This is a blog about the residential neighborhood around two Lutheran (Missouri Synod) schools -- Concordia College (aka Concordia Teachers College or Concordia University) and St John Elementary School (St John School) -- in Seward, Nebraska.
Reading this book reminded me about my own childhood experiences of watching presidential politics.
My first political memories are about President John Kennedy's press conferences. When I was in second grade, our family lived in Middle Creek, which was a rural area outside of Seward. We lived next to a church and a one-room school, and I attended that school. I wrote about that period of my life in this previous article of this blog.
Since we did not have any neighbors there, I did not have any friends to play with, and so I would just go into our home after school and watch television. The usual television programming that I remember was old Three Stooges films, which I enjoyed watching. Sometimes, however, the usual programming was preempted because President Kennedy was giving a press conference. At first I was annoyed by these preemptions, but eventually I came to enjoy watching Kennedy, because he seemed to be funny. I did not understand the humor, but I could see that he made the journalists laugh. My Mom would watch and laugh too.
Here is a video collage of funny moments in Kennedy's press conferences.
My next political memory after that was the assassination of President Kennedy, which occurred in 1963, when I was in sixth grade.
Then my next political memory was the presidential campaign of 1964. The two parties' political conventions took place during that summer, when I was between my sixth and seventh grades. The Republican convention was during July 13-16, and the Democrat convention was during August 24-27. Since those months were summer vacation, I was able to spend a lot of time watching the conventions on television during the days and evenings.
The Republican convention was especially interesting, because there was a dramatic struggle within the Republican Party. The common wisdom was that Goldwater was an extremist taking over the party, and this take-over was being resisted heroically by the party's wise moderates. The main two moderates were New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller and Pennsylvania Governor Bill Scranton.
I favored Scranton. I did not understand the political issues, but I liked the way he looked and talked. I think my parents like Scranton. For sure, they did not like Goldwater.
I did not like the way Rockefeller looked and talked. I kind of liked the way Goldwater looked and talked, but I understood that he was a villain. Since I did not understand the politics, my opinions were just impressionistic.
Here is a video of Scranton's campaign. Much of it is silent, but there are parts with audio of him speaking.
When I look at this video now, I don't experience the same favorable impressions about him. At that time, though, I liked Scranton so much that I even cried when the count of delegates during the convention gave Goldwater the majority.
Scranton came to the convention with 214 delegates, and Rockefeller came with 114, but Goldwater came with 883. Nevertheless, I hoped that Scranton would win by an upset because all the delegates would see what a great guy he was.
Here is a video showing some of the television coverage of the 1964 Republican convention. Watching this when I was 11 years old was very interesting, entertaining and educational.
The Democrat convention in August was not so interesting, because President Lyndon Johnson did not have to fight against any significant opposition within his own party.
Reading the book A Glorious Disaster, I was reminded that one of the biggest issues during the 1964 election was the use of tactical nuclear weapons. At some point, Goldwater had remarked that if the USA got into a war in Europe or Vietnam, then he would allow the military theater commander to use small nuclear weapons in some circumstances. The Democrats made a huge deal about this remark, giving the impression that any lieutenant colonel would be able to explode nuclear weapons whenever he wanted.
I had forgotten about that issue until I read the book. That issue never has been significant in any other campaign, but it was perhaps the major issue in 1964.
The 1964 issue that I remember was whether restaurants, hotels and other such private businesses should have to serve Negroes. As I thought about that issue at that time, I came to think that the government should not compel private businesses. My family recently had traveled through some Southern states, and we saw the segregation system, which was atrocious. Nevertheless, as I listened to the 1964 debates about that issue, I found myself agreeing with the Goldwater people who argued that the government's powers were limited. I pretty much kept that opinion to myself, however.
Another issue was whether the USA should get out of the United Nations. One aspect of that issue was that some people even criticized the UNICEF collections that we kids while trick-or-treating.
Another memory of that election was all the campaign bumper stickers and buttons. The Goldwater paraphernalia featured the chemical symbols for "gold" and "water".
I remember that Toby Beck's parents favored Goldwater and had AuH2O bumper stickers on their car and maybe a poster in their yard. That was the only family that I remember making such a public show of their support for Goldwater. My parents were for Johnson.
On October 27, a week before Election Day, Ronald Reagan gave a speech that was televised. This speech is so famous in US political history that it is called "The Speech". I happened to watch that speech, and I was hugely impressed by it. Thus, during the campaign's last week, I was converted suddenly into being a Goldwater supporter.
Here is a video of "The Speech".
A day or two before the election, our seventh-grade class voted for who we thought should be elected. As I remember, Johnson won our class vote by a big majority, but I voted for Goldwater.
The next presidential election, in 1968, was extremely dramatic and memorable, but by that time I had left Seward, Nebraska, and was living in Eugene, Oregon.
