Here’s an article about my father, Les Green. It’s a column by Tom Cawley, a longtime staffer at the (Binghamton, NY) Evening Press from Friday, 2 June, 1967.
There were quite a few articles about Dad in the Binghamton papers between about 1959 until he, my mother, and my baby sister moved to Charlotte, NC, in 1974. Several of the narratives were about his civil rights activities, a bunch were about his musicality, and a few were about his other volunteer efforts.
This one is curious for a few reasons. Cawley is relying on the reporting of another person. I found Jerry Handte’s commentary somewhat limiting. That said, Les Green being “the authentic home-grown folk singer of the town he was born” with great stage presence, et al., is right on target.
Incidentally, by 1968, my father QUIT working at IBM, because the job was mind-numbing. My homeroom/biology teacher at Daniel Dickinson, Mr. Joseph, told me that my father was crazy. I happened to believe that driving materials around on forklifts was making him pretty miserable. My mother and sisters didn’t see him much during the week for that five or six years.
He ended up working for Opportunities for Broome, and Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO) more in line with his passions
But I read that he WROTE a canal song? And he was going to perform it? This is something I seem to have totally forgotten.
That he was going to perform it at the American Civil Association is not a surprise, since he volunteered there frequently. (My 16th birthday party in March 1969 was held there.)
My father died August 10, 2000, in Charlotte, NC, ostensibly from prostate cancer, at the age of 73. Hmm, I’M 73.
