Roger Green: a librarian's life, deconstructed.
Evidently, for many people, one comes to this blog and it loads to the previous time they visited. So even though I post every day, you can’t tell. I’ve contacted the tech support with my carrier; alas, no solution yet. I welcome your suggestions.
Meanwhile, the easiest way to see if I’ve posted is to go to the calendar on the right bar; if the date is BOLD, I’ve posted. Click on the date and see what’s new from Ramblin’ with Roger.
At first, I thought to cheat and pick Fancy Colours by Chicago
One of the things I’m really bad are those daily challenges on social media. I don’t remember to do them each day, and and I tend not to read other people’s.
For instance, Chuck Miller is doing one on Facebook for Black History Month, but I don’t read anybody except my sisters every day on any social media platform. Well, other than some other blogs. Fortunately for me, he consolidated a few of them into a blog post.
Jaquandor accepted the 30-Day Music Prompt, but instead of doing it daily on Facebook, he’s doing it weekly on his blog.
I decided months ago that was a swell idea, but then I kept finding other musical topics to write about.
A song you like with a color in the title. (Why would I write about songs I didn’t like?)
At first, I thought to cheat and pick Fancy Colours by Chicago.
But no, I guess I’ll go with the other obvious choice, Green Tambourine by the Lemon Pipers, a “psychedelic/bubblegum band,” which Jaquandor also picked. The song, BTW, went to #1 in early 1968.
What makes green? Yellow and blue. I suppose I should select Mellow Yellow by Donovan (#2 for 3 weeks in 1966) and Crystal Blue Persuasion by Tommy James and the Shondells (ALSO #2 for 3 weeks, but in 1969).
And what’s on the wheel opposite of green? Red, of course. Red Rubber Ball by the Cyrkle, which went to #2 in 1966, but for only one week. Paul Simon wrote it, and it shows up on some Simon & Garfunkel live album.
Oh, what the heck:
Name a song you like with a number in the title:
So my birthday is in March, the 3rd month. I’ll Go with Three Little Birds by Bob Marley, which appeared on some children’s program my daughter used to watch.
For the 7th, it has to be 7 and 7 Is by Love. Only got to #33 in 1966.
Year 19XX – 19 by Paul Hardcastle – #15 in 1985.
Alas, no songs with 53 in it. Or is there? 867-5309/Jenny by Tommy Tutone went to #4 in 1982.
Next week, I’ll continue on this, unless something else catches my fancy.
In this case, you’re Chester Miller, a funeral director, and a family is in need of your services.
US Funerals notes: “In the United States there is a rich cultural heritage of black-owned and operated funeral homes. Indeed black funeral parlors were some of the first businesses to be set up by African-Americans after the abolition of slavery.”
Funeralwise agrees: “Since few white undertakers would serve the African American community, black undertakers created independent businesses to fill the need. During the Civil War black soldiers were often assigned to burial details, recovering and burying the dead, but also assisting with keeping death records and finding ways to preserve remains to be sent home to other parts of the country for interment…
“These experiences prepared many soldiers for work in the burial industry, not only allowing them to serve their brothers and sisters in their time of grief but also allowing them to preserve numerous funeral customs associated with their African heritage.”
Edwin Jackson, a licensed black funeral director, and embalmer, shares a more recent history: “The local sheriff is on the other end and says he needs you to pick up a body… You’re used to putting your evenings and sleep on hold. In this case, you’re Chester Miller, a funeral director, and a family is in need of your services. Today you have been called to pick up a body that was found floating in the Tallahatchie River. You arrive on the scene and immediately you see the battered, broken, and decomposed body of a young boy…
“I use this story surrounding Emmett Till’s death to show how death has been used as a catalyst within the civil right movement and emphasize the role black funeral directors have played in such movements. Sixty years later, we see the maturity of a new movement that now flies under the banner of Black Lives Matter. We also see a new generation of black funeral directors… looking to support our community in the undertaking of such movements.”
While cultural changes are hitting black funeral homes, the institution has long been a business of loyalty, especially in the South. When they died, both my parents were tended to by the nearby African-American mortician in Charlotte, NC.
There is a group, the National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association, founded in 1924. Though by 1957 it had taken on the new name, its history makes clear that it is geared to the black funeral director.
Johnny McDaniel, worked over the years as a miner and milk truck driver, married and divorced Rodger’s mother three times and he loved music
This being the middle of the month, I thought I’d do some linkage related to love. The first post,from Mark Evanier’s blog, he posted back in June 2018, but I saved it for this day.