-------
Gene Meyer posted the following comment on my Facebook page:
Mike, loved the commentary. We were there as kids in the 60s. My house voted for Goldwater, though I don't know why. My dad and mom always voted Republican.
The ad of the child with the daisy and the count down helped Johnson win...biggest landslide ever?.
He (Johnson) was a good president, I think. Nixon wasn't. Ford was a place saver, Regan energizied things but was a "little" corrupt. Bush 41 was too wonky. (Wouldn't be prudent, Read my lips). Clinton was the master politican with no regard for trurth or culture...just do what I need to do to get my way...(Back off Newt, you're toast), Bush 43 meant well, but WAY over his head. So my bias (family bias) gave me pause.
I've mostly voted Republican over the years, (though I did vote for Carter), mostly because of Supreme Court nominations. I think both parties are married to special interests and money. I think Obama means well, but he can't sell anything and will go down worse than Bush 43 as the poorest viewed president since Hoover or Coolidge.
My strongest memory of trick-or-treating during my Seward years was that I always wore paper-bag masks. Since my family had seven children, we did not have money to buy masks. Besides, my Dad liked to teach crafts -- especially paper crafts -- to us kids. After all, my Dad was an origami expert.
The image below -- from a 1957 Lulu comic book -- shows the concept. Get a grocery-shop paper bag, cut holes in the front for the eyes and mouth, and put curled paper on top for the hair. You can see the image in larger size at the Happy Holidays website.
Let's Make a Halloween Mask,
from the Happy Holidays website.
The image below is from some 1950s publication. You can see the image in larger size at the Mid Century Living website (double-click on the image there).
Easy Breezy Halloween Masks
from the Mid Century Living website.
These instructions advise people to put a couple holes in the bag's top for ventilation. I don't remember that we ever did that, and I do remember that wearing the paper-bag masks was a sweaty and smelly experience.
We would use scissors to curl paper strips for the hair, which would be glued onto the paper bag's top. The Wiki How to Do Anything website includes a seven-step instruction, which concludes with this image.
How to Curl Ribbon
from the Wiki How to Do Anything website.
I don't have any photographs of our family's paper-bag masks, but below are some images of other families' masks during those years.
The kids in the below photograph did not curl their paper-strip hair enough.
The kid on the left in the below photo is wearing a paper-bag mask. Both kids have plastic-pumpkin containers for their candy. We Sylwester kids always used paper bags for the candy.
The second kid in the below photograph is wearing a paper-bag mask, while all the rest of the kids are wearing plastic masks. Poor kid.
None of the kids in the below photograph are wearing paper-bag masks. The kids on the left and front are wearing plastic masks that were common then.
Below is the same photograph in a larger size, to show the kind of plastic that was used to make those masks.
None of the kids in the below photograph are wearing paper-bag masks, but the big straw hat strikes a memory cord for me. It seems to me that many families had such a big straw hats, which were used on Halloween.
When we went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood around the Concordia campus, we got lots of candy. A few homes gave out apples. I would keep trick-or-treating until after 10 p.m. I was able to mostly-fill a grocery bag.
The days following Halloween were a continual pig-out on all the candy.
We St. John's pupils were encouraged to collect money for UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Fund) when we went trick-or-treating. Our teachers gave us UNICEF boxes that looked like the one, marked 1964, in the below image. I remember the UNICEF boxes looking like milk cartons.
A UNICEF box from 1964.
The box in the below image looks familiar, but I don't know the year. I remember that our UNICEF boxes always had a peaked top and a slot.
So, we kids would go to a home, say "trick or treat" and get some candy, and then we would say "UNICEF", and we would get a coin or two. After Halloween, we would give the coin-filled UNICEF carton back to St. John school, which (I assume) sent all the money to UNICEF.
One important decision that each kid had to make was the age when he felt too old to continue trick-or-treating. I remember vaguely that most kids stopped in about seventh grade, but I think I continued about a year longer than most kids -- maybe until I was in eighth grade.
When I lived on Faculty Lane in the early 1960s, folk music was popular in the USA. We Lutherans especially liked folk songs with a Christian component, such as "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore".
Michael, row the boat ashore -- Hallelujah!
Sister, help to trim the sail -- Hallelujah!
The river is deep, and the river is wide.
Green pastures on the other side.
Jordan's river is chilly and cold.
Chills the body but not the soul.
The river is deep and the river is wide.
Milk and honey on the other side.
I especially liked the song because my own name is Michael.
--------
The song was arranged by Dave Fisher, the leader of the folk-music quintet called The Highwaymen, The quintet was formed in 1958, when Fisher and the other four singers were freshman at Wesleyan College, a Methodist all-male college in Middletown, Connecticut.
Dave Fisher as a student
at Wesleyan College
The group soon became popular at Wesleyan and then began performing at other colleges in the region. During the summer between their freshman and sophomore years, the group performed on a cruise ship. In December 1959 the group was signed to a contract by United Artists and began recording its first album.
