I woke up this morning at 3:30 AM ready to go, “going” today meaning doing some baking, first for the Coffee Shop where I’ll meet my young friend, Jeff, for a cuppa and then, after a walk along the boardwalk, drop off a few more plastic bags of my muffins, along with a poem, to friends and then back home to write. So I feel I’m off to a sunny start even though the day is dark, the cloud cover particularly heavy, loaded with moisture. Surely it will rain before long, It appears, but nothing to interfere with my upbeat spirit. I have no way to account for the lively, energetic way I feel this morning except that I’m surrounded by good friends and had an especially good time yesterday, hosting lunch for the “Thursday Boys”, a special group to me, all bright, thoughtful with endless stories to tell.
And then last night, enjoying dinner at Steve and Marianne’s home, their guests, Betty and Michael, two people I’d met before and had wanted a chance to sit down with for a longer conversation. And, Lo, here they were, in the most congenial of environments with wine and cheese, soft background music, and scrumptious food to nurture our words, to give them wings. My new friend, Michael, was one of he original members of The Brother’s Four, a popular folk group which started in Seattle in 1956 at the University of Washington and went on to capture the hearts of the upcoming generation in the 60’s and 70’s. It caught my attention, too, along with a host of other musical groups of that era, with their rich, often tender, music and lyrics. What I didn’t know until last night, and should have known, was that all of the four brothers were members of the Phi Gamma Delta social fraternity at the University of Washington, the same fraternity I was a member of at Ohio State University. Michael and I verified our brotherhood by using the secret Fiji handshake. Sure enough, he responded to my signal as he should have. How silly and what fun! When I got home last night, I quickly went to Youtube to watch and listen to The Brothers Four, being reminded once again just how good they were and how there music still had the power to move me as it did last night and does now as I listen again. Try to Remember, Where have all the Flowers Gone, Green Leaves of Summer, Five hundred miles All memorable but my favorite remains Green Fields, the lyrics really moving me each time with the interplay between nature and the lover’s love. Here are the lyrics: Once there were green fields kissed by the sun;/ Once there were valleys where rivers used to run;/ Once there was blue sky with white clouds high above;/ Once they were part of an everlasting love./ We were the lovers who strolled through green fields /// Green fields are gone now, p/arched by the sun;/ Gone from the valleys where rivers used to run;/ Gone with the cold wind that swept into my heart;/ Gone with the lovers who let their dreams depart/ Where are the green fields that we used to roam?/// I’ll never know what made you run away./ How can I keep searching when dark clouds hide the day?/ I only know there’s nothing here for me,/ Nothing in this wide world left for me to see/// But I’ll keep on waitin’ ’til you return./ I’ll keep on waiting until the day you learn / You can’t be happy while your heart’s on the roam./ You can’t be happy until you bring it home,/ Home to the green fields and me once again.