Jim Brochu and Steve Schalchlin “are a splendid union of two very talented people who seem to know absolutely everyone in their profession, their profession being The Theatre. Here’s nine minutes of Jim and Steve singing about their relationship.”
Alumni couple celebrates 75 years of marriage
Dorothy Dever ’43 and Robert Dever ’43 met at SUNY New Paltz – my alma mater – as education students and were married on August 28, 1943, in East Rockaway, N.Y. They are now celebrating 75 years together.
Season 2 of the Love Letters Podcast: taking on a big, complicated, seemingly unanswerable question: How do you meet someone?
Things I loved about the Super Bowl: Gladys Knight’s performance of the national anthem. The NFL at 100 ad. The Democracy Dies in Darkness ad AND a response. What I didn’t love: the game.
Only one of the reasons I loved Frank Robinson, the first black manager in Major League Baseball, who died February 7: he was the Most Valuable Player in the National League in 1961, playing for the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds traded him away after the 1965 season. He was the Most Valuable Player in the American League in 1966, for the Baltimore Orioles.
Rent-a-sister: Coaxing Japan’s hikikomori men out of their bedrooms
Not only do these Japanese young men not date, sometimes they never leave their bedrooms.
This is about familial love: How A Long-Lost Guitar Was A Lesson In Grace And Forgiveness
“Rodger McDaniel was 21 years old when his father died. His dad, Johnny McDaniel, worked over the years as a miner and milk truck driver, married and divorced Rodger’s mother three times – and he loved music.”
As someone commented: “Those Story Corps folks have killed me almost every Friday morning for years. Don’t know why I even bother to wear mascara on Fridays.”
Finally, Chuck wrote: May as well cancel Valentine’s Day now
“The New England Confectionery Company – better known as Necco – went bankrupt last year, and their products and recipes were purchased by an Ohio-based candy company, Spangler, in the bankruptcy sale.
“And Spangler didn’t have enough time to produce enough candy hearts – with their ubiquitous messages of ‘LOVE YOU’ and ‘I DO’ and “CALL ME” and ‘BE MINE’ – in time for the 2019 Valentine’s Day season.
“Now this doesn’t mean that candy hearts won’t be around for the season – I understand two other companies, Sour Patch and Brach’s, will have candy hearts – but let’s face it. They’re not Necco hearts.”
Here’s a confession I don’t know that should make, especially living New England-adjacent. But here goes: I hate those NECCO candies. I think they taste like chalk. I’m so glad to get that off my chest.
The funeral of Robert Pennock will be on Saturday, February 16 at our old stomping grounds, Trinity UMC.
The third funeral I will sing at this calendar year is for the Rev. Robert Pennock.
At the FOCUS churches service in early February, I happened to be sitting behind Nancy, an alto at Trinity United Methodist Church in Albany. I used to sing with Nancy there until 2000 and “the troubles.”
Nancy enjoyed my familiar voice behind her. It prompted me to say that back in the 1990s, that Trinity choir was really good. And Bob Pennock was a large part of that.
I generally sat near Bob in the choir loft. When I joined the ensemble in early 1983, my choir singing skills were rusty. As the bass soloist and section leader, he was quite helpful in getting me on track.
He and his wife Holly often hosted choir functions at their home. I watched his younger kids, David and Jessica, grow up in the church.
There was a move at Trinity in 1997 or early 1998 to consider changing the organizational structure of Trinity. It was allowed by the United Methodist governing body. But it was Bob who rightly said, “Where are the checks and balances?” The proposed plan, it seemed, gave too much power to the pastor.
As a minister ordained the year I was born, he immediately recognized the potential for usurpation of congregational authority. He voiced what I, who had served as chair of the Administrative Board, had only been thinking.
Someone said, “Give [the new structure] a chance,” and it was passed. Just as predicted by Bob, the pastor achieved more control without accountability, which led to my departure and that of others less than three years later.
I would see Bob only sporadically after that, including at least twice at a small rural church he served as pastor in the early 2000s.
The funeral of Robert Pennock will be on Saturday, February 16 at our old stomping grounds, Trinity UMC. We will sing two John Rutter pieces, The Lord is My Shepherd from the Requiem, and The Lord Bless You and Keep You, music I first learned while I was singing with Bob and Holly.