The Highwaymen
Fisher selected and arranged all the group's songs. He explained: “I would find songs in my own record collection, in books, and from other singers. Also two of the members were from Latin America, and they contributed some great South American and Mexican tunes.”
The band relied mostly on guitars and banjos, but also played a variety of instruments, including bongo drums, recorders, and a Bolivian Charango (a ten-stringed instrument made from the back of an armadillo).
The song "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" had been recorded by a folksinger named Bob Gibson in 1957 but the song still was unknown to the public when Fisher included it in the Highwaymen's repertoire. Fisher also gave the song a significantly new arrangement. One of the group's members, Steve Trott, explained:
Dave Fisher's the guy who arranged the biggest folk hit of all time, "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore". He was a musical genius who knew opera, classical, folk music and every other kind of music like the back of his hand. He was able to put it all together and meld it into the Highwaymen sound. He put a couple of minor cords into it that hadn't been there before, and that made all the difference.
The United Artists producers who initially managed the Highwaymen insisted that the song "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" be included in the first album. Fisher himself did not appreciate the song much, considering it to be a "filler song" for longer concerts. The song was placed in the middle of the album's B side.
The album languished in record stores through the group's junior year of college but then began to spread in popularity, mostly because of the Michael song. During the summer between their junior and senior years, the song rose to the top of the Variety, Cashbox, and Billboard charts, spending three weeks as the Number 1 song on the Billboard chart during August 1961. When the album was re-released, the cover highlighted the Michael song.
The album's song can be heard in the YouTube video below.
The five students continued to attend their senior-year classes at Wesleyan, but performed in concerts all over the country on their weekends. They appeared on the Ed Sullivan and Hootenany television shows.
After the students graduated in June 1962, they performed and recorded full-time, until they broke up in 1964. By that time they had recorded eight albums.
One other of their songs, from their second album, was a big hit, reaching Number 13 on the Billboard chart. This song was called "Cotton Fields", and it began like this:
When I was a little-bitty baby,
My mama would rock me in the cradle,
In them old cotton fields back home.
Oh, when them cotton balls get rotten
You can't pick very much cotton
In them old cotton fields back home.
It was down in Louisiana
Just about a mile from Texarkana,
In them old cotton fields back home.
It may sound a little funny,
But you didn't make very much money
In them old cotton fields back home.
You can see the Highwaymen perform "Cotton Fields" on an old television show in the YouTube video below.
These two songs caught an early wave of the public's growing interest in the Civil Rights Movement in the former slave states. The songs evoked images of African Americans laboring in physically demanding, poor-paying jobs. These images attracted broader sympathy in the White public than the images evoked generally by blues or rhythm-and-blues songs.
---------------
After the Highwaymen made "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" popular, it was recorded successfully also by Harry Belafonte in 1962, by Pete Seeger in 1963, and by Trini Lopez and by the Smothers Brothers in 1964 -- and by many other folk musicians. The song has become a classic of American folk music and is familiar to practically everyone who has grown up in the USA.
---------------
The song "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" apparently originated and developed on St Helena Island, which is a 64-square-mile area just off the coast from Beaufort, South Carolina. This area now is connected with the mainland by bridges, but during the slavery period it was a sea island. A major military fort called Fort Freemont was located on the island.
The island was populated mostly by slaves, who worked on plantations that grew rice, indigo, cotton and spices. The slaves had a distinct culture that is called Gullah, which preserved many African words and customs.
Soon after the Civil War began, the Union navy captured Fort Freemont and then all of St Helena Island at the end of 1861. The White plantation owners fled, and a northern abolitionist, Charles Pickard Ware, was assigned to administer the island. He was a Harvard graduate who collected folk songs, and while he held this administrative position, during the years 1862-1865, he wrote down many songs that he heard the former slaves sing. After the Civil War, in 1867, he published a book titled Slave Songs of the United States.
The song "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" was included in the book, and its words were written down by Ware in 1863 from the singing of former slaves as they were rowing a boat between the island and the mainland.
There were two versions of the song:
Michael, row the boat ashore -- Hallelujah!
The Michael boat is a gospel boat -- Hallelujah!
I wonder where my mother's there.
See my mother on the rock, going home.
On the rock, going home in Jesus' name.
The Michael boat is a music boat.
Gabriel, blow the trumpet horn.
Oh, you mind your boasting talk.
Boasting talk will sink your soul.
Brother, lend a helping hand.
Sister, help to trim that boat.
Jordan Stream is wide and deep.
Jesus stands on the other side.
I wonder if my master's there.
My father's gone to an unknown land.
Oh, the Lord, he plants his garden there.
He raises the fruit for you to eat.
He that eats shall never die.
When the river overflows.
Oh, poor sinner, how'll you land?
The river runs, And darkness comes.
Sinner, row to save your soul.
... and ...
Michel, row the boat ashore -- Hallelujah!
