam. That had to be met

Since it was more real than we thought before

We left that high school door

Behind Us and had started lookin’ for

Adventure, finding out what life was all about.

Soon some of us would shout

That we were against that Viet Nam war.

Viet Nam was more than

Being wild and free. It was more than an

Adventure. College was Enough to show the flaws

In our plans. But because

The war was a drag on our young lives. We ran

The other way when we

Were pulled into line to march, where we’d be

Targets and killers or Be killed. But that was war

And not what life was for

Though unfortunately world history

Was against us, but I

Got lucky. The draft somehow passed me by.

Invincibility Of youth is madness. We

Now know, but had to be

Young once and had some foolish things to try.

Heavy metal, hard rock

And summer girls, just going for a walk

Like a true nature’s child, I was born to be wild.

Though past being beguiled

By life, I’m singing, “talkin' happy talk.”

Still Dreaming My Dreams

“Happy talk, keep talkin' happy talk,

Talk about things you'd like to do.

You got to have a dream, If you don't have a dream,

How you gonna have a dream come true?”

South Pacific  Rogers and Hammerstein

And now I need to sleep

To find myself a foolish dream to keep

Wandering around in. Though I’ve nothing to win,

I can dream and begin

Each day with a song. I know that I reap

What I sow. So my dear

I’ll sow with love, and not sow hate or fear

As long as I’m here. I’m not running now. Let time

Fly and let the clocks chime.

I’ve been out there and now I’m happy here, 

Just staying far away

From those motors running on the highway.

I may have been born to be wild. But I’ve been through

My adventure. Each new

Year each new month, each new week, each new day

Is a blessing to share

Within the history that puts me there,

Inside my memory that sings it’s songs to me.

Invincibility

Of my youth that sang of Scarborough Fair.

“The Graduate” and fate

Would play that song in 1968

As “Born to be Wild” sang and “a nature’s child” rang

True. I thought I could bang

Become the hero, if I didn’t wait.

But now in memory

I had a good life and there I would be

The hero I wanted to be. My life was not through

Horrors like World War Two

Like those faced by the parents that raised me.

In 1964

There was a war that affected some more

Than it affected me. But that’s now history,

And part of memory.

And sometimes part of the dreams where I store

Heavy metal, hard rock

And summer girls, just going for a walk

Like a true nature’s child, I was born to be wild.

Though past being beguiled

By life, I’m singing, “talkin' happy talk.”

Robert Lindner

Poem on a theme

Suggested by Rosanne Bass

"in the autumn of our lives"

In The Autumn of My Life

“When I was seventeen

it was a very good year.

It was a very good year

for small town girls and soft summer nights

We’d hide from the lights

on the village green

When I was seventeen.

But now the days are short,

I’m in the autumn of the year

And now I think of my life

as vintage wine from fine old kegs

From the brim to the dregs.

And it poured sweet and clear

It was a very good year.”

It Was A Very Good Year

by Erwin Drake

Made famous by Frank Sinatra

“A hundred years”, a song

We sing when wishing each other a long

Life at birthdays. But now

That’s not that long somehow.

So we’re now saying, “Wow!”

As our birthdays come and we remain strong.

“When I was seventeen

It was a very good year” in between

High school and college, when

Summer came. We were young then

But remember again

Though days are shorter than we’ve ever seen.

And since life’s autumn’s here,

A hundred does not seem a distant year

Though we know there are cold

Winter days for our old

Leg bones to try to hold

Us up. But let’s stay well and let’s be clear

As vintage wine pours from

The fine old kegs, we hope we have become,

As we clink and say “Cheers!”

And wish, “A hundred years.”

While holding back the tears

For too many, we knew, for whom life’s autumn

Did not come. But it’s my

Autumn and yours, our seventeen passed by

Long since.  For “Auld Lang Syne”

Let’s taste of our fine wine

Wish joy to yours and mine

And the best of health for the years that lie

Ahead for us, though we

Know it will be winter and we must be

Prepared. But we can sit by

The fire, drink wine and try,

Though winter winds will fly,

To live in moments in our memory.

The very good moments

Of our very good years that led to events

That brought us joy, as springs

Became summers and things,

And we spread out our wings

And flew. But then life was somehow intense.

Now, it’s slowed, as the year

Turns toward autumn and winter draws near

Though there’s no stopping time,

Still until my last rhyme

 Must come, I’m glad that I’m

Where I can wish you love, since we’re still here.

When I was seventeen

It was a very good year. “Seventeen”

You know what I mean.

Well, she was just seventeen

You know what I mean

The way she looked was way beyond compare

So how could I dance with another

Since I saw her standin’ there.

I Saw Her Standin’ There

By Lennon and McCartney Released 1964