Passings

[BO]

Dan Folgelberg dies of prostrate cancer. 56 years old.

http://www.danfogelberg.com/news.html

I loved this guy--sappy music and all.

[hannah j]

it came out in 66, our honor society took a bus to the theater it premiered in in LA.  maybe grauman's chinese?  i was smitten again!

[waldopaper]

"...only 20 years...."  Wow.  What seems a lifetime at first...  turns into a few grey hairs.  Or years.  Whatever.  

Example:  

Heut is 's xäctly zwanzig Johr
Dass ich bin owwe naus;
Nau bin ich widder lewig z'rück
Und steh am Schulhaus an d'r Krick
Juscht nächst ans Daddy's Haus.

Freely translated (in the main by J. Cooper) as:

Today it's exactly twenty years
Since I went up and away;
Now I am back again, alive,
And stand at the schoolhouse by the creek
Just next to Grandpa's house.

[waldopaper]

In Hochdeutsch to the neighbors I might say:  

Heute ist es genau dreisig Jahre
Da ging ich auf und macht raus ;
Jetzt bin ich wieder zurück, ja Hier! ,
Und stehen im Schulhaus am Bach
Direkt neben Opas Haus.

Now know why they don't understand shit. "Xäctly," you hear al the time. "Genau!" I say, hammering out die deutscher thumb. The kids know the words, the oldersters pretend they don't. But the kids don't know the story, and the oldsters do. Sometimes the kids answer, sounding like Palatine hicks from the stix.  But they are charming.  

The oldsters are clannish old fucks, like we oldsters tend to be.  

[Cal]

Afrikaans as a second language (my mother's) allows me to follow Flemish & Hochdeutsch in stumbling fashion .... it was known as Kitchen Dutch before it became the official language of the Volk here... Direkt neben Opas Haus ... funny to hear it coming from a USAnal ... um ... USA'er .... what's the right word for you guys ...?

[pan]

what's the right word for you guys ...?

We are all Americans but I doubt any of us see that as a primary identifier. If it were the 50s we would be Beats - as in "beaten down".  At my (our) age I qualify as part of the Blank Generation.  Don't really know what you call old farts who don't quite fit, who feel like aliens in their own land.........artists?

[BO]

Can't really describe myself other than to say anarchist and misanthrope. Guess I'm an USAnal 'cause I was born here..but that's abouit as far as it goes. I can think of several places I'd rather be if I had the resources to move 'there.'

[Cal]

I am of the White Tribe of Africa .... British passport from paternal side, Dutch Voortrekkers from maternal side .... with an astonishing amount in common with the folk on RBC that must be a generational thing ....the generational thing seems to be every bit as strong as the genetic/cultural ties.  I still find it amusing that Pan enjoyed the song "I'm Henery the 8th I am" as much as I did.  And Hannah on her way home from Portland actually knows a real person from that part of the world who I was at school with as an exchange student.  I would feel very much at home having tea with Mouse & her Maisie & I can imagine Waldo & Bo & Stone rocking up to visit.

 "Diaspora" probably covers the lot of us.

[Mouse]

well according to me every morning, I do not exist.

[Mouse]

saw Lawrence of Arabia in England with my family and later moved to Aden, which is now Yemen. went to school in Derbyshire convent and travelled home in the holidays by BOAC VC10.
was 10 the first time I made this journey. abandoned in Beirut airport by airline flight auntie, found way home on strange little plane full of Pigmies that stopped at Jeddah in the night.
We loved the music from that film and played it often,
http://youtu.be/ro7ustlPLuc
also the Beachboys
http://youtu.be/HW5yLvoJMD4
and Peter Sellars a Hard Day's Night.
http://youtu.be/zLEMncv140s

[BO]

Abandoned in Beirut, but found your way home on a plane full of Pigmies. That's a story equal to 'The Hobbit.' Wow.

Maurice Jarre was a busy composer in the 60's. He composed Dr Zhivago as well. Pretty amazing. During the same period, West Side Story came out. A time when men were men and movies were major events.

Loved Pete Sellars too. 

[Mouse]

akshoolly, by the time of that journey had already devoured the hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy from the library in the holidays, with the map at the back of each book spread out open on the carpet, such bliss it was to read in those days.

However, it was during one of those flights to Aden when my brother was with me that he passed me a copy of Mad magazine, and the horror of over there first hit.

[hannah j]

i really don't exist now, social securtiy told me so. and i have no driver's license, no passport.....