Then you'll hear the trumpet blow -- Hallelujah!
Then you'll hear the trumpet sound.
Trumpet, sound the world around.
Trumpet, sound the jubilee.
Trumpet, sound for you and me.
I have modernized the two songs' pronunciation, spelling and grammar. Ware's book transcribed the songs as they sounded in the African-Americans' dialect. For example, Ware's transcription of several lines looked like this:
I wonder where my mudder deh.
See my mudder on de rock gwine home. ....
I wonder if my maussa deh.
My fader gone to unknown land.
O de Lord he plant his garden deh.
He raise de fruit for you to eat.
He dat eat shall neber die.
When de riber overflow.
The original song probably had a melody, rhythm and tempo that was different than the Highwaymen song has. In his book's introduction, Ware described the rowing songs as follows:
As I have written these tunes, two measures are to be sung to each stroke, the first measure being accented by the beginning of the stroke, the second by the rattle of the oars in the row-locks.
On the passenger boat at the [Beaufort] ferry, they rowed from sixteen to thirty strokes a minute; twenty-four was the average.
Of the tunes I have heard, I should say that the most lively were 'Heaven bell a-ring' (No. 27), 'Jine 'em' (No. 28), 'Rain fall' (No. 29), 'No man' (No. 14), 'Bell da ring' (No. 46), and 'Can't stay behind.'
'Lay this body down' (No. 26), 'Religion so sweet' (No.17), and 'Michael row' (No. 31), were used when the load was heavy or the tide was against us. ....
One noticeable thing about their boat-songs was that they seemed often to be sung just a trifle behind time; in 'Rain fall,' for instance, 'Believer cry holy' would seem to occupy more than its share of the stroke, the 'holy' being prolonged till the very beginning of the next stroke ....
---------------
Probably most people who know the Highwaymen's version of the song understand it to be a depiction of the post-death passage from life on Earth to life in Heaven. In Greek mythology, a person who had died was transported from life on Earth to life in Hades on a boat across the River Styx by a boatman named Charon. The Medieval Italian poet Dante incorporated this depiction into his poem Inferno, which made the depiction a familiar element of Western culture.
The boatman Charon transporting a boatload of dead people
across the River Styx to Hades, where the dead people
will spend the rest of eternity.
Christians (and perhaps Jews) understand the song as a similar depiction of the post-death transport of religious believers from life on Earth to life in Heaven. In this context, the song's boatman named Michael must be the Archangel Michael. Since the destination of this trip is not Hades, but rather is Heaven, the song is hopeful and joyous.
I presume that David Fisher understood the song that way and that he selected a few of the phrases and images from the original song that reinforced that understanding. Fisher excluded contradictory phrases and images, such as the lines about Gabriel sounding a trumpet, which was an element associated not with an individual's post-death passage into Heaven but rather with Judgement Day. On that future occasion, Jesus will return to Earth and decide which people will go to Heaven and which will go to Hell.
When the song became popular in the 1960s, it was adopted by the Civil Rights Movement, which sang the songs in assemblies and marches that were organized to protest against racial segregation and discrimination. In these situations the song was understood as describing passage into a reformed US society that was racially integrated.
-------
The African-Americans who lived on St Helena Island during the Civil War were completely ignorant of these depictions from Greek mythology and from Dante's Inferno. Their ideas and imagery came only from the Bible, which does not include any such depiction of a boatman transporting dead people across a river from life to the after-life.
It should be obvious to anyone who is familiar with the Bible's Book of Daniel that the images in this song come mainly from that book. Daniel was especially interesting to African-American slaves because that book describes particularly the experiences of the Jews who lived in captivity in Babylon, in exile far from their homeland Israel.
Furthermore, Daniel tells how these captive Jews were able to outwit and resist the kings and lords who ruled Babylon and who oppressed the Jewish captive exiles there.
For example, one popular African-American slave song told the story from Daniel about Shadrack, Meshach and Abednego.
This song is performed in the YouTube video below.
There was three children from the land of Israel --
Shadrack, Meshach, Abednego.
They took a little trip into the land of Babylon.
Nebudchanezzer was the king of Babylon.
He took a lot of gold, and he made an idol.
He told everybody:
“When you hear the music
"Of the coronet and the flute and the harp,
"You must bow down and worship the idol!”
But the children of Israel would not bow down.
You couldn't fool them with no golden idol.
So the king put the children in the fiery furnace.
He heaped on coal and the red-hot brimstone,
Seven times times hotter than it ought to be.
It burned up the soldiers that the king had put there.
But the Lord sent an angel
With snowy-white wings
Down in the middle of the furnace --
Walking and talking
With the children about the Gospel.
The fire didn't even burn a hair on the head
Of Shadrack, Meshach, Abednego --
Walking and talking While the fire was burning around.
Now, old Nebudchanezzer called,"Hey there!"
When he saw the power of the Lord.
