THE YEAR I TURNED SIXTEEN

The great stock market crashed in 1929,

The year I turned sixteen.

Now I couldn’t be blamed for that.

After all, I’m not sure what happened.

Our high school basketball team became state champs.

None of the other teams did anything exciting.

Our track team was actually pitiful in wins.

I was a member and I ran the mile for them,

Even won a couple times and I had a medal to prove it.

Some sophomore boys and I

Did discuss that new type of government.

Communism.  That’s what they called it.

We discussed it over one whole semester.

Decided it wasn’t for us, not in our country.

Too many restrictions on travel,

where you would work.

But the worst restriction of all

Was the ban on any criticism

Of the official party chairman.

We had a lot of fun in the Ohio River.

Swam in it almost every day that summer

And none of us ever got sick in any way.

Considering how filthy the Ohio was those days,

That’s a remarkable record.

The Ohio in those days carried trash and sewage

From every city, town and village for hundreds of miles.

We swam on a small beach between two bridges,

The suspension and the one called the steel bridge.

We enjoyed ourselves so much that, bashful as I was,

I even got around to talking to a couple of girls.

One or two of the boys, showing off for the girls,

Would jump off the suspension into the river channel

That was the deepest part because of the barges.

They shipped all kinds of stuff on those barges

It was only about a forty or fifty foot drop.

That year also saw the death of my brother, John,

In a mine explosion.  I had idolized him a long time.

He was a gentle giant—six foot four, two hundred pounds.

Mostly he was always so kind and helpful

I sure wish he hadn’t died so young.