And they had a big time In the house of Babylon --
Shadrack, Meshach, Abednego.
The Fiery Furnace
in the Book of Daniel
The African-American slaves understood and enjoyed this song because they loved The Book of Daniel and loved to tell this story from that beloved book. The Jewish captives in Babylon refused to bow down and adore the wealth of the Babylonian king and his aristocracy. The Jewish captives in Babylon could be protected from the most terrible punishments by an angel, sent down to Earth by their own true God. The African-American slaves in the USA's slave states understood those Jewish captives in Babylon as being their model for resistance, perseverance and salvation.
Chapters 10 through 12 of The Book of Daniel tells a story that explicitly names the Archangel Michael. This is one of only three Bible passages that names Michael. (The other two are in Jude and Revelations. Neither of these other two passages could be associated with the Michael song.)
This story recounts a vision that was seen and interpreted by Daniel, a clever Jewish captive in Babylonia. Daniel saw this vision after he had been fasting for three weeks, so he was extremely hungry.
In his vision, Daniel was standing by the Tigris River, which was a major river in Babylon. Daniel looked up and saw a radiant angel. Daniel immediately fainted and fell to the ground, unconscious. The angel woke Daniel up and explained to him that he, the angel, had been trying for three weeks to come in response to Daniel's fasting and praying, but that the angel's path to Daniel had been blocked by an evil spirit that ruled the Kingdom of Persia. (Essentially, Babylonia is Iraq, and Persia is Iran, and the two realms were separated by the Tigris River)
Eventually, however, the Archangel Michael intervened to help the angel pass through Persia and cross the Tigris River in order to advise Daniel in Babylonia. The angel then advised Daniel to remain strong and brave, because God loved and therefore would help Daniel.
The angel then foretold to Daniel that there would be a huge war that would include Persia, Babylonia, Greece, Syria and Egypt. Israel would be overrun by foreign soldiers. A foreign king would send a brutal tax-collector into Israel. He would be succeeded by a tyrant who would take over Israel by means of flattery, intrigue and deceit.
Eventually the Temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed, and the site would become a desolate place predominated by some abomination. All of humanity would suffer in the chaos, and the Jews still living in their homeland would be dispersed far abroad.
Three and a half years later, however, the Archangel Michael would appear on Earth and would rally and re-assemble the dispersed Jews and lead them back to their homeland. Many of the Jews who had died and were buried in the ground would raise up alive from their graves. Then the Jews would re-establish their own righteous kingdom and live in freedom and prosperity forever after.
---------------
This story from The Book of Daniel includes two moments that involve the Archangel Michael and a river.
The first such moment was when the angel who wanted to advise Daniel was trying to evade the blockade that had been set up by Persia's evil spirit. Daniel was waiting on the Babylonian side of the Tigris River, and the angel tried unsuccessfully for three weeks to pass through Persia and cross the Tigris River to reach Daniel. Only when the Archangel Michael came to help did the angel finally cross the Tigris River and reach Daniel and advise him. Daniel does not explain how Archangel Michael helped the angel in this evasion, but an obvious explanation would be that Michael rowed the angel across the Tigris River in some secret manner that the Persian evil spirit did not notice.
We can suppose that this moment in Daniel captured the imagination of the African-American slaves who were held in slavery on St Helena Island. Any such slave who thought about escaping from the island in a rowboat would have prayed to the Archangel Michael for help in evading the White militias who guarded the waterway and captured escaping slaves and returned them to the plantations.
The second such moment was when Archangel Michael assembled the defeated, dispersed Jews and led them back across the Jordan River to re-conquer their homeland. Daniel does not describe this conquest in any detail, but it would be natural to suppose that this re-conquest would follow the model of the Jews' first conquest of Canaan. The first step would be to cross the Jordan River secretly, and the second step would be to destroy the major fort city on the River's west side, the city of Jericho.
That first step evokes an image of the Archangel Michael leading a flotilla of rowboats crossing the Jordan River secretly during a dark night.
The second step evokes the image of the Jewish armies surrounding the city of Jericho and then blowing through a large number of trumpets so loudly that Jericho's walls collapsed.
This is why the later concept of Jesus returning to Earth for Judgment Day includes the element of the Angel Gabriel starting that day by blowing his trumpet so loudly that all of humanity hears the sound and that even dead people in their graves wake and rise up. Jesus himself and the Apostle Paul mentioned that an angel would play a trumpet at the beginning of Judgment Day.
These stories from Daniel inspired within the island slaves a hopeful spirit that, with the help of Archangel Michael, they eventually might be able to escape, return and liberate the island, and then return to their own African homeland.
They had to conceal, however, this interpretation of the Bible's Book of Daniel from their White masters. The explanation that the song depicted only the passage of Christians into Heaven (not the escape of slaves from the island) was acceptable to the White masters.
---------------
Below I offer comments about particular verses:
-----
I wonder where my mother's there.
See my mother on the rock, going home!
--
On the rock, going home in Jesus' name.
The above verses could be read with at least three interpretations.
1) The more apparent interpretation is that the boat passenger's previously dead mother is standing on the rock and the mother is going home to Heaven.
2) A less apparent interpretation is that the mother is alive and waiting on the shore for her escaping child to join her. Only the child (not the mother) is going home. The mother stayed on the mainland when her child was taken away to another plantation on the island. Now the child on the boat is returning secretly to the mainland, where he and his mother will live together again.
3) Another less apparent interpretation is that a dead person begins the process of passing into Heaven by climbing to the top of a rock or hill. This interpretation would contradict the idea that a dead person begins that process by rowing a boat across a river.
-----
The Michael boat is a music boat.
Gabriel, blow the trumpet horn.
The above verse evokes the image of trumpets being smuggled secretly across the river. Once the boat has reached the destination shore, the Angel Gabriel will stand up in the boat and play music so loudly that the walls of the fortress city Jericho will collapse.
The concept of dead people crossing the River Styx into Hades or crossing some river into Heaven does not include any idea of a trumpet or any other music being played. The trumpet idea is associated with the defeat of the Jericho fortress and with the announcement of the return of the Messiah on Judgment Day.
-----
Oh, you mind your boasting talk.
Boasting talk will sink your soul.
The above verse expresses the concept that the crossing of the river must remain secret in order for the crossing to succeed. This concept does not fit with the depiction of individual dead people passing into an after-life. Such a passage did not require secrecy in order to succeed.
-----
I wonder if my master's there.
My father's gone to an unknown land.
The above verse might express a hope that some of the escaped slaves continued to evade the slavers on the mainland and then eventually managed to return all the way to their African homeland.
-----
Brother, lend a helping hand.
Sister, help to trim that boat.
The above verse indicates that an entire family of siblings is crossing the river. The mother and father already have crossed the river -- or else they always have remained on the mainland. The father apparently has left for a distant land. Now all their children are crossing the river to join the mother.
The crossing the river is not the trip of an individual person who has died. Rather, it is a trip of a group of siblings who are traveling together.
-----
Oh, the Lord, he plants his garden there.
He raises the fruit for you to eat.
He that eats shall never die.
The above verse appears to describe the crossing the river as a passage to Heaven, which made the song acceptable to the White slavers.
Only on second thought might the idea occur that the plantations on the island are not places governed by the Lord of Heaven. Only by leaving the island might a person move to a place where plantations are ruled by the Lord.
---------------
After the Highwaymen broke up in 1964, only Dave Fisher continued to pursue a career in music. He moved to Hollywood and developed a career arranging songs for television and music. He occasionally toured to perform in nostalgia concerts, but usually with substitutes for the quintet's original members.(For example, one such substitute singer was Gil Robbins, the father of the actor Tim Robbins.)
During his long career as a professional musician (he died in 2010), Fisher wrote about a thousand songs. He has remained famous mostly, however, because of one re-arrangement of a century-old Negro spiritual that he did when he was a college freshman.
I moved to Faculty Lane in the summer of 1960, when I was eight years old. During my first year there, the space race between the Soviet Union and the United States began.
In 1961, the Soviet Union launched two missiles carrying cosmonauts in orbits around the Earth. The first was Yuri Gagarin on April 12, and the second was Gherman Titov on August 6. The USSR did not announce these flights beforehand. Rather, the flights were announced only after the missiles were launched.
I remember hearing about the first flight. I was living on Faculty Lane and my Dad told me that he had just heard on the news that a Soviet space vehicle was flying around the Earth. I was amazed by this idea. It was dark outside at that moment, so I went outside and looked into the sky and tried to see the vehicle. I imagined that I actually did see it.
In the following days, I learned that the Soviets called an orbiting space vehicle a sputnik and the pilot a cosmonaut. I think these were the first Russian words I learned.
The USA used different words -- satellite and astronaut, so the two countries initiated also a competition in terminology.
Between the first two Soviet flights, the USA launched its first manned missile, with pilot Alan Shepard, on May 5, 1961. The capsule was called Freedom 7, which was part of a larger project called Project Mercury. So, we kids got excited about this international competition and learned all the various names.
Unlike the sneaky Soviets, the USA announced all its manned space launches beforehand. Therefore, the teachers at St John school were able to bring televisions into the classrooms so that we pupils could watch the launches live. Here is a video of the launch that we watched.
This was the first time the public heard a launch countdown (10-9-8-7 ....) and cool expressions like "all systems are go".
I remembered being dumbfounded when I learned that this US flight lasted only 15 minutes and did not go into orbit or even into space. We were way behind the Soviets.
During the following few year, our teachers would interrupt our lessons and bring a television set into the classroom so that we could watch US missile launches live. I remember watching the launches of John Glen on February 20, 1962, and of Walter Schirra on October 3, 1962. (I do not remember watching the launch of Scott Carpenter on May 24, 1962.)
One of the guys in our class -- maybe Scott Brinkmeyer or Roy Churchill -- maintained a scrapbook with lots of newspaper articles and became quite knowledgeable about the US space program. He brought his scrapbook to class and showed it, and I was impressed.
Last night I was watching the 1944 movie Meet Me in St. Louis, which takes place in 1903 and stars Judy Garland. The movie includes a scene where young people attending a family party dance a Virginia Reel.
This scene reminded me that we pupils at St. John learned to dance the Virginia Reel as part of our physical education. We never danced the Virginia Reel at our own parties in 1963, but I suppose that young people actually did do such dances socially in earlier decades. The movie depicted many interesting details about American life in the early 1900s.
I remember that we learned the Virginia Reel when we were in about seventh grade. Dancing that involved holding girls' hands was creepy to the max, but we all were learning about puberty by seventh grade, so we resigned ourselves to beginning adult lives that did involve some inter-sex hand-holding.
Here is a YouTube video of pupils, grades 5 to 8, dancing the Virginia Reel with a live band. We at St. John sure never had a live band. We used a record player.
The kids in the following video are really bad dancers. We at St. John danced much better than those little dopes.
On the other hand, the kids in the following video dance it a hundred times better than we did at St. John.
I remember participating in at least one Punt, Pass and Kick contest in Seward. In my memory, I was in about sixth grade, so maybe this was in about 1963. The PP&K contests took place at the fairgrounds.
The Wikipedia article about PP&K says that the contests began in 1961, and that sounds about right to me. I remember the contest being a new event in Seward. Here is an advertisement from a 1961 Life magazine:
This advertisement indicates that in the very first year, the contest was for boys, ages 6 through 10. By the time I participated, the age range was changed to 8 through 13. I myself was older than 10, and there were boys older than me.
Since the print is so small in this image, I retype the main text as follows:
Here's what the Punt, Pass & Kick Contest is: It's a program presented by Ford Dealers in cooperation with the National Football League in the interest of youth and as a contribution to the nation's physical fitness program. Competition is divided into age groups, so your son will compete only against boys of his own age. In each age group, boys will compete in punting, passing and place-kicking. Points are based on accuracy as well as distance. There will be 70 regional winners and 5 national champions.
Here are the prizes: Prizes include official National Football League uniforms .... official National League warm-up jackets ... official National League footballs ... expense-paid trips to the NFL Championship Game and to the White House for father and son ... and many more.
Here's how to enter: It's simple. There is noting to buy. Registration is pen to any grade school boy 6 through 10 when accompanied by father, mother or legal guardian. Simply take your son to any Ford Dealer displaying the official Punt, Pass & Kick emblem shown below. The dealer will do the rest.
HERE'S WHAT YOUR BOY GETS FREE WHEN HE REGISTERS: [Three items]
A Punt,Pass & Kick instruction booklet with tips by three great football pros -- Johnny Unitas, Yale Lary and Paul Hornung; an official National Football League guide book packed with interesting facts and figures on the professional teams; and a handsome Punt, Pass & Kick participant badge to be worn on your son's jacket, shirt or sweater.
I don't remember ever seeing the above advertisement, although our family subscribed to Life magazine.
When President John Kennedy took office in 1961, he advocated that American children become more physically fit. That's why all the St. John's pupils had to exercise to the song Chicken Fat several times a week.
I definitely remember that the contest was sponsored by the Ford Motor Company. I don't remember Dad or Mom taking me to the local dealership so that I could register, but that must have happened. My family owned a Ford station wagon, so we went to the local dealership occasionally for car maintenance. I suppose that my begging caused my Dad to simply to to the dealership and registered me, without taking me along. Obviously, these contests were an advertising gimmick to get parents to visit Ford dealerships.
I don't remember clearly why I wanted to participate in the contest. I remember vaguely that I thought I might have a chance to win one of those NFL warm-up jackets. I'm sure I fantasized about winning an expense-paid trip to the NFL Championship and to the White House.
Since points were awarded for accuracy -- not just for distance -- I thought I might be able to accumulate a lot of accuracy points. As it turned out, however, I was not accurate either, and so I did not come close to winning anything.
The advertisement that I remember looked like this one below, from 1964. I can't find a larger image.
Below is an advertisement from the sixth annual contest, 1967. In that year the age range was 8 through 13.
This advertisement has the same drawing of the professional adult and the amateur boy punting. I remember that picture. I cannot read the text well enough to type it, but I think the rules and prizes remained about the same as in 1961.
I do remember my Tips Book looking like the 1965 edition below. I read it studiously at least 20 times.
I remember vaguely that my participation badge looked something like this:
Notice that the biggest word on the badge is FORD.
I remember this book -- this is the 1965 edition. These books perhaps were being sold at the dealership or at the contest. Maybe the St. John's library had a copy.
Here is a link to a newspaper article, dated June 25, 1980, reporting that Ford was ending it sponsorship of the PP&K contests.
Punt, Pass, Kick Program Being Dropped by Ford
By HARRY ATKINS
AP Sports Writer
DETROIT (AP) -- Rising costs and declining participation have been cited by Ford Motor Co. for dropping the popular Punt, Pass and Kick youth program it sponsored jointly with its dealer association and the National Football League.
Ford had, at first, intended to drop PP&K at the end of the coming season, but the continuing downturn in the automobile industry led the carmaker to cancel it immediately, said Pat Snook, vehicle sales promotion manager for Ford Division who was in charge of PP&K.
The deicsion to end PP&K this year caught both the NFL and the dealers by surprise.
"I had heard discussions," Joe Rhein, NFC coordinator at the NFL office in New York said Thursday. "I guess they (Ford ) felt it would be in their best interest not to try to go through with it this year."
Ford dealers were to be notified of the decision to drop PP&K on Monday, but word apparently leaked to a few dealers and one, angered by the cancellation, called the Associated Press.
"It's a combination of things," Snook said. "We originally were going to drop it at the end of the season, but we have decided to end it now.
"Obviously, rather heavy and increasing costs were a part of the problem. Quite frankly, the automobile business this hear has caused us to re-evaluate many of our promotional programs."
Snook said declining interest on the part of youngsters also was a contributing factor in the decision to drop PP&K after 19 years.
In some years, participation was as high as 1 million youngsters," Snook said. "Last year it was down to between 400,000 and 500,000."
PP&K was a major undertaking for dealers in some areas. Often civic clubs like the Jaycees were enlisted to help run local competitions in six age categories -- 8 through 13.
Bob Low, a Ford dealer in St. Clair, a town of about 5,000 people 45 miles northeast of Detroit, said he quit participating two years ago.
"It wasn't getting the participation, plus it was hard to get the people to help you run it right," Low said.
After several levels of local, regional and state competition, winners from AFC and NFC in the six age groups met during halftime of the Super Bowl to determine national champions.
"Airline costs, alone, are p nearly 30 percent," Snook noted.
Ford dealers ha to put up about $300 while the carmaker picked up the rest of the tab. The NFL provided player appearances, television exposure and time.
"We picked up most of the cost of running it," said Ford spokesman Larry Weiss, who declined to say how much the program costs.
The NFL now will explore new avenues.
"We definitely intend to be involved with youth programs," Rhein said. "We'll probably make an announcement somewhere down the road, but not this year."
Apparently the NFL took over the entire management of the program in the following years. Now girls too participate in the contest.
--------
Sekai Luebke wrote the following comment on my Facebook page.
In 1967 I won that thing and got a trophy.
Then, I went out to Grand Island and won the next level, too -- and got another trophy.
The third level was held in Lincoln on a cold day in November and I lost to a kid from Lexington who was pretty good.
I told my dad, "If it hadn't been so cold, I'd have beat him."
Something people who live in small towns perhaps fail to realize is the beauty of their stars. In San Diego, even in 1962, it was difficult to see many stars at night due to the abundance of city lights. When summer arrived in Seward in 1962, I recall allowing my brother to make the wish on the first star reciting the very well known poem before making his wish. We both looked up at the most bountiful sky we had ever seen and made his wish together.
He wanted roads for his Tonka trucks and tractors. Good roads that angry little boys could not create and quiet older sisters had tried to create using sticks of wood. He wanted manly roads with hills and bridges, overpasses and underpasses.
My brother woke me up prior to the chickens the next morning, telling me, Hurry, get up, we have new roads."
We ran out before the sun was fully up to see roads carved into our mostly dirt lot including hills and a small creek with a wooded bridge passing over it and fancy curved overpasses. These roads were beyond our wildest dreams and had us asking everyone in the three houses that had been moved onto the site who had built the roads for his toy trucks to drive on.
No one claimed responsibility. When we asked our father, he denied it. When we asked why the roads had went a particular way which seemed odd to us, he said, "Not sure, maybe zoning laws." We were left to wonder.
I left Seward in 1968. Since then, I never have seen the Milky Way as I saw it many times in Seward.
I remember lying on my back on the practice-field plateau east of the football field and looking at the sky. The Milky Way stretched out clearly above me -- thousands of stars.
I don't know if that view still can be seen in Seward. Perhaps there are too many "city lights" there now. That practice field was essentially a place outside of the town.
And I remember playing with toy trucks when I was in third grade. I'd go over to Toby Beck's house to play with his toy trucks. In a previous post, I wrote:
Toby had a lot of toy trucks. I think he collected them. He always asked for and received more toy trucks on his birthday, Christmas, etc. In general, I thought that playing with toy trucks was rather lame, but his trucks were really cool, because they were Tonkas.
This photograph matches my memory of a typical truck that we played with.
